Europe Central / The Position

[April 13th, 2005]

^Europe Central

By William T. Vollmann

(Viking, 811 pages, $39.95)

In his newest novel, William T. Vollmann draws an exhaustive and interwoven set of parallels and parables between the German and Russian experiences of World War II, revolving around a largely imaginary love story involving the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Europe Central as a whole is a fugue, a sestina of doom filmed in grainy black-and-white with memorable splashes of lurid color. Vollmann deserves an A, and not just for ambition: Despite Europe Central's bulk and range, it's tightly written, practically seamless-amazing for a book this large and complex.

While in the two longest chapters he does threaten to overload readers with musical and military minutiae, one of Vollmann's greatest strengths is that he mostly manages to avoid that particular trap of the over-researched novelist. And while there are footnotes and creative typefaces, neither comes off as bulky or precious. This is metafiction all grown up: The recursiveness here doesn't irritate, but alternately soothes and excites.

It's fascinating to see a writer keep wrestling with the same themes, over many years and many, many pages, without ever seeming to write the same thing twice. While he has always written good books, Vollmann's works seem to be arranging themselves in smaller and smaller concentric circles around what it is he's trying to tease out of his tireless explorations of human nature. The enemy, of course, is always us. Magdalen Powers

^The Position

By Meg Wolitzer

(Scribner, $24.95, 320 pages)

In her hilarious novel of family life, The Position, Meg Wolitzer proves herself too smart to simply set up a trap for redemption and cohesion. Families, she knows, are too complicated for that.

The cackle-producing scenario at the story's heart occurs when 13-year-old Michael Mellow stumbles upon a volume called Pleasuring, written by his parents, Paul and Roz Mellow. There are texts and illustrations, even a position they claimed to have made up, called "Electric Forgiveness." He does what any other sensible 13-year-old would do: He shows it to his brothers and sisters.

Little do Michael and his siblings know that their parents are on their way to becoming big stars, gracing talk shows and magazine covers. Their book will be a bestseller, and the Mellow kids will know a shame utterly familiar to anyone who's ever had parents.

Wolitzer proves herself an imaginative writer as she flashes forward to the 30th anniversary of the publication of Pleasuring, long after Roz and Paul's divorce, to examine the emotional fallout on the family. Even as adults, the Mellow children continue to jockey for position with their parents-some want to be closer, others would change their name if they could.

This sense of deep filial embarrassment is just one of the parental legacies this wise book explores. The Position will remind readers that other families are funny, too, and others are as weird as your own. But never has this realization been such a welcome and entertaining relief. John Freeman