SOURCE: "Dream Factory," in The New Republic, Vol. 210, No. 15, April 11, 1994, pp. 40-2, 44.

Birkerts is an American critic and educator who has won numerous awards and grants for his essays on literature. In the following review of Butterfly Stories, he praises Vollmann's evocation of the main character's perspective and states of mind, arguing that, though the plot at times "strains credulity," the poignancy and dreamlike quality of the narration imbue the novel with credibility and authenticity.

William Vollmann is the kind of writer who sets other writers to calculating—totting up published pages and dividing by the guesswork figure of years spent at the desk. My math, which takes into account six novels (including the one under review and his most recent book, The Rifles), two story collections and a travelogue/documentary, tells me that over a ten-year period Vollmann will have brought into print some 5,000 pages of prose...