BOOK REVIEW
Rule Of The Bone, Russell Banks, HarperPerennial, New York, 1996
Okay, every generation X, Y or Z (including my generation, the generation of '68) has to have its own coming of age stories, male or female. For this reviewer, always full of a sense of the necessity to understand his own misbegotten youth, J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye explored the longings for understanding, companionship (female variety in my case) and power in that strange modern experience of growing up absurd- the teen years. Well, after reading Brother Banks Holden Caulfield better move over because he has company, very good company, in the coming of age field.
Strangely, my first exposure to the name Russell Banks was in a review that Larry McMurtry (he of Lonesome Dove, and a million other good novels, fame) did for The New York Review of Books. But at that time it was just a name. Then, as I was recently re-reading Nelson Algren's Walk on the Wild Side, I found that in the edition that I had Brother Banks had done the Foreword. Now I rank Algren right up there with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker in my literary pantheon so when Banks does a review that hits almost exactly all the points that have caused me to admire Algren I have one question. Isn't it about time to see what this writer is all about? And, friends, off a reading of this my first book of his I was not mistaken in my instinct.
Bank's young `searcher for truth' Bones, of dysfunctional family (sound familiar?), dope smoking and all set in upstate New York in the 1990's (and then switches somewhat erratically halfway through to Jamaica, the only weakness in the story) is exactly the kind of character one needs to explore in order to understand Generation X (I think that would be the correct designation, right?).
Using the currently fashionable literary trope of magical realism Banks goes through the whole catalogue of coming of age experiences as Bones looks for companionship (not necessarily automatically sexual, like in my youth), longings and personal power. Hey, didn't I just talk about those questions concerning Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield. I guess that is the point. Read this book if you want the current `skinny' on this perplexing issues of growing up absurd in modern society written with a very nice literary flair for a sense of time, place and class. Kudos, Brother Banks.
Rule Of The Bone, Russell Banks, HarperPerennial, New York, 1996
Okay, every generation X, Y or Z (including my generation, the generation of '68) has to have its own coming of age stories, male or female. For this reviewer, always full of a sense of the necessity to understand his own misbegotten youth, J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye explored the longings for understanding, companionship (female variety in my case) and power in that strange modern experience of growing up absurd- the teen years. Well, after reading Brother Banks Holden Caulfield better move over because he has company, very good company, in the coming of age field.
Strangely, my first exposure to the name Russell Banks was in a review that Larry McMurtry (he of Lonesome Dove, and a million other good novels, fame) did for The New York Review of Books. But at that time it was just a name. Then, as I was recently re-reading Nelson Algren's Walk on the Wild Side, I found that in the edition that I had Brother Banks had done the Foreword. Now I rank Algren right up there with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker in my literary pantheon so when Banks does a review that hits almost exactly all the points that have caused me to admire Algren I have one question. Isn't it about time to see what this writer is all about? And, friends, off a reading of this my first book of his I was not mistaken in my instinct.
Bank's young `searcher for truth' Bones, of dysfunctional family (sound familiar?), dope smoking and all set in upstate New York in the 1990's (and then switches somewhat erratically halfway through to Jamaica, the only weakness in the story) is exactly the kind of character one needs to explore in order to understand Generation X (I think that would be the correct designation, right?).
Using the currently fashionable literary trope of magical realism Banks goes through the whole catalogue of coming of age experiences as Bones looks for companionship (not necessarily automatically sexual, like in my youth), longings and personal power. Hey, didn't I just talk about those questions concerning Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield. I guess that is the point. Read this book if you want the current `skinny' on this perplexing issues of growing up absurd in modern society written with a very nice literary flair for a sense of time, place and class. Kudos, Brother Banks.
