Russell Banks (1940–2023)
Author of Cloudsplitter
About the Author
The oldest of four children, Russell Banks spent his childhood and adolescence in New Hampshire and Eastern Massachusetts. His blue collar, working class background is strongly reflected in his writing. The first in his family to attend college, Banks studied at Colgate University and later show more graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill. While he was establishing himself as a writer, Banks spent time as a plumber, shoe salesman, and a window dresser. Banks's titles include Searching for Survivors, Family Life, Hamilton Stark, The New World, The Book of Jamaica, Trailerpark, The Relation of My Imprisonment, Continental Drift, Success Stories, Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter and Dreaming Up America. Banks has also written numerous poems, stories, and essays. Banks is the recipient of several awards and prizes. Among his accolades are the St. Lawrence Award for Short Fiction, the John Dos Passos Award, and the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1986, Continental Drift was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Russell Banks, 2012
Works by Russell Banks
Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story (in The Best American Short Stories of the Eighties - RAVENEL) 2 copies
Russel Banks : Coffret en 3 volumes : Sous le règne de Bone ; De beaux lendemains ; American Darling (2008) 2 copies
Plains of Abraham 1 copy
Spirt of the River 1 copy
On the Road [screenplay] 1 copy
Associated Works
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (1976) — Contributor — 1,214 copies, 3 reviews
The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 (1999) — Contributor — 584 copies, 4 reviews
Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from the New York Times (2001) — Contributor — 479 copies, 5 reviews
For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most (1999) — Contributor — 479 copies, 4 reviews
You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe (1994) — Introduction — 413 copies, 3 reviews
The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories (1999) — Contributor — 394 copies, 5 reviews
The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories (1986) — Contributor — 381 copies, 3 reviews
Lost Classics: Writers on Books Loved and Lost, Overlooked, Under-read, Unavailable, Stolen, Extinct, or Otherwise Out of Commission (2000) — Contributor — 317 copies, 6 reviews
The Condé Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys: Great Writers on Great Places (2007) — Contributor — 279 copies, 5 reviews
Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word (2009) — Contributor — 216 copies, 3 reviews
The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (2008) — Contributor — 140 copies, 2 reviews
Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past and Each Other (2001) — Contributor — 139 copies, 1 review
Who's Writing This? Notations on the Authorial I, with Self-Portraits {not Antæus} (1995) — Contributor — 75 copies
The Best of the Best American Mystery Stories: The First Ten Years (2014) — Contributor — 39 copies, 1 review
High Infidelity: 24 Great Short Stories About Adultery by Some of Our Best Contemporary Authors (1997) — Contributor — 33 copies
The Hurly Burly and Other Stories (2021) — Preface, some editions; Editor, some editions — 14 copies
Antaeus No. 64/65, Spring/Autumn 1990 - Twentieth Anniversary Issue (1990) — Contributor — 14 copies
Antaeus No. 73/74, Spring 1994 - Who’s Writing This: Notations on the Authorial I {magazine} (1994) — Contributor — 5 copies
Truck 21, A 50th Birthday Celebration For Jonathan Williams — Contributor — 1 copy
Christmas 1968 : 14 poets — Contributor — 1 copy
Fire Exit 4 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Banks, Russell
- Legal name
- Banks, Russell Earl
- Birthdate
- 1940-03-28
- Date of death
- 2023-01-08
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA|1967)
- Occupations
- fiction writer
poet
professor - Organizations
- Princeton University
International Parliament of Writers (President) - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1998)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature, 1986)
State Author of New York/Edith Wharton Citation of Merit (2004-06)
Commonwealth Award (2011)
Thornton Wilder Prize (2008)
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (1998) (show all 9)
John Dos Passos Prize (1985)
St Lawrence Award 91975)
Artist-in-Residence, University of Maryland - Agent
- Ellen Levine
- Relationships
- Twichell, Chase (wife)
- Cause of death
- cancer
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Newton, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Newton, Massachusetts, USA
New York, USA - Place of death
- Saratoga Springs, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Reviews
This book had two major conceptual problems for me:
1) The Orientalist nature that the narrator looks at Africa. It is so outside of her and her experience, even when she lives there for a quarter century. We can never empathize with any African character, because all of them are seen as monsters, incapable of the human emotions that the narrator feels. Frankly, if it weren't for the narrator's inability to connect with people outside of Africa, I would be calling this book racist.
