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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2009 > August > 21 > Entry
Does size matter?
“Imperial,” by William T. Vollmann, ( Viking, 1306 pages, $55).
“Imperial - Photographs by William T. Vollmann,” (Powerhouse Books, 200 pages, $55).
Books come in various sizes. Some are quick reads. Others are gigantic, monumental works that bear something in common with the Great Wall of China or possibly the Panama Canal. They can take a long time to construct. These books require mountains of time and patience to read. When we complete one of these volumes one feels a genuine sense of accomplishment.
Four months ago I began reading “Imperial” by William T. Vollmann. It is over 1300 pages long. I felt like a weight lifter even picking it up. Vollmann is one of our most prolific writers. He produces numerous books the way some of us produce household waste; fast, impressive stacks of it.
His book “Europe Central” won the National Book Award a few years ago. I was pleased it won - I chose it as my favorite novel that year. It is another immense Vollmann volume.
“Imperial” is Vollmann’s history of the poorest county in California. Imperial County is on the border with Mexico. “Imperial” the book is hard to describe. Words don’t seem adequate somehow. It is majestic and immense and rather dumbfounding.
Vollmann kept returning to this project while he continued to work on his other books. He imagined “Imperial” would be a novel but he couldn’t figure out how to make it so. So here it is finally in utterly sprawling splendor. I read it somewhat in the manner that Vollmann wrote it, coming back to it whenever I finished reading another book.
“Imperial” is a massive tale of ambition, hardship, foolishness and greed. Have you heard of the Salton Sea? This giant body of water in Imperial County is a monument to some stupendous notions that were eventually proven idiotic and destructive. “Imperial” is the story of how the waters of the Colorado River were diverted to transform this desert into an agricultural miracle.
That precious water transformed Imperial County into one of the largest producers of crops like lettuce and cotton. They never thought they would run out of water. The Salton Sea is the end result of this foolhardy belief, it is an environmental disaster.
Vollmann spent a lot of time on both sides of the border, what he refers to as Northside and Southside. He takes his readers on a boat trip down a polluted underground waterway. He searches for a network of secret tunnels. He looks at old photos and tries to get the locals to speak to him. Vollmann doesn’t drive nor does he speak Spanish. But he’s curious and quite eccentric.
Throughout the book he repeats the mantra that guided the early settlers to this eventual disaster. They believed that “water is here. We need to have no fear that our lands will not become better and better as the years go by.”
They squandered that water. Crop overproduction ruined prices. Imperial County is now salty and poor.
Of course one book wasn’t enough. Vollmann’s impressive photography is collected in a companion volume, “Imperial - Photographs by William T. Vollmann.”
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
Comments
By vick
September 5, 2009 11:59 AM | Link to this
Sorry, CRG…your comment went straight to the junk folder. I didn’t see it until just now. I’m guessing that your website link was the cause since there are so many spam messages sent that contain links. The system is designed to weed them out. I just restored your comment.By CRG
August 24, 2009 6:19 PM | Link to this
Vick, I wasn’t intending to be impertinent, it’s just that I lived there for a number of years and am very familiar with the history and issues that are unique to the area. It is very difficult to get enough of an idea of the area from a book to draw many conclusions, no matter how comprehensive that book is. There was no ‘squandering’ of water. The water is still there, being used to grow a billion-plus dollars worth of crops every year. In 1920, the county ranked 12th in California in ag production value, and in 2002, it ranked 9th in the nation in ag production value. That figure has fluctuated over the years depending on commodity prices, but typically remains in the top 15 in both the state and nation. In 1910, 207,000 acres of land were irrigated and in production. In 2007, 427,000 acres of land were irrigated and in production. This link does a pretty good job of explaining some of the issues that go into making the area one of the poorest in the state: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090824/OPINION/908219906?Title=Benefits-and-the-border Most of the money that is made DOES stay in the region (retail is one of the leading industries in the area, and that industry is fed by income from the other two leading industries in the area - agriculture and government). A lot of the money does leave, too. That is not unusual in an area where the nearest Albertsons is 60 miles away. The Salton Sea is an entirely different story. The Salton Sea exists because there is water in the area. Without irrigation water in the area, the Salton Sea would go away. Its stinkiness is due to the fact that there is no outlet - like the Dead Sea, water goes in and brings with it salts, silt and impurities, and evaporation leaves all that behind to become more and more concentrated. Yes, the Salton Sea is a mess, but the blame for that mess goes far, far beyond the borders of Imperial Valley.By vick
August 23, 2009 2:18 PM | Link to this
Vollmann quotes statistics that show that 90 years ago when Imperial County was gorging on Colorado River water that it was one of the leading ag producers in the US and #1 in California. Gee, what happened? They squandered all that water and they are now planting far fewer acres because they cannot irrigate all the land they were watering 90 years ago. As Page Turner points out, the money that is being made these days on crops in Imperial County doesn’t even end up there. Look no further than the stinking Salton Sea to comprehend the scope of the “vision” that led to this mess.By Page Turner
August 23, 2009 1:01 PM | Link to this
Imperial County ranks #11 of California’s 57 counties in terms of agricultural production - $1.37 billion worth in 2007. That money doesn’t stay in the county, however. Imperial’s per capita income does rank last of all California counties.By vick
August 23, 2009 11:10 AM | Link to this
Over the course of a century Imperial County went from being one of the most productive agricultural areas in the country to being the poorest county in California. How did that happen? No doubt the Imperial County Chamber of Commerce would dispute Vollmann’s findings. I read his book. Perhaps, you should too?By CRG
August 23, 2009 4:21 AM | Link to this
Are you serious? Is that really what you got from the book? I have not read it myself, but if that is what you got from this book, then it should be considered a work of fiction. “They never thought they would run out of water. The Salton Sea is the end result of this foolhardy belief, it is an environmental disaster.” Environmental disaster, perhaps. But the creation of the sea had nothing to do with a belief in how long or how much water would be available. It was a combination of engineering mistakes and a centuries-old tradition of the Colorado River changing its course on a whim. “He takes his readers on a boat trip down a polluted underground waterway.” I assume you are speaking of the New River, which at no point is underground. It may go under a few bridges, but never underground. “They squandered that water. Crop overproduction ruined prices. Imperial County is now salty and poor.” Huh? Imperial County has been one of the leading agricultural counties in the nation for many decades and continues to be so. It is a poor county and has a high unemployment rate due to a number of factors that I won’t get into here for brevity’s sake, but to say that ‘crop overproduction ruined prices and Imperial County is now salty and poor’ is so far off the facts that I couldn’t refrain from responding.By StuffnSuch
August 21, 2009 8:25 PM | Link to this
standards, make us what we are…