The Case For—and Against—Reading William T. Vollmann’s New Colossus.

It’s generally not a sound practice to write about a book you haven’t read yet, but William T. Vollmann’s forthcoming novel Table of Fortune—as with much of what Vollmann writes—forces one into exceptional territory.

Right now I’m looking at an advanced copy and I find myself paralyzed, unable to plunge into the first of four PDFs sent from the publisher, but equally unwilling to renounce an eventual sortie.

You may have read something about its mind-bending specs: 4 million words, 3,000 pages, all in four hefty volumes, proverbial “phone books” as we used to say.

Certainly, the length of a book should be an incidental, even irrelevant fact, but with Vollmann’s output, the medium’s length is far too often the message. Adding to the pucker factor is the publisher’s marketing blurb, which describes it as “a history of the last half-century of American politics, war, and life.”

So much for the argument that contemporary American novelists have lost their ambition.

Vollmann, of course, has been here before. His history of violence, Rising Up and Rising Down (2003) occupied seven volumes and clocked in at 3,352 pages.

I’ve read Europe Central (2005) which won the National Book Award and is a favorite of mine; The Rainbow Stories (1989) a collection of short stories; The Royal Family (2000), and much of The Dying Grass (2015) . . . [phrases like “much of” or “I started” are inevitable qualifiers when describing your Vollmann reading].

Vollmann Has His Reasons.

Like many people on Substack, my reading queue is lengthy. In my specific case, research surrounding the writer-diplomat project, as well as books related to my podcast guests and essays, takes up much of my dwindling reading capacity. When it comes to a book like Table of Fortune, I have to ask myself: “Why would I read this book?”

I’m afraid to say that in my current life, “fun” isn’t the most likely answer.

In a certain sense, it would be exciting to take on such a monster; it would be intellectually challenging and certainly rewarding, as Vollmann has always proved rewarding, but I don’t have the luxury of reading a book—of this length, anyway—just for the heck of it.

All of this begs the question of why Vollmann must write books of this length. My answer, having read the books mentioned above, is that—whatever the reason—he has his reasons, and his track record certainly buys him the benefit of the doubt.

I remain undecided on whether I will push forward or not. I may focus on reading, and then writing about the first volume, or I may just set the whole kit and caboodle aside, and read it a few years from now . . . There is always great value in reading a book after the initial furor has died down . . . More to come on the subject.

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Robert Fay is a U.S.-based writer who has written for The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, First Things, The Chicago Quarterly Review, and other publications. He is also the creator and host of the Literature & Geopolitics podcast.