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Rating: 
Summary: My favorite novel
Review: I wish more people knew W. Vollmann. I have read this book 4 times and it is better with each read. The first time through you may not know what is going on for the first hundred pages or so, but keep reading; it is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite novel
Review: I wish more people knew W. Vollmann. I have read this book 4 times and it is better with each read. The first time through you may not know what is going on for the first hundred pages or so, but keep reading; it is worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: not worth the time, unless?
Review: It was a great idea. But there was no reason for this book to be as long as it was. However I do have to say, with some relief, that Vollmann didn't fall prey to the modern curse of falling in love with his own lexicon. YBARA read more like a guy who had something he wanted to write about, knew a lot about bugs and guns and totalitarian history, and didn't really give a damn if you read or finished his book. So while I definitely can't enthusiastically endorse it, I respect him, and it was a better first novel than DFW's Broom of the System.
Rating:
Summary: It's worth the effort
Review: The first 50 pages took me almost three hours to read. I was worried I made a big mistake in reading this book. And then Vollmann's world captures you. By the end my opinion had changed: this is the best book I've read.
Rating:
Summary: It's worth the effort
Review: Well. This is quite a book. And I'll cop, right off the bat, to not understanding 100% of it (though that's after but a single time through, and this has the feel of a book that requires more than one reading.) But oh is this an entertaining read. Yes, it ain't easy. Vollman's style is, putting it mildly, dense. And the whole bit about having two narrators, struggling for control of the story, leaping in and out of the text, does add a touch more complexity. But after stuggling with the prose for a chapter or two (and wondering when the heck, Vollman was going to get around to starting the story - the book feels like it has a few false starts before things really get going) I sort of gave up, and just let the words wash over me. And what a time it was. Once you get used Vollman's dense, knotty, infintely claused sentences, and learn to glide over the oddly halting flow of his prose, you start to notice just how good everything about this book is. The simple music of Vollman's words is enough to make this all worthwhile. And then on top of that is this bizarre story of the struggle between insects and electricity. And atop that the aforementioned narrator-conflict. And atop that the assorted tragic details of Vollman's life as he was writing this book. And so on and so on. Vollman is pulling so many things into this one book that one could read it from scores of differing perspectives, having a different experience each time. And I suppose if one were going to criticize this book, that would be the obvious place to start - Vollman is trying to do so many things, all at once, and some might think his juggling act breaks down from time to time. Personally I'd disagree. He manages to keep it all together (all the more amazing if you consider the fact that this was his debut novel - how did he pull that one off?), and create an entertaining and meaningful tale, that's going to stick with me for a while.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a debut
Review: Well. This is quite a book. And I'll cop, right off the bat, to not understanding 100% of it (though that's after but a single time through, and this has the feel of a book that requires more than one reading.) But oh is this an entertaining read. Yes, it ain't easy. Vollman's style is, putting it mildly, dense. And the whole bit about having two narrators, struggling for control of the story, leaping in and out of the text, does add a touch more complexity. But after stuggling with the prose for a chapter or two (and wondering when the heck, Vollman was going to get around to starting the story - the book feels like it has a few false starts before things really get going) I sort of gave up, and just let the words wash over me. And what a time it was. Once you get used Vollman's dense, knotty, infintely claused sentences, and learn to glide over the oddly halting flow of his prose, you start to notice just how good everything about this book is. The simple music of Vollman's words is enough to make this all worthwhile. And then on top of that is this bizarre story of the struggle between insects and electricity. And atop that the aforementioned narrator-conflict. And atop that the assorted tragic details of Vollman's life as he was writing this book. And so on and so on. Vollman is pulling so many things into this one book that one could read it from scores of differing perspectives, having a different experience each time. And I suppose if one were going to criticize this book, that would be the obvious place to start - Vollman is trying to do so many things, all at once, and some might think his juggling act breaks down from time to time. Personally I'd disagree. He manages to keep it all together (all the more amazing if you consider the fact that this was his debut novel - how did he pull that one off?), and create an entertaining and meaningful tale, that's going to stick with me for a while.
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