The Royal Family
Author: Vollmann, William T.
ISBN: 9780141002002
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Year first published: 01 Aug 2001
Pages: 800
Format: Paperback / softback
b>A rich, haunting novel of street life in San Francisco's Mission District, from the National Book Award-winning author ofi> Europe Central/i>/b>br>br>Ini>The Royal Family/i>, William T. Vollmann uses the story of two brothers to construct a haunting series of parallels between the lives of the dispossessed and the anxious middle class. Henry Tyler is a failing private detective in San Francisco. When the love of his life, Irene--who happens to be married to his brother John, an ambitious contract lawyer--commits suicide, he clings despairingly to her ghost. Struggling to turn his grief into something precious, Henry enters into a new life of nightmare beauty and degradation as he attempts to track down the legendary Queen of the Prostitutes.br>br>Crafted out of language by turns eloquent, humorous, sensual, and obscene, and full of vividly rendered depictions of low-life bars, office politics, and hobo camps, here are Vollmann's familiar but ever surprising characters--the seekers, the vigilantes, the hypocrites, the sex workers. He has woven their stories into a vivid and unforgettable novel about the eerie paradoxes of possession and loss.
ISBN: 9780141002002
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Year first published: 01 Aug 2001
Pages: 800
Format: Paperback / softback
b>A rich, haunting novel of street life in San Francisco's Mission District, from the National Book Award-winning author ofi> Europe Central/i>/b>br>br>Ini>The Royal Family/i>, William T. Vollmann uses the story of two brothers to construct a haunting series of parallels between the lives of the dispossessed and the anxious middle class. Henry Tyler is a failing private detective in San Francisco. When the love of his life, Irene--who happens to be married to his brother John, an ambitious contract lawyer--commits suicide, he clings despairingly to her ghost. Struggling to turn his grief into something precious, Henry enters into a new life of nightmare beauty and degradation as he attempts to track down the legendary Queen of the Prostitutes.br>br>Crafted out of language by turns eloquent, humorous, sensual, and obscene, and full of vividly rendered depictions of low-life bars, office politics, and hobo camps, here are Vollmann's familiar but ever surprising characters--the seekers, the vigilantes, the hypocrites, the sex workers. He has woven their stories into a vivid and unforgettable novel about the eerie paradoxes of possession and loss.