2) The show more misunderstanding of radicalism and feminism. The narrator feels as if she has been crippled from her "natural instincts" by the feminist reworking of her life. As if being forced into the nuclear family as a domestic slave is anything close to natural. Patriarchy oppresses women, not feminism. Feminist reorganization of kinship, relationship, and parenting roles is not removing or deleting "natural instinct." It is removing the boot off of the neck of women and enabling them to be what they naturally are: human.
It was marginally entertaining, if wholly depressing. And the last page about 9/11 and the massive restructuring of US society to render people like her obsolete is an interesting insight. If I actually had to read this instead of listening to it during my commute on CDs, I may not have finished it. show less
1) The Orientalist nature that the narrator looks at Africa. It is so outside of her and her experience, even when she lives there for a quarter century. We can never empathize with any African character, because all of them are seen as monsters, incapable of the human emotions that the narrator feels. Frankly, if it weren't for the narrator's inability to connect with people outside of Africa, I would be calling this book racist.
2) The show more misunderstanding of radicalism and feminism. The narrator feels as if she has been crippled from her "natural instincts" by the feminist reworking of her life. As if being forced into the nuclear family as a domestic slave is anything close to natural. Patriarchy oppresses women, not feminism. Feminist reorganization of kinship, relationship, and parenting roles is not removing or deleting "natural instinct." It is removing the boot off of the neck of women and enabling them to be what they naturally are: human.
It was marginally entertaining, if wholly depressing. And the last page about 9/11 and the massive restructuring of US society to render people like her obsolete is an interesting insight. If I actually had to read this instead of listening to it during my commute on CDs, I may not have finished it. show less
Land speculation, especially in Florida, is one of those great American obsessions. Link it to what that land was in the past, and it’s tragic.
It’s 1971, and eighty-one year old Harley Mann has started recording his life story onto reel to reel tapes. Banks sets up the conceit that he has found these tapes almost twenty years later, and got lost in the saga they have to tell, as does the actual reader of his book.
Young Harley had been brought to the Shaker colony of New Bethany in show more Florida as a young boy. It was an agrarian utopia of seven thousand acres. Here Harley learned order, the joy of work well done, agronomy, and bee keeping, along with getting a basic education.
As in all Shaker communities, men and women were segregated. That wasn’t a problem initially, but as Harley grew older, the idea of life long celibacy held no appeal whatsoever. Sent out into the wider world on supply missions, he saw a whole other side of life.
Harley fell in love, or thought he did, with a tubercular young woman who visited the colony for rest periods from time to time. He thought his mentor Elder John was also in love with her, leading to friction in what had previously been a rewarding relationship with John.
However, John also is not what he seems.
The Shaker colony eventually suffered a colony collapse. What happens to its members, and most importantly to the land itself, is Harley’s nagging obsession, as he sits on his porch all those years later.
Banks’ books always reveal the underbelly of American life in one way or another, and this is no exception. This one also reveals his regret at what was and is happening to his country. show less
It’s 1971, and eighty-one year old Harley Mann has started recording his life story onto reel to reel tapes. Banks sets up the conceit that he has found these tapes almost twenty years later, and got lost in the saga they have to tell, as does the actual reader of his book.
Young Harley had been brought to the Shaker colony of New Bethany in show more Florida as a young boy. It was an agrarian utopia of seven thousand acres. Here Harley learned order, the joy of work well done, agronomy, and bee keeping, along with getting a basic education.
As in all Shaker communities, men and women were segregated. That wasn’t a problem initially, but as Harley grew older, the idea of life long celibacy held no appeal whatsoever. Sent out into the wider world on supply missions, he saw a whole other side of life.
Harley fell in love, or thought he did, with a tubercular young woman who visited the colony for rest periods from time to time. He thought his mentor Elder John was also in love with her, leading to friction in what had previously been a rewarding relationship with John.
However, John also is not what he seems.
The Shaker colony eventually suffered a colony collapse. What happens to its members, and most importantly to the land itself, is Harley’s nagging obsession, as he sits on his porch all those years later.
Banks’ books always reveal the underbelly of American life in one way or another, and this is no exception. This one also reveals his regret at what was and is happening to his country. show less
What I expected from Cloudsplitter was historical fiction about the famous abolitionist, John Brown. What I found was a masterful exploration of the relationship between two men, an extraordinary father and his ambivalent son, and their unrelenting struggles - within themselves, with each other, and with a nation that allows the enslavement of human beings.
