The Royal Family: A Novel - Softcover

Vollmann, William T.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014100200X ISBN 13: 9780141002002

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2001

Synopsis

A rich, haunting novel of street life in San Francisco's Mission District, from the National Book Award-winning author of Europe Central

In The Royal Family, 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.

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.

About this title

Synopsis:

A Sprawling and Sublime Walk on the Wild Side; Henry Tyler is a compassionate but failing private eye in San Francisco. When the love of his life, Irene - who happens to be married to his brother John - commits suicide, he clings despairingly to her ghost. Struggling to turn his grief and guilt into something precious, Henry enters into a new life of nightmare beauty and degradation through a San Francisco underworld populated by prostitutes, drug addicts and urban spiritual seekers as he attempts to track down the legendary Queen of the Prostitutes, a dark saint who protects the lowest of the low. Throughout his quest, Henry remains on the side of the good, even when the boundaries blur before his eyes. Part biblical allegory and part skewed postmodern crime novel, The Royal Family is a vivid and unforgettable work of fiction by one of today's most daring writers.

About the Author:

William T. Vollmann is the author of ten novels, including Europe Central, which won the National Book Award. He has also written four collections of stories, including The Atlas, which won the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction, a memoir, and six works of nonfiction, including Rising Up and Rising Down and Imperial, both of which were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His journalism and fiction have been published in The New Yorker, Harpers, Esquire, Granta, and many other publications.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 014100200X
• ISBN 13: 9780141002002
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 800