William T. VollmannThe Lucky Star: A Novel

From William T. Vollmann's Afterword to The Lucky Star:"This novel completes my "transgender trilogy" which also includes The Book of Dolores and a still unpublished tale entitled How You Are...The Lucky Star may be my most cynical book. Sexual abuse, street crime, poverty, illness, police violence and addiction saunter through its pages, dressed in the lurid livery of false consciousness.I sought out stories from women who perform their own versions of femininity, publicly and vulnerably: trannies, lesbians, showgirls. I found these research interviews to be quite simply uplifting. Like my characters, the interviewees deserve a far better world than they find. The bigotry, shame and self-hatred that so many of them have faced would have crushed me. In affirming to the world who they are and whom they love, they exemplify a beautiful female strength which occasionally moved me to tears."William T. Vollmann's work spans the entirety of history (his multi-volume work, Rising Up & Rising Down, chronicling the totality of human struggle) his still-incomplete series of novels Seven Dreams (reimagining all of the intersections of North America with her invaders), his various hyper-documentaries, Imperial (exploring our southern border from a Rising Up & Rising Down POV) the two-volume Carbon Ideologies (encyclopaedic state of affairs in climate change), Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater (2010), Poor People (2007), Riding Toward Everywhere (2008), An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World (1992).He won the National Book Award in 2005 for Europe Central, an interweaving of pre- & post-WWII stories, among whose protagonists is the Leopold Bloom-like inner monologues of Dmitri Shostakovich. My long-time favourite of Vollman's work, til today.The nexus of so much of his fiction work, The Rainbow Stories (1989) (collection), 13 stories and 13 epitaphs (1991) (collection), The Atlas (1996) (collection), Whores for Gloria (1991), Butterfly Stories: A Novel (1993), & The Royal Family (2000) has been San Francisco's Tenderloin District.Vollmann returns to this inexhaustible font of inspiration in this, his magnum opus among innumerable voluminous works & his greatest achievement in the form, The Lucky Star.The Y Bar is stage for most of the public action, a lesbian bar managed by Francine, protector & conscience of their community.The first-person narrator is Richard, who sounds (and of course, writes) very much like the author.Judy used to be Frank before she transitioned in her late 40's. She emulates & performs as Judy Garland (epigrams to most chapters are quotes by or about Garland, Natalie Wood; lots of resonant anecdotes are drawn from celebrity worship: Nancy Kerrigan, Martina Navratilova, et al)Her abusive boyfriend, J.P./aka the retired policeman, fueled by jealousy, seeks to undermine & prosecuteThe Lucky Star, nee Karen Strand, renamed after an island retreat with a women's coven, Neva/aka the lesbian.Neva loves & is loved by all.Other Y Bar denizens:ShantelleXeniaLewis/aka the straight manLewis' on-again-off-again girlfriend, ShannonAlHunterGerman touristsA barfly who reminds everyone of Julie AndrewsI have read all of Vollmann's works. The Lucky Star (2020) is my new favourite.He is simply the greatest living artist in English.Someone unfamiliar with his work could easily Drop the Needle and invariably find writing that leans toward the lurid, sort of a Henry Miller for our times. I find Vollmann's comprehensive appreciation & celebration of the whole panoply, the whole alphabet of identifications & proclivities in the Tenderloin rainbow to be astonishingly & humblingly moving & beautiful.

I am a voracious reader. Have been for most of my 65 years. I read everything from classics to contemporary, from history to fantasy. This book is the single worst thing I have ever read. Honestly. The critics have lost their minds. The characters are not convincing or sympathetic. The plot is exceedingly thin and totally disjointed. The endless sex scenes are badly written and stained by urine, vomit, and analingus. I didn't think anyone could consistently write sex scenes that are so boring and limp that I skipped through most of them. I have read other bad books before, but most of them were mercifully shorter than this tedious, unfocused and self-indulgent pile of wasted paper. There might be an almost readable book of some 150 pages in this unedited keyboard diarrhea but Vollmann drones on for 600 mind-numbing pages. If you do decide to spend $23 on this long and painful summary of human debasement, spend a few extra dollars and get yourself some razor blades as well, you may want to slit your wrists before it is over.

Vollmann reminds us once again that he’s the most important living author in America. His writing is absolutely essential. My one gripe with the book isn’t with its content at all — it’s with Viking skimping out on production quality; this book feels very cheaply made for its $35 cover price. Regardless, it’s a must-read for anyone who considers themselves well-versed in contemporary literature.

“The Lucky Star” is an overwhelming literary achievement. It is also a reminder that William T. Vollmann is one of the most important writers working today.As with so much of Vollmann’s work, “The Lucky Star” is not built to console or comfort. It is a provocative book: profane, illuminating, explicit, at times hilarious, and astounding in its artistry.The book opens by immediately submersing the reader into a densely drawn world of San Francisco’s darkest corners. The characters are damaged, drunk, high, striving to be beautiful, and seeking to escape the pain of existence. This is a return to familiar ground for Vollmann, who is known for his poetic and granular depictions of the people and the environments that comprise so much of our world but that are usually ignored in polite discourse and most popular fiction. Of particular focus here are transsexual characters, like the central character of Frank/Judy, who struggle to live as their true selves.The book follows a Messiah figure, named Neva, who drops among these broken people and offers them unconditional love. The Messiah, in this parable, is a beautiful lesbian who happily engages physically with her troubled acolytes. The story raises the deepest questions about who we are. Can we truly accept unconditional love? Can we be worthy of a Messiah? What’s the difference between sex and love? Can we be better than our born selves? If there are any answers to these questions, they are murky and complicated. In other words, honest.This novel is another signature work by a bold, transgressive and unquestionably unique artist.