Cloudsplitter is narrated by John Brown’s third son, Owen, who chronicles his life with his famous father for a biographical show more researcher. In an Author’s Note, Banks emphasizes that this novel is “a work of the imagination” and “should be read solely as a work of fiction, not as a version or interpretation of history”. Although following the main historical threads of John Brown’s life and anti-slavery activities, there are moments of divergence from fact and much added that is speculative and pure invention. But this seems largely irrelevant to Banks’ broader purpose.
John Brown is a complex figure whose single-minded opposition to slavery is both driven and marred by contradictions. Married twice and fathering twenty children, only eleven of whom survive to adulthood, Brown is devoted to his family, but extreme in his expectations of them.
Highly religious, Brown imposes his own interpretation of God’s will in a harsh and severe manner. While intolerant of those who do not meet his strict Christian standards, his own version of faith inexplicably justifies the use of violence to advance his abolitionist cause. Historians have long debated whether John Brown was insane or simply a religious fanatic, a terrorist or a hero. But regardless, at the core of his character is a massive egotism that drives his failed ambition to amass great wealth and ultimately leads him to sacrifice his family and martyr himself to his abolitionist cause.
By comparison, Owen Brown is plagued by doubts. He lacks the unquestioning religious faith of his father and exhibits a rebellious temperament, driven by a desire to find a place and purpose in life that is missing for him. Despite these conflicting emotions, Owen is unable to separate from his father, eventually embracing his fanaticism and becoming his closest advisor and co-conspirator in their final acts of battle. Yet he secretly bears the guilt and responsibility for the accidental death of a freed slave and friend, and carries the crushing knowledge that he is himself not without prejudice and bigotry. And of all the family members, it is Owen that is most aware that his father is flawed, and not the prophet that his followers believe him to be.
The storyline focuses on the decades prior to the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, exploring in-depth the development of John Brown’s abolitionist rage while only tangentially addressing the historical significance of this seminal event and its aftermath. Intricately plotted, the narrative follows the Browns through years of harsh conditions and hard work, marked by births and deaths. The family’s 1850 move to North Elba in the Adirondack Mountains is a turning point in their lives - a time of active participation in transporting runaway slaves to safety across the Canadian border, while evading slave-catchers and federal authorities. John and Owen Brown travel extensively during subsequent years, both for business purposes and to seek the support of wealthy abolitionists. During one such trip to Boston, Owen’s sense of faith and purpose are ignited by the excitement of danger and he is “brushed by an angel of the Lord”. His father’s resolve for militant action is strengthened by what he sees as the passivity of Boston’s prominent abolitionists and he develops elaborate plans to establish Kansas as a slavery-free state and to cause the collapse of Virginia’s economy by promoting an armed insurrection of slaves. But in the end, John Brown commits and condones horrific and wholly unnecessary acts of violence, culminating in a failed, armed attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry.
Russell Banks has a gift for creating multi-dimensional characters and placing them in real settings and situations. In Cloudsplitter, he reveals the complexities and contradictions inherent in the story of John Brown, while touching on important questions regarding the nature of faith, family, and the ways in which we are enslaved by our beliefs and ambitions. Banks writes in a voice that is both lyrical and stunning in its realism, using language consistent both with the period and with the religious fanaticism of John Brown. Never straying from Owen’s voice, Banks brings the reader into the mind of his narrator with an intensity that sustained my interest through the more than 750 pages of this incredible novel. show less
Cloudsplitter is narrated by John Brown’s third son, Owen, who chronicles his life with his famous father for a biographical show more researcher. In an Author’s Note, Banks emphasizes that this novel is “a work of the imagination” and “should be read solely as a work of fiction, not as a version or interpretation of history”. Although following the main historical threads of John Brown’s life and anti-slavery activities, there are moments of divergence from fact and much added that is speculative and pure invention. But this seems largely irrelevant to Banks’ broader purpose.
John Brown is a complex figure whose single-minded opposition to slavery is both driven and marred by contradictions. Married twice and fathering twenty children, only eleven of whom survive to adulthood, Brown is devoted to his family, but extreme in his expectations of them.
Compared to the rest of us, no matter how hotly burned our individual flame, Father’s was a conflagration. He burned and burned, ceaselessly, it seemed, and though we were sometimes scorched by his flame, we were seldom warmed by it.
