This might not be the most ideal introduction to Vollmann. So, if this is your very first encounter with his works, don't be overly dismayed.

I actually derived a great deal of enjoyment from many of these stories. However, there were also some that either left me completely confused or failed to meet my expectations.

Nonetheless, I fully intend to revisit several of these tales. The reason being that many of the characters within them are truly unforgettable. Their vividness and distinctiveness have left an indelible mark on my mind.

Despite the mixed bag of experiences with this collection, I still have a sense of curiosity and anticipation regarding Vollmann's other works. I'm eager to explore more of his literary creations and see what else he has in store for readers.

Overall, while this particular introduction may not have been perfect, it has certainly piqued my interest and made me more determined to discover the full breadth and depth of Vollmann's literary talent.

This is a truly remarkable and excessive exercise in a stylistic explosion. It would be dreadful if it weren't so excellent.

Vollman engages in this fascinating approach where imaginative dream states invade the narrative without completely disrupting it. At times, his sentence structure borders on self-parody (similar to Faulkner, Hemingway, or Burroughs, although only the last seems like a fitting comparison), yet the prose is beautiful enough to make it all work. He isn't afraid to gush and overflow with words, but just when you think it's veering into sloppy Rimbaud worship, you discover nuggets of meticulous research and sly humor emerging, and everything comes back into balance.

The following very partial list provides a sample of what this book contains:

-Believably sweet and tender interactions with violent skinheads.

-A well-researched and thoughtfully crafted portrait of someone who enjoys melting faces with Drano.

-A very thorough and vivid reimagining of the story of Shadrach et al. and the fiery furnace.

-A tale of unrequited love, told from the perspective of the Holy Ghost.

-A very loving and unexpectedly passionate description of an autopsy.

I'm not sure where this book fits within Vollman's oeuvre. I have the impression that it's relatively juvenile, in the sense of him finding his style, but it has impressed me tremendously all the same and made me a fan for life.

Review available on Episode 3 of the VOLLMANNIA Podcast:

The VOLLMANNIA Podcast has an exciting review in its Episode 3. This episode offers a unique and engaging exploration of various topics. The link provided, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast..., takes you directly to the podcast on the Apple Podcasts platform. Whether you're a long-time fan of the VOLLMANNIA Podcast or new to it, Episode 3 is definitely worth checking out. It promises to deliver interesting insights, captivating stories, and thought-provoking discussions. So don't miss out on this opportunity to tune in and discover what Episode 3 has in store for you.

I was truly and utterly amazed by this book.

In the end, it offers a description of San Francisco, specifically what one might refer to as the "dark" side of it. However, it is presented in a manner that strongly reminds me of Magic Realism.

There are numerous elements at play here, including magic, religion in all its forms, philosophy, physics, medicine, and even science-fiction. When combined, these elements transform the daily miseries into something akin to an epic myth.

It is truly incredible how a description of an autopsy or the routine activities of some teenagers can be turned into a detailed and surreal picture.

The translation to Spanish by Jose Luis Amores, edited by Palido Fuego, manages to preserve all the essence of these picture-like descriptions. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that it merits a re-read in English in the future.

This book is a remarkable piece of literature that combines various genres and elements in a unique and captivating way. It takes the reader on a journey through the darker aspects of life while also infusing it with a touch of magic and the extraordinary.

The vivid descriptions and the seamless integration of different themes make it a truly engaging and thought-provoking read.

Whether you are a fan of Magic Realism or simply enjoy exploring different literary styles, this book is definitely worth checking out.

If you're a poet, this book is a must-read.

It offers a wealth of inspiration and knowledge that can enhance your poetic skills and creativity.

The author delves deep into the art of poetry, exploring different forms, techniques, and themes.

Through vivid examples and engaging discussions, you'll gain a better understanding of how to craft powerful and evocative poems.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced poet, this book has something to offer.

It can help you break free from creative blocks, discover new voices, and express your emotions with greater clarity and impact.

So, if you have a passion for poetry and want to take your writing to the next level, don't hesitate to pick up this book and embark on a journey of literary exploration.

***3.5 stars***

This review is awarding a solid 3.5 stars. It indicates that the subject under consideration has both positive aspects and areas that could use some improvement.

Perhaps the product or service being evaluated has shown good performance in certain key areas. It might have features that are useful and functional, meeting the basic needs of the users.

