# The Rainbow Stories

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Book by William T. Vollmann

The Rainbow Stories First edition (UK) Author William T Vollmann Language English Publisher Andre Deutsch (UK) Atheneum Books (US) Publication date January 1989 (UK) July 1989 (US) Publication place United States Media type Print (hardback & paperback) Pages 544pp ISBN 978-0-689-11961-3 Preceded by You Bright and Risen Angels Followed by The Ice-Shirt

***The Rainbow Stories*** is a collection of short stories about [American culture](/source/American_culture)[1] written by [William T. Vollmann](/source/William_T._Vollmann) and published in 1989. Written in the style of [narrative journalism](/source/Narrative_journalism),[2] it was his second published fictional work, preceded by *[You Bright and Risen Angels](/source/You_Bright_and_Risen_Angels)*.[2] The book consists of thirteen interlocking stories (based on the colours of the rainbow) that range in scope from ancient [Babylon](/source/Babylon) to modern [San Francisco](/source/San_Francisco).[2][3][4][5] [Steven Moore](/source/Steven_Moore_(author)) wrote of the book that "Vollmann's verbal prowess, empathy, and astonishing range put him in a class apart from his contemporaries."[6] Robert Rebein described the book as a "real breakthrough"[7] for Vollman, stating: "[Rainbow Stories is] a book that mixed reportorial and fictional techniques to powerfully evoke the lives of [prostitutes](/source/Prostitution) and [skinheads](/source/Skinheads) on the streets of San Francisco's [Tenderloin](/source/Tenderloin%2C_San_Francisco) district."[7]

## Contents

The 13 stories included in the book are:

- "The Visible Spectrum"

- "The White Knights"

- "Red Hands"

- "Ladies and Red Lights"

- "Scintillant Orange"

- "Yellow Rose"

- "The Yellow Sugar"

- "The Green Dress"

- "The Blue Wallet"

- "The Blue Yonder"

- "The Indigo Engineers"

- "Violet Hair"

- "X-Ray Visions"

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Mason, Fran (2009). *The A to Z of Postmodernist Literature and Theater*. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 337. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-8108-6855-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8108-6855-5).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-hemmingson_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-hemmingson_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-hemmingson_2-2) Hemmingson, Michael (2009). *William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews*. McFarland & Company. pp. 22–30. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7864-4025-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7864-4025-2).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** LeClaira, Tom (1996). "The Prodigious Fiction of Richard Powers, William Vollmann, and David Foster Wallace". *Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction*. **38** (1): 12–37. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/00111619.1996.9936496](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00111619.1996.9936496).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** James, Caryn (August 13, 1989). ["'The Rainbow Stories'"](https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/13/books/vollmann-rainbow.html). *The New York Times*. Retrieved 1 May 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Eder, Richard (July 16, 1989). "The Yawp of Reason". *Los Angeles Times*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-The_Review_of_Contemporary_Fiction_6-0)** Moore, Steven (Summer 1989). ["The Rainbow Stories: Review of Contemporary Fiction"](http://www.stevenmoore.info/vollmannrevs1.shtml). Retrieved 1 May 2013.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-rebein_7-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-rebein_7-1) Rebein, Robert (2002). *Hicks, Tribes, and Dirty Realists: American Fiction After Postmodernism*. Scholarly Book Services Inc. p. 54. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-8131-2176-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8131-2176-0).

v t e William T. Vollmann Collections The Rainbow Stories (1989) 13 stories and 13 epitaphs (1991) The Atlas (1996) Last Stories and Other Stories (2014) Seven Dreams series The Ice-Shirt (1990) Fathers and Crows (1992) The Rifles (1994) Argall (2001) The Dying Grass (2015) Prostitution Trilogy Whores for Gloria (1991) Butterfly Stories (1993) The Royal Family (2000) Standalone novels You Bright and Risen Angels (1987) Europe Central (2005) The Lucky Star (2020) Non-fiction An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World (1992) Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means (2003) Uncentering the Earth (2006) Poor People (2007) Riding Toward Everywhere (2008) Imperial (2009) Kissing the Mask (2010) The Book of Dolores (2013) No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies (2018) No Good Alternative: Volume Two of Carbon Ideologies (2018)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [The Rainbow Stories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rainbow_Stories) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rainbow_Stories?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.