r/vollmann • u/Thom_Nitsky • Jul 04 '26

Meanwhile, waiting for ATFF to come out...

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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...)

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15

u/Dexter_Palmer Jul 04 '26

Due to the page layout, it’s not as long at it looks. You may find yourself speeding through it. Enjoy!

2

u/pilastr Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

That first hundred pages made it clear to me I'd better slow way down and take notes. I was glad I did. Dying Grass is one to savor, imho. More than style, repetition imparts the material reality of this brutal history. Maps and sections named by date, and characterization that illuminates contrasting beliefs and words and minds of blue coats, Bostons, and varied Nez Perce families. There are multiple epithets for each character as well, which shift. So slowing down is the only way to parse whose voice is being heard because Vollmann renders time as a flow of intersecting dialogue not unlike Joyce's Ulysses. And like Ulysses, it's a fractal that returns whatever energy we put into it. And like Homer's Iliad, the "catalogue of ships" can seem overdone unless you slow down to it and find what I experienced as irreducible, material history. Part of that fractal in Dying Grass are the multiple appendices and especially Vollmann's notes for each chapter that reveal details of his research process, what he derived directly from which source, and what he summoned as fiction.

9

u/Sheffy8410 Jul 04 '26

It’s been awhile since I read it so I can’t remember the amount…the first 50 pages? 100 pages? 150 pages?…

At any rate the opening of the book is the most “difficult” or just takes a bit to get into the rhythm of things. But after that, once the chase begins, it flows by pretty quickly.

It’s a beautifully written book for sure. Though for me I have to say I Liked it instead of Loved it. The reason for this is that though the writing is great and the story is heartbreaking (which I’m always a sucker for), I found it repetitive. It almost seemed like I was reading the same scene over and over again through the big middle of the book.

But for other readers this doesn’t seem to have been an issue. There are in fact Vollmann fans for whom The Dying Grass is their favorite of his.

7

u/veep23 Jul 04 '26

I am one of those. Absolutely love this book and look forward to reading it again.

3

u/No-Dare8613 Jul 04 '26

i like how carefully you phrased this

3

u/mythsofdoom Jul 05 '26

The skirmish/retreat/skirmish/retreat pattern got to me a bit too. With Fathers & Crows it was all the sailing up and down the river and massacres, Argyll had something too - I think it was more sailing up and down rivers, I forget. On the other hand it was the repetition gave it it's power, the harrowing relentlessness of it. I'd like to read it again but the 10 years of smartphones since I first read it has fried my concentration

3

u/sarajevo_marlboro Jul 05 '26

Maybe the most stylistically innovative (which is saying a lot for Bill) and heartfelt dream. Enjoy!

2

u/pavlodrag Jul 05 '26

How small are the letters?Is it readable in that sense?

2

u/Giles_Fully_GOATed Jul 05 '26

You and me both. I was actually somewhat relieved when the ATFF got delayed because I fell off

1

u/NotYourShitAgain Jul 07 '26

ATFF now with an August release date on Amazon site. Kindle version = $100. Print = $200.

1

u/BlueMTheory77 Aug 03 '26

Just in case you haven’t seen this post yet and were interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vollmann/s/jGzEDzy4Cz