What a lucky man I am to exist in the correct time to be able to live in the Dying Grass universe for a couple of weeks.

I am so thankful for WTV and all he does.

I've got a month until ATFF comes out....do I give myself a reading break (oh, hello again chess) or pick up Fathers and Crows?

About to start Europe Central. It will be my second vollmann after whores for Gloria. Is there anything I should know beforehand or expect?

Found at Orca Books Co-op, who also had a copy of Rainbow Stories, but I already have that one. Very cool store!

In my dream A Table For Fortune had arrived. The box set was fucked with scuffs. Every book in there had been used up. These were read books. Folded pages. Creased spines. Stained pages. Each one had a uniquely awful Neapolitan friend style cover. And there were more than four volumes - every book was paired with an additional volume of Vollmann commentary. And an overarching masters thesis in loose papers. My wife asked me if I was excited to read it and I tried to cram the volumes back into the box. I tried for a long time. They didn’t fit.

I'm enjoying Europe Central, but "Breakout" starts with another Elena Konstantinovskaya sex scene. I understand that repetition is one of Vollmann's hallmarks, but I feel like I know everything there is to know about Elena's sex life. Can anyone tell me whether all of "Breakout" is about Elena or whether it moves on to other characters?

Somehow even used copies are 60€ where I live (this one was only 22 though).

There are 19 pictures showing 2 pages each that have been uploaded. Starting with the copyright page and including the dedication, additional pictures, a 10 page "note to the reader", table of contents, family tree, character lists and a glossary of "Codenames, Acronyms, Abbreviations, Foreign Words and Mystifications".

EDIT: The store page has been updated again to only show tables of contents and first 29 pages of book 1. All the other pages are no longer visible. We do get to see both sides of the box and the spines of the books.

I see the box set is available, but are they also going to sell the individual volumes? I’m new to Vollmann and love his stuff, but four volumes is intimidating.

EDIT: I ordered the box set. Peer pressured quite easily. Thank you all for the comments!

I know reviews should be ignored, but this is huge. The NYT has captured how brilliant and beautiful and important this book really is.

This is an enormous vindication for one of our bravest, most heroic, and most principled authors. Bill held onto his vision for years, ins spite of being fired by Viking, and his vision is now a reality.

I am so happy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/books/review/table-for-fortune-william-vollmann.html

I’ve recently fallen back in love with reading and I’m feeling ready to take on some books that I’ve been interested in but, for whatever reason, I’ve felt a little intimidated to dive into.

I chose this one because I was born near White Bird in a town called Grangeville, ID and so the Nez Perce story was always around, at least peripherally!

I just finished the abridged version for the second time and loved it just as much as the first read. It has got me thinking I should dive into the unabridged version (via e-book, I don't have 1.5k lying around unfortunately), but the length is intimidating. I was wondering if anyone has read it. If so, what did you think?

Wikipedia describes the plot of 'The Poison Shirt' as either "concerning the Puritans vs. King Philip of Rhode Island, or Captain James Cook's voyage to Hawaii". Wikipedia's source for this is a 2009 comment on Pandemonium of the Sun, a now abandoned literature blog, by a user named Jordan, who said "the fourth dream is being worked on too (was once to be King Philips War and now it seems that it will be about Hawaii and Captain Cook)".

Is anyone aware of another source for this claim, ideally one from Vollmann himself?

I love the story of James Cook in Hawaii and take a bitter catharsis in his death. Although it seems unlikely that 'The Poison Shirt 'will be ever published, the thought that Vollmann was at one time working on this subject matter intrigues me and I would like to hear or read him talking about it.

Haven't seen anyone post a link to this yet

My ever present pessimistic side is convinced that A Table For Fortune will be delayed yet again. So I'm going to tackle this one. The goal is to finish before the end of July. Anyone out there a slow reader like me? Any tips for getting through a big beast of a book like this? (I've read some of his smaller works, short stories and non-fiction.... And yeah, I'm aware that ATFF is like three times the size of this one...)

I want to read up on the CIA in preparation of the new book coming out in August. So far, reading:

-Legacy of Ashes by Tom Weiner

-The Devil's Chessboard by David Talbot

Any other recommendations people would have?

Popped into my head while reading the founding fathers article and daydreaming about the ATFF release. Had to mock it up, gonna put some in the bar bathrooms in my neighborhood, little guerilla marketing campaign.

UPDATE: the sample ten-pack just arrived, shoot me a DM if you would like one, just cover shipping costs

A good sign of no more delays (in North America at least)?

Edit: Thanks for the insight folks into current release dates for other countries, like u/RedditFlaneet123 said this might just be an Antipodean problem…

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For Australia, at least. I just received an email from Readings booksellers in Melbourne:

Hi Craig,

I hope you're doing well. 

I'm emailing as Table for Fortune: Box Set has had its publication date delayed until December. We'll advise if there are further updates on it. 

*

My more misanthropic inclinations hope that December doesn't turn into Never...

In 2025 I wrote a long profile of Vollmann for The Metropolitan Review.

Last week, Arcade publicity (the imprint of Skyhorse that's releasing A Table for Fortune) helped me set up an interview with Vollmann at his Sacramento studio. It was an amazing experience. The trip was self-financed, and I posted it on my own feed, so it's a little more sprawling than a typical profile, and geared a bit more toward fans.

Finished my first Vollmann, halfway through Poor People and Butterfly Stories. Spoiler question: how did you interpret the ending? Was Gloria real? Did she actually kill Jimmy? Did that happen before or after the “events” of the book?

Full disclosure, I’m very new to Vollmann. About 200 pages into my first book by him (The Royal Family), although I’ve been a subscriber to Harper’s for several years and have loved every one of his essays (his most recent of which, American Ephemera, which I believe was posted in this subreddit recently, inspired me to finally take the dive into his corpus).

I’ve been aware of Vollmann, the novelist, for quite some time, mainly in the Pynchon subreddit where I spend a good bit of time. He’s often recommended as a “next step” for somebody who enjoys the maximalism and secret, all-powerful organizations depicted in the works of TP. On that score, I think Vollmann is a logical next step, but I think the comparison undersells the singularity that is Vollmann. The Royal Family is sprawling and encyclopedic, but it’s emotionally direct in a way Pynchon rarely is. Vollmann is not hiding behind irony. When he wants to be tender, he’s tender. When he wants to be grotesque, he’s grotesque. There’s very little distance between the author and his concerns.

If anything, I would compare Vollmann more so to Cormac McCarthy in his impulse to explore grace, beauty, and obsession in the furthest margins of society. Unlike, obviously, McCarthy’s focus on the American Western and Southern Gothic settings, Vollmann takes those themes to urban America, albeit on a much more maximal scale.

This post is aimed to be appreciation for what I’ve read so far, but also, hopefully, to serve as slight warning for any fan of his literary contemporaries (primarily Pynchon) who pick up a Vollmann book and expect zaniness, irony, paranoia, and comedy, rather prepare yourself for compassion, tragedy, and the intersection between beauty and ugliness.

All of this to say that I think it would be more apt, if you are inclined to make comparisons, to say that Vollmann is wholly unique intersection between McCarthy and Pynchon (maybe with a sprinkle of Eco in there as well). 1/4 of the way through my first of his novels, and I have the feeling I’m reading somebody who is destined to be an all-time author for me. He’s that good.