SOURCE: "Deeds and Dreams: Visiting the World of the Norse Adventurers," in Chicago Tribune—Books, November 4, 1990, p. 5.

In the following review, Dudar criticizes Vollmann for the lack of character development and narrative focus in The Ice-Shirt.

The review copies of William T. Vollmann's The Ice-Shirt arrived with a publisher's notice that roughly promises: Stick with it, reader, and you won't be sorry. You may not be glad either.

It is hard not to be amazed by the titanic ambitions of the author—whose earlier works, a novel, You Bright and Risen Angels, and a collection of short fiction, The Rainbow Stories, were received with respect and some enthusiasm. The title page tells us that The Ice-Shirt is the first of Seven Dreams, A Book of North American Landscapes. In 10 or 15 years, Vollmann, now 30, expects to complete six more volumes setting forth 1,000 years of the white man's exploitation of...