Imperial - Hardcover

William T. Vollman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576874893 ISBN 13: 9781576874899

Publisher: POWERHOUSE BOOKS, 2009

Synopsis

The California-Mexico border is heavy with history and uncertain of its future. It is a land of great progress and crushing failure, home to a past that includes migrant workers, Mexican laborers corporate exploitation, gambling dens and brothels. In 1901, the Imperial Land Company diverted the Colorado river to the area, trnasforming desert into productive farmland. Vollman studies this area, uncovering the people and their struggles in a photographic portrait of Imperial's last decade.

About this title

Review:

"Obsessive, strangely engrossing . . . a combination history book, documentary, autobiography, and topographical survey." --Time

"Vollmann has penetrated the soul of a place that is like few others on earth, but whose hardships and triumphs tell you something universal about the durability and ambition of the human spirit." --The Economist

"No one who reads this singular, significant book--half Michael Harrington's The Other America, half James Joyce's Finnegans Wake--will contemplate NAFTA, illegal immigration, or a trip to a 'Southside' brothel without thinking of [Vollmann]." --The Washington Post

"Tracks the battles, real and metaphorical, that define Imperial County--battles over immigration and water, identity and the reach and limitations of political power. The book is perhaps the clearest expression of Vollmann's career-long commitment to immersing himself in complexities." --Los Angeles Times

About the Author:

William T. Vollmann is the author of 17 books, including Europe Central (Viking, 2005), winner of the National Book Award. He has also won the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN Center/USA West Award, and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in California.

About this edition

• Publisher: POWERHOUSE BOOKS
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1576874893
• ISBN 13: 9781576874899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200