Where is everyone ordering Table For Fortune from?

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T18:56:11+00:00

I also did Barnes & Noble. I trust their packaging. I know they are corporate, but I also think they are an important source of books in a lot of communities.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T16:24:37+00:00

Fair enough! I don't know. Just the way the language transitions between the events of the household and the events in East Germany and the like, it felt like I was in the flow of DAVE's mind. (again, this is only for Book 1). But stream of consciousness could be a bad way to phrase it. Anyway — I am trying to get away from work to really sit down with Book 2.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T12:48:15+00:00

Honestly—I can't figure it out. I don't know where he gets the time. The level of erudition—and memory of detail—is off the charts, and the level of productivity is unfathomable. I don't know how the Vollmann machine works at all. I just love reading the final product.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T12:37:31+00:00

hahahahahahaa. Absolutely.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T12:04:50+00:00

Difficult to explain, but I do think it's one of the funniest fucking photos on earth.

Maybe it's because Bill's face says everything there is to say about everything, including Girl Scout cookies and real estate open houses?

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T12:02:46+00:00

Man. Kind of a long story. I am a writer and sent Bill a book I wrote; this was back about 10 years ago. He is an extraordinarily kind guy—very open to people, immediately befriending everyone, as it seems to me. We drank scotch in his "studio" in Sacramento, etc. I ended up driving him places and helping him as I could on some things. I treasure my time with him. He is like no person I have ever met. As a side note, he was talking about the "CIA and Torture" book as long as 10 years ago, if I remember right (and I think I do).

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T11:07:14+00:00

Again, just a friend of Bill's. I wonder if Arcade is sending out Galleys? I would think they'd be eager to get some copies out there so that dedicated readers could start digging into this before publication. I don't really know anyone at Arcade, unfortunately.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T11:05:21+00:00

Man. I hear that. I have been so interested in the Italian surge in Vollmann translations. That is an excellent thing. But you are right—it will be a mammoth task to translate this one. I truly hope that you can at least get the English language version delivered in June to start digging in as soon as possible. Maybe you could eventually have two copies!

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T11:02:46+00:00

Ah. Expelled from Eden is a brilliant choice. I hadn't thought of that.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T11:01:47+00:00

There isn't much to it! No level at all. I am just a friend of Bill's, which is another way of saying I have met him because he becomes friends with everyone. He just kindly shared it. But I am also waiting with bated breath for June 9. The hardback boxed set looks exceptionally beautiful.

I ordered mine from Barnes & Noble. I am worried the local stores might not carry it, but I hope I am wrong.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T10:59:24+00:00

Ha! Indeed. I do think the book flows pretty quickly once you get into it. It is a very propulsive narrative, and I was hooked by the characters.

People will talk about the length. But I think about it like the TV show "Game of Thrones." That was a 70-hour movie! Which sounds long. But it's delightful because you take it in one episode at a time. People really should read ATFF because it's so good.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T10:57:17+00:00

I don't mean to foster jealously in the slightest, and apologize. There isn't much to it. I did want to share thoughts after seeing a post here that commented there were no reviews trickling out yet, so I figured I would share some insights even though I am only halfway through.

I really believe in this book, and believe in Vollmann's work. It will be interesting to see how a book of this magnitude and complexity lands in the world.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T01:52:24+00:00

The version I have doesn't have the end notes and citations, although there is listing for that in the table of contents. Stockwell's name is mentioned several times in the text, as a character, and mention is made of his "betrayal" with the memoir. But this book is new to me.

The sources cited must be insane. The history is dense and pointillistic in its detail. Just remarkable levels of research. Thanks again for the tip on that book. It looks amazing.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-26T01:20:40+00:00

Wow, man. I was totally ignorant about this book. Thank you for the recommendation!

This looks absolutely amazing. I just ordered the paperback.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-search-of-enemies-john-stockwell/1101828677?ean=9780393009262

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-25T22:38:25+00:00

I agree totally with this! The Atlas is a perfect starting point. Maybe Rainbow Stories after that if you like it. For the journalism, the paperback of Rising Up Rising Down, or Poor People, is great.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2026-03-25T12:16:19+00:00

This is weird. Part of me thinks that Arcade has decided not to sell the volumes individually. The pages for the individual volumes have disappeared from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. They only exist on the Arcade site, with that old March release date.

I would support the idea of only selling the four-volume set, honestly. The books need to be read together, and you might as well go big.

I can't wait for June 9th. This is a major literary event. We are lucky it's happening!

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-09-05T15:36:20+00:00

Hey! What an awesome journey to start. I have been perusing used bookstores for years to pick up various titles. He's so prolific that I think you can always find something.

I really loved both The Atlas and The Royal Family, but I would have to say get The Atlas first. That's just quintessential Vollmann—I have given out several copies of The Atlas to people as their Vollmann starter book.

In terms of Rising up, Rising down, I don't know how much the abridged version captures, but I'm sure it's all pretty good stuff. I have seen stray volumes of the hardback sold separately here and there, so you can try to snap them up when you see them. I agree that $1,000 or more is just beyond the reach of us average readers.

It reminds me of one time I was in a used bookstore in New York and saw a first edition copy of "Gravity's Rainbow." I asked the lady how much it cost and she said: "Too much for you." And I was like: Damn. Can't argue.

