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Whores for Gloria

by William T. Vollmann

A search through memory and fantasy

Regular price $23.24 USD
Regular price $36.32 USD Sale price $23.24 USD
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Paperback New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praised by USA Today as “beautifully written and deeply affecting”

    USA Today describes the novel as “beautifully written and deeply affecting.”

AlbakiReads Editorial

A search through memory and fantasy

Set in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, the novel follows Jimmy, an alcoholic Vietnam veteran who spends his government check and much of his time searching for Gloria, a sex worker whose existence remains uncertain. His idea of her takes shape through memory, fantasy, and fragments gathered from other sex workers. Around that pursuit, the description places a community of drinkers and addicts whose stories touch on longing for love and salvation. The search connects Jimmy’s private imaginings with the lives and accounts of people he encounters, making uncertainty about Gloria central to the book’s premise.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary fiction centered on an uncertain search and a Vietnam veteran’s inner life.
  • Readers drawn to fiction set among the drinkers and sex workers of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.
  • Readers interested in themes of memory, fantasy, addiction, love, and salvation.

Themes

Memory and fantasyAddictionLove and salvationSex workVietnam veteran experience

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A "beautifully written and deeply affecting" novel (USA Today) about a Vietnam veteran - from the National Book Award-winning author of Europe Central

From the acclaimed author of Europe Central comes this fever dream of a novel about an alcoholic Vietnam veteran, Jimmy, who devotes his government check and his waking hours to the search for a beautiful and majestic sex worker, a woman who may or may not exist save in Jimmy's rambling dreams. Gloria's image seems distilled from memory and fantasy and the fragments of whatever Jimmy can buy from the other sex workers: their sex, their stories--all the unavailing dreams of love and salvation among the drinkers and addicts who haunt San Francisco's Tenderloin District.
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