While Vollmann is actually quite skilled at sketching out his characters, and this is a book more driven by character and theme than by plot, he’s not so good at bringing it together as a coherent whole. ", "Vollmann pours his signature fascination with outcasts, women's sexuality, violence, and injustice into this gargantuan, omnivorously explicit, ravening orgy of trauma and resilience. The Lucky Star is gilded with the signature Vollmann brew of erudition, irony, mysticism and banality . The Lucky Star William T. Vollmann. . The novel is over 600 pages. An example of one of this book’s major failings is that the main plotline of J.D. That made I easier for us to pretend that she was faithful to each of us alone.”. Neva, often referred to as the people who know her as “the lesbian,” has a seemingly supernatural ability to make anyone around her love her on the condition that she loves them back. The stories of these characters are ultimately straightforward and much of what Vollmann puts into it is just filler. ", "Vollmann admirably captures the pull of vulnerability and invention, how sex can be, in the right space, a powerful way to know one's self, and ultimately, how much each of his characters here needs a space to be themselves. This is made even more obvious by the fact that characters are often referred to as their “roles” such as “the lesbian,” “the transwoman,” “the retired policeman,” etc.

", With such diverse subjects as Arthurian myths and Ojibwa prophecies, unicorns and orcas, basketball and (. Vollmann’s prose can be evocative and deliciously incisive.” —The New York Times Book Review The plotline is ultimately a shaggy dog story, which makes it even more annoying. Be the first to share your thoughts on this title! I found when Vollmann zoomed in on one character and focused on their individual stories I was far more engaged. ISBN13: 9780399563522 The Lucky Star by William T. Vollmann available in Hardcover on Powells.com, also read synopsis and reviews. View all posts by Silent Motorist Media. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.

Welcome! exploring Neva’s past is rendered completely pointless as much of the beginning of the book explains it in great deal. It’s obvious he did something right. . I can’t say this book is a complete failure. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Here, it feels like Vollmann is simply trying to wear the reader down with repetitions of the various characters’ devotions to Neva, J.D. : My Path from Climate Despair to Action (Hardcover), Think for Yourself: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence (Hardcover), I Belong to Vienna: A Jewish Family's Story of Exile and Return (Paperback), Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century (Paperback), Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the Twenty-First Century (American Studies Now: Critical Histories of the Present #12) (Paperback), This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality (Paperback). Vollmann’s prose can be evocative and deliciously incisive.” —The New York Times Book … By Silent Motorist Media in Article, Book Reviews, literature on April 24, 2020. This results in her gathering an almost cult-like following at the Y Bar that she frequents. All titles are subject to availability   •   Prices subject to change, Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Politics and Prose at 70 District Square SW, Kobo eBook (February 18th, 2020): $18.99, Library Binding, Large Print (June 24th, 2020): $31.99, Red Dress in Black and White: A novel (Hardcover), All My Mother's Lovers: A Novel (Hardcover), The Jane Austen Society: A Novel (Hardcover), The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III (Hardcover), What Can I Do? Silent Motorist Media was created by author Justin A. Burnett to promote collaborative examinations of weird and dark music and literature. At least not in this book. Review by Ben Arzate. However, this is one that really would have benefited from a lot of cuts and rearrangement. The platonic ideal of femininity. Learn how your comment data is processed. No comments. Rooted in interviews with women survivors, this is a molten amalgam of cynicism and compassion, horror and beauty. All Product Details, "Vollmann's sprawling and provocatively playful novel revisits the sordid setting of his early collection, "For all the contemporaneity in the telling, there is (as always) a certain moral quality to Vollmann's work. “The lesbian was nearly always on time for our appointments. This isn’t unusual for a Vollmann book, but here it isn’t warranted at all.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The main theme of the book is “performing femininity.” In the case of the lesbian, Neva (technically not really a lesbian), does not need to “perform” as she’s a goddess-like being. Judy’s boyfriend, a retired policeman named J.D., grows jealous of her relationship with Neva and starts digging into Neva’s past to try to find a way to get back at her. Audio book sample courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio. The Lucky Star by William T. Vollmann – Book Review. Receive an email when this ISBN is available used. learning things we already knew about her, and the dead sex scenes that I’m really not sure were supposed to be erotic, disturbing, or just meant to unerotic in the most banal way. To contrast it with another Vollmann book with a similar premise, The Royal Family actually earns it 800 page length with its wide cast of different characters, its odd non-fictional digressions, and some of the genuinely nasty imagery. ISBN10: 0399563520 Her lovers include the alcoholic Richard, the bartender Francine, and a transwoman named Judy. Viking, $35 (672) ISBN 978-0-399-56352-2. As it stands, I really can’t recommend this book unless you’re a hardcore Vollmann fan. While Richard is the narrator of the book, the main characters are really Neva and Judy. Judy, a transwoman, is, in contrast, constantly in need of performing it to “pass.” This comes to the forefront with her love of both Neva and J.D. Also, despite being rather worn down with this book by the end, I still felt a little sad watching the mostly tragic endings all of the characters unfold. In this one: there is no one on earth, no one, who would not benefit from a little more love and a lot less contempt. Vollmann is known for being somewhat difficult with his editors and often refusing to make cuts, sometimes even taking lower royalties and advances to offset the risk of the size of his books. She seeks the perfect femininity of Neva but often finds herself pulled away from it by J.D., who often abuses and misgenders her. The Lucky Star is gilded with the signature Vollmann brew of erudition, irony, mysticism and banality . Otherwise, you’re better off picking up The Royal Family. There’s a pretty good 300-400 page book inside this 600 page one. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! . Silent Motorist Media offers free promotional services to small press and independent authors. .