However, there are also some不足之处. Maybe the design could be more refined or user-friendly. Or perhaps there are some minor glitches or inefficiencies that need to be addressed.

Overall, a 3.5-star rating suggests that the item has potential and is worthy of consideration. With a few tweaks and improvements, it could potentially reach a higher level of quality and customer satisfaction.

It's important to note that this rating is based on the specific criteria and expectations of the reviewer. Others may have different opinions depending on their own experiences and priorities.

In conclusion, the 3.5-star rating serves as a useful guide for potential buyers or users, providing them with an indication of the overall quality and value of the product or service.

Approaching The Rainbow Stories as a work of fiction is a complex endeavor. Mr. Vollmann, who was residing in San Francisco at the time, has, in numerous interviews, spoken of the significant amount of time he spent in the city's notorious Tenderloin District. Subsequent fictional works like Whores for Gloria and The Royal Family were not only set in the same downtrodden area of the town but were more or less directly based on the interviews and conversations Vollmann had with the seedy and depraved inhabitants of the Tenderloin.

While drawing on past life experiences as a source of information for story writing is not novel in the world of literary fiction, there should be a clear distinction established between a creative reenactment of the events that took place and a mere reportage of those same events. The majority of this collection is set in San Francisco, particularly in the Tenderloin, although Vollmann does expand his material a bit. Included in this collection is his take on the Hebrew Book of Daniel and a variation on the famous tales of the Thugee cult in British India, a story originally written by Phillip Meadows Taylor entitled Confessions of a Thug.

Beginning with the story White Knights, Vollmann delves right into his Tenderloin material, chronicling the aimless adventures of a group of skinheads in the eighties known as the Skinz. This follows an introduction that describes various grotesqueries in the emergency room. The narrative voice that emerges in this first story is notable as it was the point at which Vollmann made the artistic transition from the cumbersome storytelling perspectives of You Bright and Risen Angels to the focused objectivity that is present to record the phenomenon of this particular counter-culture group. It's a significant stylistic leap, and in this sense, the two books seem as if they were written by completely different authors. While his first novel dabbled in the historical fables of non-existent revolutionaries, this collection begins in an urban reality that is too specifically vulgar and racially decadent to sound like fiction. And of course, Vollmann doesn't really judge the Skinz; he's merely an observer here, someone who isn't reporting on their lives to understand what makes them tick. This distance works because he cleverly avoids judgment. What he seems more interested in is the question of what exactly skinheads do all day long.

From there, he takes the reader into the red, touring the streets of the Loin in search of loose women. At this point in his career, Vollmann's preoccupation with prostitutes has been firmly established. You could say that he has a monopoly when it comes to writing about whores. Once again, Vollmann, Bill, or our mysterious narrator, is simply an observer. The structure of this collection begins to reveal itself quite strongly in this part; infinitesimally brief interviews are interrupted by even shorter punch-lines about human depravity. Vollmann builds a rhythm as he cuts up the journalistic elements with the fictional interludes to the point where the stories themselves become literary collages of real life.

From there, he abruptly delves into the story of Mes’hach, Shad’rach, and Abednego being cast into the Burning Fiery Furnace by Nebuchadnezzar. Considering this biblical story along with the tale of Jhora Naek (the celebrated leader of the Multan Thugs, inspiration for the Thugee), it's tempting to give Vollmann the benefit of the doubt and view these chronologically and geographically disparate fables as allegorical asides, a comment on the retribution that Vollmann's Bay Area derelicts seem to deserve. Unfortunately, these two tales don't fit into this story collection as neatly as that. Assuming that he earned the readers' trust with the accessible and open humanity of the contemporary San Francisco tales, it seems that Vollmann aims to take random liberties with the direction of the theme, with such disregard for his audience that he'd be happy if they were still following him, but if not, it doesn't matter either way.

Other stories, such as The Green Dress and The Indigo Engineers, explore disconnected themes of absurdist lust and bleak technocracy. They differ from the Tenderloin material in that there is no element of journalistic observation, nor does there seem to be any attempt at homage or revision. They're sort of like the literary fiction equivalent of abstract paintings or linguistic playthings created by a bored postmodernist.

