The Rainbow Stories
The Rainbow Stories is a collection of short stories about American culture[1] written by William T. Vollmann and published in 1989. Written in the style of narrative journalism,[2] it was his second published fictional work, preceded by You Bright and Risen Angels.[2] The book consists of thirteen interlocking stories (based on the colours of the rainbow) that range in scope from ancient Babylon to modern San Francisco.[2][3][4][5] Steven Moore wrote of the book that "Vollmann's verbal prowess, empathy, and astonishing range put him in a class apart from his contemporaries."[6] Robert Rebein described the book as a "real breakthrough"[7] for Vollman, stating: "[Rainbow Stories is] a book that mixed reportorial and fictional techniques to powerfully evoke the lives of prostitutes and skinheads on the streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin district."[7]
Contents
The 13 stories included in the book are:
- "The Visible Spectrum"
- "The White Knights"
- "Red Hands"
- "Ladies and Red Lights"
- "Scintillant Orange"
- "Yellow Rose"
- "The Yellow Sugar"
- "The Green Dress"
- "The Blue Wallet"
- "The Blue Yonder"
- "The Indigo Engineers"
- "Violet Hair"
- "X-Ray Visions"
References
- ^ Mason, Fran (2009). The A to Z of Postmodernist Literature and Theater. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 337. ISBN 0-8108-6855-5.
- ^ a b c Hemmingson, Michael (2009). William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews. McFarland & Company. pp. 22–30. ISBN 0-7864-4025-2.
- ^ LeClaira, Tom (1996). "The Prodigious Fiction of Richard Powers, William Vollmann, and David Foster Wallace". Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 38 (1): 12–37. doi:10.1080/00111619.1996.9936496.
- ^ James, Caryn (August 13, 1989). "'The Rainbow Stories'". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
- ^ Eder, Richard (July 16, 1989). "The Yawp of Reason". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Moore, Steven (Summer 1989). "The Rainbow Stories: Review of Contemporary Fiction". Retrieved 1 May 2013.
- ^ a b Rebein, Robert (2002). Hicks, Tribes, and Dirty Realists: American Fiction After Postmodernism. Scholarly Book Services Inc. p. 54. ISBN 0-8131-2176-0.
- v
- t
- e
- The Rainbow Stories (1989)
- 13 stories and 13 epitaphs (1991)
- The Atlas (1996)
- Last Stories and Other Stories (2014)
- The Ice-Shirt (1990)
- Fathers and Crows (1992)
- The Rifles (1994)
- Argall (2001)
- The Dying Grass (2015)
- Whores for Gloria (1991)
- Butterfly Stories (1993)
- The Royal Family (2000)
- You Bright and Risen Angels (1987)
- Europe Central (2005)
- An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World (1992)
- Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means (2003)
- Uncentering the Earth (2006)
- Poor People (2007)
- Riding Toward Everywhere (2008)
- Imperial (2009)
- Kissing the Mask (2010)
- The Book of Dolores (2013)
- No Immediate Danger: Volumes One and Two of Carbon Ideologies (2018)