Imperial

April 13, 2009
Signature

Reviewed by
Michael Coffey
This is an exasperating, maddening, exhausting and inchorent book by the stunningly prolific Vollmann, who has really outdone himself. Eleven hundred pages plus endless endnotes about a single county in California is as perverse as Vollmann has dared be—which is saying a lot for a guy who has written a massive collection of tales about skinheads (Rainbow Stories
), a seven-volume history of the settling of a measly continent (Seven Dreams
) and another seven volumes on the history of violence (Rising Up and Rising Down)
. But a big book about one county? Well, it's not just any county. Imperial is the southeastern-most county in California, bordering with Mexico to the south and Arizona to the east, across the Colorado River. Is it a place deserving of this seemingly disproportionate chronicle? Today, it is a hot spot for illegal immigration, law enforcement action, drug trafficking, prostitution and sweatshop labor in maquilladoras
, fetid border factories. It is a place, sure enough, where imperialism has made its mark. Over the past centuries, a lot of bad things have happened in El Centro, as the region is also called, and very little good, as Vollmann's excessive data-dump demonstrates ad nauseam. The Spanish came, murdered, plundered, left; America annexed; land grabs ensued and Colorado River water was illegally diverted westward to render a temporary agricultural paradise and make a few fortunes. As with most of his books, Vollmann has performed mind-boggling feats of research, gobbling up obscure and arcane texts about the Spanish conquests, hydrography, citrus cultivation, immigration, poverty rates, desalinization, drug use, human smuggling and exploitation of the weak by the wealthy in all its guises as it applies to this benighted, once beautiful desert region. If Vollmann has a point of view here, an axe to grind, it is that he is appalled by the power inequities and the subsequent suffering of the Mexicans, and he is moved by the latter's simple desire to have a better life. But gouts of a bleeding heart make for some viscous prose, and, as seldom happens with Vollmann, his emotions overcome his cool and his positions fray into incoherence. Vollmann's normally reliable narrative voice veers between tour guide–speak and backpacking sociologist, with the occasional lyrical paean to a lady of the night. As a result, Imperial County is a place that few will have the stomach to visit, and Imperial
a book few will be willing to read. (powerHouse is publishing a book of 200 photographs Vollmann took during the course of his research: $55 ISBN 978-1-57687-489-9.) Photos, maps. (Aug.)

Coffey is executive managing editor at
PW.

Starred review from June 1, 2009
Vollmann (Riding Toward Everywhere, 2008, etc.) has yet to meet a subject he cannot convert into a tome to rival the Manhattan phone book. So it is with this long, strange trip through California's Imperial County.

"At four-thirty in the morning the air smells sulphurous and sweet like Karachi, and a bird sings." Readers sensitive to the possibilities of poetry in prose will value a book, no matter how long, that contains that line. Those who value honesty in reportage will admire Vollmann's admissions of time voluntarily spent among drifters, meth-heads and demimondaines:"Only now do I feel capable of writing novels about American street prostitutes, with whom I have associated for two decades." Readers who seek a view of the U.S.-Mexico border beyond talking-head banalities will smile at subheads such as"A Clarification About Whiteness" and"My First Tunnel." Vollmann's latest doorstopper has endless moments of virtuosity and points of interest, and even if there are limits to patience—one senses that Vollmann prizes extra-long books as a means not of overwhelming the reader but because he lacks a shutoff valve—his book captures perfectly the sun-stricken, toxic landscapes of inland Southern California. This is a place far from the beaches, Mediterranean villas and tony restaurants on the coast, a place of astounding pollution, horrific smells (of which Vollmann provides a Homeric catalog) and hundreds of ways to die (ditto, most featuring drugs, cars and bad guys). Why do people go there, then? They're mesmerized, perhaps, as Vollmann clearly is, by the unlikely possibilities of a place such as Duroville, a collection of broken trailers on the shores of the fetid Salton Sea, or Mexicali, where Chinese keep portraits of the Virgin of Guadalupe on their walls and so outnumbered Mexicans that they were once outlawed.

Magnificent, impressive and utterly unique. A word to anyone seeking to follow Vollmann's path, however: Get your gamma globulin shots, and write shorter.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 15, 2009
Award-winning writer Vollmann ("Europe Central") spent more than ten years researching Imperial County, CA, and the result is this complex, detailed, but often frenetic look at Southern California's border region. Vollmann uses Imperial's history to explore larger issues, such as immigration policies. Unfortunately, it appears that Vollman wanted to include every nugget of information he discoveredevery interesting anecdote, roadside sign, or newspaper advertisementand cram it all into this book, with the rationale for arrangement mostly unclear and with no synthesis or analysis (though plenty of his own bias). For example, he includes a series of hand-drawn maps at the beginning but waits until the final pages to explain them and put them into context. In addition, at least 12 different font types and sizes were used throughout, which only proves distracting. Overall, this book suffers under its own weightit comes in at over 1300 pages, and evidently no index is planned. Perhaps Vollmann's accompanying photo book, to be published simultaneously by powerHouse (not seen by reviewer), would be a better purchase for interested libraries. Not recommended, though Vollmann fans will still ask.Mike Miller, Austin P.L., TX

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2009
A man of many words and few delusions, Vollmann is a National Book Awardwinning novelist, a daring oral historian, and an intrepid journalist. His latest moral inquiry is an encyclopedic gathering of facts, stories, impressions, and analysis about the volatile and tragic U.S.-Mexico borderland. Imperial is a county in California, a city, a valley, and a beach, but for Vollmann, Imperial is the continuum between Mexico and Californiaa geographical and spiritual entity, the kingdom of secrets, and the site of epic battles over water, work, sovereignty, power, and wealth. Ten years in the making, this immense, poetically structured, provoking, and surprisingly intimate volume of reportage, history, and reflection chronicles Vollmanns risky journeys through deserts, cities, and archives, through contradictions, confessions, and lies. Vollmann talks with all kinds of people under circumstances alarming, bizarre, tender, and funny. He navigates the infamously foul New River, descends into Mexicalis Chinese tunnels, and vigorously investigates the urgent conundrums of illegal immigration and floundering agriculture, increasing water usage and falling water tables, andpollution and prejudice. He writes of love and hate; strip clubs, churches, and the maquiladoras; and violence and generosity. He asks, What can I learn? And he confesses, everything is precious to me. In an age of trash punditry, Twitter, and gnat-like attention spans, Vollmanns curiosity, forthrightness, lyricism, capaciousness, and empathy are revolutionary.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)