The Blue Yonder – another Tenderloin story – stands out as the finest in this collection. Vollmann tells the tale of a serial killer, referred to as The Zombie, who begins eliminating a significant portion of the homeless population in Golden Gate Park. The killer's pathological disgust for the filthiness of the homeless infuses this story with a profound sense of pathos. There is also a cinematic aspect of horror to this tale; the killer's trademark is to fill the maws of his victims with Drano after getting them thoroughly intoxicated on Night Train. In the most unsettling part of the story, Vollmann even goes into graphic detail, describing an autopsy of one of the victims. In ridiculously lofty prose, Vollmann reads her sick body – her internal organs deformed by decades of alcohol abuse – like a book.

The loose, underlying thematic concept of these stories is that they follow the visible color spectrum. Any attempt to draw an overall social message from The Rainbow Stories is a futile critical exercise. While many of the stories seem ripe for that sort of thing, Vollmann's journalistic tendencies prevent him from suggesting solutions for these social ills or even trying to understand them. The inclusion of every color-fueled vignette in this collection is driven by the earnest impulses of a writer pursuing every authorial conviction he has. This occasionally has a seemingly deplorable effect on Vollmann's prose. The narrator speaks in a pedantic voice, with overwritten sentences, cumbersome metaphors, and embarrassing similes. And yet The Rainbow Stories seemed to solidify Vollmann's uncompromising style as something admirable, while simultaneously not lacking a hint of self-deprecating humor. It's tempting to think that, in Vollmann's case, critics might be overlooking the casual irony in subtitling one of the stories “A Heideggarian Tragedy”. He's occasionally gullible, but to suggest that he gave the final tale, Violet Hair, such a pretentious subtitle without an element of humor probably says more about the gullibility of some critics than it does of Vollmann.

This was truly a wild ride.

Some of the stories were rather boring or confusing, leaving me scratching my head. However, others were really quite great, and a few were even excellent.

Visible Spectrum received a 4/5 rating for its beautiful prose, although the themes of death and sickness were rather sad.

White Knights got a 3/5, but it was still worthwhile journalism. Even though it seemed like not much was happening, a "day in the life" piece is always interesting for my curious brain.

Red Hands had a 3.5/5 rating. While it seemed to resonate with others on GR, I found it a bit lazy. The possible connection between an IRA activist/terrorist and a scientist doing animal research felt like a stretch.

Ladies and Red Lights was given a 3/5, as there wasn't much substance to it.

Scintillating Orange received a 4/5. It was a retelling of the Fiery Furnace and King Nebuchadnezzar that grew on you if you were patient.

Yellow Rose was also rated 4/5. This was some of my favorite kind of Vollmann writing: pure, open, unabashed, autobiographical, phenomenological, and sweet.

Yellow Suger had a 3.5/5 rating and told the lives of Arabian thieves.

Green Dress was creepy.

Blue Wallet got a 4/5. It was back to the Skinheadz, and Jenny was there. I loved this story and the line "and you never will" made me burst into tears.

Blue Yonder had a 3/5 rating. It was about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Drano Killer. It picked up a bit at the end with the autopsy and the description of Evangeline's liver.

The Indigo Engineers had a 3.75/5 rating. The intercutting of the story of a boy who grew up in the Warsaw Ghetto being persecuted by the Nazis and the Survival Research Laboratory's machines of destruction was really quite good.

Violet Hair was my least favorite story, with a 2.5/5 rating. However, it did get better by the end.

X-Ray received a 4.5/5 rating. It was a great way to bookend Visible Spectrum and had some beautiful stuff in it.

The Authors Note was given a 5/5 rating, and I'm not kidding.

I preferred The Atlas to this earlier work of short fiction.

This particular piece delves deep into themes such as the sex trade, poverty, and drugs. It is impossible to overlook Vollmann's dark imagination, his deadpan humor, and his assertiveness.

Considering that he was only in his early thirties at the time, he展现出了超越他年龄的智慧。

At times, the work is simply stunning, captivating the reader with its raw and powerful portrayal. However, at other moments, it can seem a bit too reckless, perhaps pushing the boundaries a little too far.

Overall, it is his wide-ranging topics and the intensity of his writing that kept me engaged throughout.

When it comes to exploring the seedier side of San Francisco and capturing the moments from those with wretched, aimless lives, there is truly no one better for me.

Vollmann has a unique ability to shine a light on the hidden corners of society and make us confront the uncomfortable truths that lie within.

His writing is both thought-provoking and engaging, leaving a lasting impression on the reader.

Technically 3.5.

