Vollmann's A Table for Fortune centres on a CIA analyst recruited in 1967 for his memory

William T. Vollmann's 3,000-page novel A Table for Fortune, issued as a four-volume box set (four books sold together), centres on an analyst codenamed DAVE. The CIA recruited him in 1967 for his photographic memory, a detail the Guardian's review of 4 November 2026 reports. The story pairs that insider history of the agency with a family story.