William T. Vollmann Critical Essay | Critical Review by Gail Pool

SOURCE: "Tune In, Turn On, Short Out," in The New York Times Book Review, June 21, 1987, p. 10.

In the following generally positive review, Pool assesses the strengths and weaknesses of You Bright and Risen Angels.

In his inventive first novel, William T. Vollmann has given us fiction for the electronic age: a social and political satire that critiques America in technological terms, a computer cartoon that is both a product of technology and a comment on it.

On one level, You Bright and Risen Angels depicts an elaborate computer game. As the book opens, the narrator—a programmer who refers to himself throughout as "the author"—presses the "resurrection button" on his terminal, calling up his "bright and risen angels," the cast of characters brought to life by the electrical current: the hero, Bug, powerful Mr. White, shady Dr. Dodger, plant-like Parker, macho Wayne, dangerous Big George and others who...
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