The Search for Love in William T. Vollmann's Prostitute Trilogy: Whores for Gloria, Butterfly Stories, The Royal Family1.

This essay examines the three novels Vollmann devoted to the “oldest profession in the world,” inspired by his personal experiences in San Francisco's Tenderloin District and travels to Thailand: Whores for Gloria (1991), Butterfly Stories (1993), and The Royal Family (2000). At the core of each novel is a love story. While not published as a trilogy, the books are interconnected in theme, style, and autobiography so that they form a de facto trilogy. The protagonists—all antiheroes—are on a quest for human connection, a search for what they consider is love in the guise of a prostitute. These are not romance novels in the traditional sense of the genre or love stories one would expect from mainstream, commercial fiction. These are sordid tales of affection for the apparent outcasts of society, a triptych that contributes an ironic version of “romance fiction,” vindicating the many varieties of love (even if unsavory) that life presents. The prostitute is a common character in Vollmann's work, both fiction and nonfiction, the lives they lead a common theme. Vollmann has been criticized for obsessing on the world of streetwalkers and call girls, of giving them too much repetitive attention; yet, when studying Vollmann's work, considering this obsession sheds light on Vollmann's oeuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]