Title: Son of Dos Passos?
Product review: My first experience of William T. I found the novel too reminiscent in technique of EL Doctorow's RAGTIME - the constant kaleidoscopic cutting between different sensibilities, interspersed with undisguised authorial commentary and narrative. It works, but not as well - but then nor does Doctorow - as it did in their common parent, John Dos Passos. Read his shorter (than his great trilogy, USA) novel, MANHATTAN TRANSFER to see the technique exploited to give a very real sense of an entire society at a moment in time.The writing itself in EUROPE CENTRAL, dealing with a 'foreign' culture and age, is often too literal to really enthuse and affect and the background research seems 'dragged in', while the sense of the novel's overall design makes itself felt too evidently.I will try more, but this is not the novel with which to begin the study of William T. Vollman.
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