This is a very mixed bag. It's quite interesting. You can view The Rainbow Stories as the seedbed for many of Vollmann's obsessions that he delves into (in more mature works) in the future. Prostitution, drug addiction, homelessness, the ethics of violence, poverty, femininity, anthropology via fairy tales and mythology - it's all here, but with varying degrees of success depending on the story.

From what I gather, after YBARA, this was his first foray into a more "honest" form of storytelling, where he was still in the process of finding his own voice. As such, some of these stories I thought were truly fantastic and really showcased his obvious talent that would be honed over the years. Others, however, were forgettable misfires at best. "The White Knights", "The Red Hands" and "The Indigo Engineers" were very good for very different reasons. But "The Blue Yonder" was the absolute standout and could have/should have been published as a separate novella. I don't concur with some readers who think that the overarching "rainbow" conceit was simply tacked on as a cheap framing device. I believe that these stories, for the most part, really do cohere into something better than the sum of its parts. It is nearly impossible for me to envision some of these stories without the vivid colors that ground them in the wider context. I also want to bestow upon this book the award for "Most Disgusting Medical Scene" when Vollmann describes Evangeline's autopsy in excruciating detail at the end of "The Blue Yonder". The previous award winner was the nosejob scene in V., but that was comparatively child's play. I think having read The Atlas prior to this is why I felt this to be somewhat of a letdown, because I had witnessed what Vollmann can achieve in a short story collection that seamlessly blends reportage, creative non-fiction, memoir, and experimental fiction, as he attempts to do here.

All in all, it's interesting to see as a sophomore work - but he definitely has better books to his credit.

I truly loved the street-smart reportage-cum-fiction parts of this work. It was a refreshing blast of surprising grit, candour, and pulsing realism that is all too rare in this self-absorbed era. ‘The White Knights’ and ‘Ladies and Red Lights’ are filled with powerful, electrifying vignettes. Vollmann restricts his prose to a splendidly unshowy, detached, and oddly empathetic voice, which makes these sections even more engaging.

However, what follows failed to elicit any reaction from me other than befuddlement and boredom. There is one cod-Talmudic story, written in a zanily biblical style, and one mind-numbing historical tale about a Chinese Thug gang. I endured these in the hope of finding something finer.

The awkward romance stories about frolicking yuppies, especially ‘Yellow Rose,’ are precisely the sort of late-eighties all-smart-and-rich-young-people-are-fascinating efforts that Goodreads users rightly treat with contempt. Although as stories they are mildly entertaining, they lack depth and substance.

But the real downfall is ‘The Blue Yonder,’ a nearly unreadable stream of codswallop. It is close to DFW at his most Mister Squishy-like, with the prose gummed to death by an overworked, self-regarding flashiness that eliminates all reader involvement. Instead, it settles for vague templates for characters like ‘The Other’ and ‘The Zombie.’ This pulls the book into the realm of insufferable opaque quasi-philosophical dribbling that does not merit my attention for another 180 pages. I stopped on page 360. More Vollmann? To be determined...

While reading The Rainbow Stories, I was reminded of Anis Shivani and his short story collection Anatolia and Other Stories. Both authors are celebrated for crossing cultural borders in their writing. In both books, the authors succeed in capturing the human condition without filtering the narrative through their own experience, and there are definite similarities in approach and scope.

However, in an article for the Huffington Post, Shivani berates Vollmann and his work. He calls Vollmann a "third-rate Pynchon" who is desperate to impress with quantity rather than quality. He accuses Vollmann of writing for dissertation mills, intending not to be read but admired, and of having the same incessant logorrhea as other writers. He also claims that Vollmann's work encapsulates the ethical vacuity of American fiction after the collapse of 1970s postmodernism.

It is true that Vollmann is verbose and his stories often feel like reading a series of facts from a character sheet. Despite the absence of plot, I found myself invested in the lives of the characters. The details give a sense of duty to the characters, and the tangential descriptions of marginalized human beings become imbued with greater significance. However, Vollmann's attempts to establish empathy for these characters are often hindered by poor choices in tone and a journalistic narrative voice that creates a barrier between the reader and the character. The writing is strong and compassionate, but the language is sometimes too prosy or overly poetic, which can lead to accusations of a lack of authenticity.

Personally, I felt as if I never became emotionally involved. I was fascinated by the circumstances surrounding the characters, but I had trouble remembering their names. I think this is a hurdle worth noting and may prevent others from enjoying the book even more.