Highly religious, Brown imposes his own interpretation of God’s will in a harsh and severe manner. While intolerant of those who do not meet his strict Christian standards, his own version of faith inexplicably justifies the use of violence to advance his abolitionist cause. Historians have long debated whether John Brown was insane or simply a religious fanatic, a terrorist or a hero. But regardless, at the core of his character is a massive egotism that drives his failed ambition to amass great wealth and ultimately leads him to sacrifice his family and martyr himself to his abolitionist cause.
By comparison, Owen Brown is plagued by doubts. He lacks the unquestioning religious faith of his father and exhibits a rebellious temperament, driven by a desire to find a place and purpose in life that is missing for him. Despite these conflicting emotions, Owen is unable to separate from his father, eventually embracing his fanaticism and becoming his closest advisor and co-conspirator in their final acts of battle. Yet he secretly bears the guilt and responsibility for the accidental death of a freed slave and friend, and carries the crushing knowledge that he is himself not without prejudice and bigotry. And of all the family members, it is Owen that is most aware that his father is flawed, and not the prophet that his followers believe him to be.
They all thought me shy, inarticulate, perhaps not as intelligent as they, as they always had anyhow, and they were not wrong. But that did not mean that I did not know the truth about Father and why he did the great, good things and the bad, and why so much of what he did was, at bottom, horrendous, shocking, was wholly evil.
The storyline focuses on the decades prior to the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, exploring in-depth the development of John Brown’s abolitionist rage while only tangentially addressing the historical significance of this seminal event and its aftermath. Intricately plotted, the narrative follows the Browns through years of harsh conditions and hard work, marked by births and deaths. The family’s 1850 move to North Elba in the Adirondack Mountains is a turning point in their lives - a time of active participation in transporting runaway slaves to safety across the Canadian border, while evading slave-catchers and federal authorities. John and Owen Brown travel extensively during subsequent years, both for business purposes and to seek the support of wealthy abolitionists. During one such trip to Boston, Owen’s sense of faith and purpose are ignited by the excitement of danger and he is “brushed by an angel of the Lord”. His father’s resolve for militant action is strengthened by what he sees as the passivity of Boston’s prominent abolitionists and he develops elaborate plans to establish Kansas as a slavery-free state and to cause the collapse of Virginia’s economy by promoting an armed insurrection of slaves. But in the end, John Brown commits and condones horrific and wholly unnecessary acts of violence, culminating in a failed, armed attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry.
Russell Banks has a gift for creating multi-dimensional characters and placing them in real settings and situations. In Cloudsplitter, he reveals the complexities and contradictions inherent in the story of John Brown, while touching on important questions regarding the nature of faith, family, and the ways in which we are enslaved by our beliefs and ambitions. Banks writes in a voice that is both lyrical and stunning in its realism, using language consistent both with the period and with the religious fanaticism of John Brown. Never straying from Owen’s voice, Banks brings the reader into the mind of his narrator with an intensity that sustained my interest through the more than 750 pages of this incredible novel. show less
There’s before and there’s after that fateful moment when a school bus runs off the road during a snowstorm, killing fourteen children of a small Adirondack town. Someone must be to blame. Is it the state, or the town, or maybe the bus driver? Will the out-of-town lawyers destroy what remains of this community, or will the town find a path to healing?
The perspective alternates between four first-person narrators: Delores, the bus driver; Billy, a Vietnam veteran and widower whose show more children were on the school bus; Mitchell, the negligence lawyer; and Nichole, a teenage girl who survived the accident with a catastrophic injury. Each narrator reveals baggage they carried before the accident that shapes their response to the tragedy and evokes the reader’s empathy, without crossing the line to pity. This book gives more than it demands from readers. Warmly recommended. show less
The perspective alternates between four first-person narrators: Delores, the bus driver; Billy, a Vietnam veteran and widower whose show more children were on the school bus; Mitchell, the negligence lawyer; and Nichole, a teenage girl who survived the accident with a catastrophic injury. Each narrator reveals baggage they carried before the accident that shapes their response to the tragedy and evokes the reader’s empathy, without crossing the line to pity. This book gives more than it demands from readers. Warmly recommended. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 38
- Also by
- 46
- Members
- 11,864
- Popularity
- #1,979
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 331
- ISBNs
- 389
- Languages
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- Favorited
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