Moments of brilliance followed by long, meandering passages in which I lost interest. The book is long - so long that it took me over a year to get through this. Certain passages of this book are absolute must-reads, my favorite being the description of Vollmann hiring a river guide to paddle him through a toxic river to see how immigrant workers endanger their lives to sneak into the U.S. Vollmann is clearly a scholar/writer of great talent and insight. He wrote an article in Harper's that made me want more. I had a long think with myself between paper and electronic. Though I prefer anything with a lot of charts and illustrations on paper, I went for the electronic edition to avoid carrying the brick. This made the swim to the other side unencumbered such that I could sprawl as freely as the book. However, had this been an older book with a certain kind of smell, a name scrawled in the front, some underlinings and marginalia, I would have carried the brick. Those are sensual details pertaining to books I find hard to resist, the presence of a previous reader pleasant company on a long trek. This trek was worth it. Vollman is a fine writer with the very fine ability of keeping me fascinated by a subject I thought held no interest for me. It is a masterpiece among studies of place which makes me want to take Prairy Erth (William Least Heat Moon) down from the shelf for a reread. And there's the water. I will never see any body of water quite the same again.
What do You think about Imperial (2009)?
So much good in this book, but no editor in sight! Maybe there'll be a greatest hits.
—mememe3
Vollman is one of those "writers who writes faster than I can read."
—123
this book is bound to make me a hunchback.
—worldwidepremier
