Imperial

If one best learns a language by total immersion, then one can likewise learn of place as William Vollman sets out to prove in his massive study "Imperial" which bombards the reader with every sort of datum on the California-Mexican area. Major themes include distribution of water, the transformation of small farms to vast agricultural domains, the plight of the Mexican illegal immigrant, the history of the Chinese in Mexico, accounts of early settlers, and more, much more. "Imperial" documents the conflicting cultures of American domination and Mexican poverty that poses a political and so far insoluable problem.

California's Imperial County covers deserts, date groves, and more - it draws right across the Mexican border and generations of migrant workers have roots and history tied to the county. This weighty study of Imperial County offers an unprecedented survey of not just the county but the social issues involved in illegal immigration and border issues, considering the county's early history, its challenges, its descent into poverty, and its immigration history and connections with Mexico. Never has another county been given such thorough historical and social analysis, making IMPERIAL a 'must' not just for California collections, but for any library strong in immigration issues.

I will preface this review by saying that of course I have not finished the book yet- I only got it last week. And to suggest that the book is shapeless or digressing is not to understand Vollmann's all-encompassing tactics. But I have some quibbles which are not related to the text but to the production of the book. The previous reviewer questions the price, as do I, but for a different reason. A book this large should at the very least have a sewn binding and cloth boards. To have paper boards and a glued binding means this book is going to fall apart under any circumstances which involve actually reading it, let alone toting it around anywhere. At this price point, Viking really should have invested in making a better physical product. Also, my preliminary excursions into the book have turned up a disturbing amount of copy-editing errors- typos, basically. I know that Vollmann insists on editorial control, and I applaud him for it, but again, when you're creating a monument such as this I wish that Viking (or Vollmann as the case may be) would hire someone to simply read the manuscript as Vollmann wishes it to be and correct spelling errors and typos. I realize this is all nit-picking, but it does distract from Vollmann's considerable achievement, and in some ways is almost disrespectful of his creation.

William T. Vollmann spent a decade trolling through the underside of the nation, the California-Mexico border with an obsessed eye for the grime, excess, love, blood, and sex that is his meat. Heck, that makes for much of the interest in any work of fiction or nonfiction. Here's it revealed in 1300+ pages that read as though they were pulled directly from the travel journals of a crazed obsessive. But it probably wasn't that simple. Behind the flowing stream of consciousness is an author ruthlessly and efficiently dissecting the contradictions in American-Mexican relations, in late capitalism, and in a failed environment. (The Salton Sea is California's biggest lake, but it's also a massive failure caused by too many diversions of the Colorado River. Pollution and decay flow in, but nothing flows out. So it is with Imperial County.) It's a big wasteland, and this is a big book that tries to look at the big issues in the wasteland. It's a product of an author who is interested in everything. It's a book I'd love to think of myself as writing, but I'd be too scared to dive so deeply. So this massive Moby Dick, an albatross about Vollmann's neck lands on our desks for us to live, vicariously, through his exploits. Yep, there are strip clubs, prostitutes, and illegal laborers, but there are also farmers, ranchers, folks striving for a better life. But the failures of Imperial (the county not the book) match and mirror the failure of America overall, and we're in the mood for some critical examinations today. What's a book review without criticisms? Well, Vollmann is a sloppy investigator, a sloppy fact checker, and a failure as a journalist. This is a work of passion, not of careful investigation. We learn all about his breakup with a girlfriend, but are never clear on exactly what is produced agriculturally in Imperial. But such criticisms are missing the point. We endure this mass of pages for the excitement, for the energy, for the look at the underbelly, and not for clinical analysis. Someone could write "Imperial: A legacy of decay" for the University of California Press and a dozen copies would be sold. I'll pass on yet another mention of Vollmann's excesses, but instead mention an excess of the publisher. $[...]. Sure, it's discounted here, but what about independent bookstores? Is this really intended to be sold for that price? Or only at discount? Compare with the pricing of Infinite Jest or Against and Day.