text: I read an interview with Mr. Vollman, I think a couple years ago, I can't quote directly but he said he thought that prostitutes were very spiritual people.  They save marriages, they provide comfort to the loneliest, most desperate among us.  In practically the same breath he observed that they spread disease and sometimes rob their johns.
  
  That kind of duality is at the heart of much of Vollman's writing.  On the surface, Whores for Gloria is one desperate, delusional man, so eager for even the illusion of relatedness that he attempts to recreate Gloria with bits and pieces of other prostitutes.  It isn't fully clear if Gloria herself was ever real, but regardless, it is now a quest to fill that void collage style with physical samples, such as hair clippings, as well as emotional artifacts.  The most poignant scene may be the protagonist hiring a prostitute, and wanting nothing more than to hear happy childhood memories.  The prostitute complies as best she can but, story after story, the narratives veer into disturbing material.
  
  The hardest thing for the human to do is to hold opposite opinions about one thing at the same time.  The more intelligent and observant one is, the more painfully aware of the absurdity of this task, the more painfully aware of the mental contortions necessary to maintain the illusion of meaning.  This is where the magic lies in true artistc genius, such as a Thelonius Monk solo or, in this case, Vollman's writing.  I've never read anything that better communicates simultaneous beauty and ugliness.  And no better forum than gutter sex, which Vollman renders both repulsive and compelling.  And he doesn't do it by being overly clever.  He does it through the chaos of brute honesty.  Whatever compositional gymnastics go into the writing, the end product is very readable and deceptively simple
  