Book Reviews

What is noteworthy in this instance is how much space this throat-clearing takes up in this (highly recommended) volume’s preface (by Larry McCaffery) and its introduction (by Christopher K. Coffman). Because while, as Theophilus Savvas suggests, ‘[being] the first significant volume on the author, A Critical Companion is a landmark in Vollmann scholarship’,1 the book itself is very interested in asking why this should be. [...]the Companion also offers a wide range of approaches, under four broad thematic headings: ‘Engaging People, Space, and Place’, ‘Engaging Narratives: History, Historiography, Ethics’, ‘Power, Sex, and Politics’, and ‘Methods and Mores: Texts, Paratexts, Aesthetics.’ [...]McCaffery suggests that Vollmann’s work ‘doesn’t slot neatly into any of the paradigms/pigeon holes that critics normally rely on’ (xv). In the future, something like it, in other configurations, may reassemble. [...]this commons-based politics can continue to keep alive various values ignored or repressed by government forces.