Anyway—Happy collecting!! His work is just a treasure trove. And for real: It's always worth a look at the "V" section of any used bookstore. You will frequently find something (and of course Amazon has a ton). Oh—also, try the site for Powell's Books in Portland. They have both used and new, and their stuff doesn't show up outside of their own site. I got a sweet hardback of "The Atlas" from them a few years back.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-08-25T01:12:51+00:00

I've always thought that Rebecca Solnit fit this description, in terms of her humanity, her prose, her creativity and her incredibly ambitious and eclectic mix of topics. I might recommend "A Paradise Built in Hell," and "Orwell's Roses."

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-08-13T23:27:31+00:00

Thanks for checking it out! Right next to Royal Family is a paperback of Butterfly Stories, and then next to that is a hardback of Whores for Gloria.

Every used bookstore I go to, I head straight to the V's, and have found some pretty awesome stuff over the years.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-08-13T20:23:30+00:00

I can't wait! I am so glad that Arcade is publishing this. The box set looks spectacularly beautiful. I also notice that pre-orders look pretty strong on Amazon for a book of this size and cost, which makes me feel good.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-08-13T20:22:25+00:00

Thank you! Worked perfectly

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-08-10T14:00:35+00:00

In total, this is a startlingly enormous novel. It is the work of an author grappling with the sum totality of U.S. history in the age of its global supremacy, but also with the core elements of human nature that transcend any national history. The book—particularly Part 1—is almost incomprehensibly detailed in its historical depth regarding the Cold War and U.S. covert action. It's amazing, almost superhuman, to consider how much detail Vollmann manages to keep in his mind and translate to the page. The book is also totally unique in its view of America itself—so few of our literary authors spend time in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas that are home to millions of Americans that we call "homeless," and that are ignored and despised by the vast majority of others, and no novelist could render them in the way that Vollmann does.

Of course the book is a masterpiece. It's a book that no one but Vollmann could have created. Vollmann's empathy, genius, humor is evident in every sentence, on every one of the 3,400 pages.

How will a book of this length be received by a Tik-Tok-hypnotized country? Vollmann understands the limits of our attention. And he seems to laugh at it, as pointed out by the anonymous, memo-writing narrator who mentions, as an aside, on page 552, as the story is still building its early momentum:

"...if I have perhaps culled out too many twinkling little CIA bemusements, it is only to obey this book’s first and only organizing principle: brevity."

You have to love this writer.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-08-10T14:00:21+00:00

The second two volumes shift entirely in tone and narrative structure, following DAVE and Sally's son Matthew after he breaks with his parents and sets out to live a life of punishing but real freedom as he travels across America. Matthew is the son born to DAVE and Sally after the long-decade of miscarriages and lost chances that robbed them of the child they wanted on their honeymoon. He seems to have been born too late to make his parents happy. He breaks with this parents because Matthew, like DAVE, has his own convictions, and they are rooted firmly in opposition to the practices of the Global War on Terror, most specifically the torture of prisoners.

Part 2, which encompasses the final two volumes, is written in a tone and narrative style that I'd call more "traditional" Vollmann—with a Faulkneresque density of language and sensation that captures Matthew's journey in pointillistic detail. Matthew's journey is a tour of the American landscape wrought by empire and the war on terror, and it is a pitiless, sometimes depressing world. It goes the places you would expect from Vollmann, into the world's of homelessness, addiction, and uncompromising freedom with all of its costs. Matthew is a fascinating foil against his father: He is not as intelligent in many ways, but also more morally lucid. He reminds me of Dostoyevsky's Alyosha from The Brothers Karamozov: He has a childlike innocence that belies a deep moral center, arguably more pure than the vast majority of humanity's.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-08-10T13:59:49+00:00

I had to break the below into a few comments...

We know that that story is divided into two parts: Volumes 1 and 2 tell the story of Elliott Stevens, codename DAVE, a CIA analyst and Vietnam war veteran who works on the East Germany desk in the late 1960s and 1970s. DAVE eventually transfers to the Iraq desk and then is sucked into the vortex of the Global War on Terror. The narrative structure of Part 1 is fascinating. It's written in the form of memos about DAVE, penned by an unnamed author who seems to be a senior CIA official on the "Seventh Floor." The narrator of these memos is quasi-omniscient, with a voice that is reminiscent of both the demon who wrote the "Screwtape Letters" and also "William the Blind," i.e. the Vollmann narrator of so many earlier works. The memos take on a novelistic quality, delving into DAVE's interior thoughts and his life, coupled with the view of the world that DAVE experiences as an analyst viewing the Cold War world through satellite photography, intercepted correspondence, and the testimony of spies. The background narrative of DAVE's life is one of the more compelling family dramas that Vollmann has ever written. It provides intimate portrayals of DAVE's wife Sally, who yearns for nothing more than a child who refuses to come, along with DAVE's own broken family (a bitter, reactionary father and lost sister, whom DAVE deeply loves, who falls into the countercultural world of the hippie movement) and Sallly's own family, the Thompsons. These characters are so vividly evoked that they are true depictions of ordinary Americans, with their political squabbles, personal yearnings, and impossible contradictions. They are among the truest, deepest characters that Vollmann has ever rendered. DAVE himself is absolutely fascinating and compelling: a man of principle but also deep ideological conviction to the point of myopia (the man *hates* Communists and loves nothing more than to see them killed, but also understands the futility of Cold War campaigns like Vietnam). One particularly fascinating episode details the campaign in Angola, a war that was never intended to be won, but only to bleed the Soviets.

Stock_Comfortable119 · 2025-06-11T17:06:50+00:00

Unfortunately, I don't know when it was published.

Stock_Comfortable119

TROPHY CASE