Continental drift
by Russell Banks
Continental drift
Russell Banks |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 333)
Read in April, 2008
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Read in March, 2001
I have always found Russell Banks' writing to be more affecting than it seems like it should; to have more hefty than his straight ahead, sometimes colorless narrative style would imply. This weighty meaning is often right up front in the powerful stories he tells of people trying to carve a small piece of the good life out of rotten husk of the bad lives they are mired in. This is true of Affliction, Sweet Hereafter, Cloudsplitter, and Rule of Bone, but none more than Continental Drift, his bes...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Lit. lovers
The Loa Narrator
In reading Continental Drift, a tragedy in every sense, I was struck by how usual the novel was in its structure and its distinct narrator. Banks employs a Haitian loa (a spirit of the dead) to tell us the story of Bob Dubois, a frustrated, blue-collar resident of New Hampshire, and Vanise Dorsonville, a Haitian immigrant, and young mother, looking to escape to America for a significantly better life. The traditional use of the narrator as an all-knowing persona, as Russell ...more
In reading Continental Drift, a tragedy in every sense, I was struck by how usual the novel was in its structure and its distinct narrator. Banks employs a Haitian loa (a spirit of the dead) to tell us the story of Bob Dubois, a frustrated, blue-collar resident of New Hampshire, and Vanise Dorsonville, a Haitian immigrant, and young mother, looking to escape to America for a significantly better life. The traditional use of the narrator as an all-knowing persona, as Russell ...more
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Read in June, 2007
Interesting book... The problem is that I read the spanish version (Bruguera, 2006) and the fact that it arrived 21 years later than when it was first published, it didn't seem very original now after all the fuss about culture crash during the past decades in the US, movies included.
Nevertheless, the story is still quite appealing and the “existentialism” that runs through the plot is convincing. However, the fact that the narrator intrudes into his novel to “explain” some of the ...more
Nevertheless, the story is still quite appealing and the “existentialism” that runs through the plot is convincing. However, the fact that the narrator intrudes into his novel to “explain” some of the ...more
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Read in January, 2008
Not a bad read. Parallel story of a gas heater repairmen from Maine and an illiterate Haitian immigrant. Come out in the early nineties I believe which, as far as the subject matter is concerned, puts it a bit ahead of its time. Sort of an interesting metaphor between continental drift in the geological sense and the historical tendencies of peoples to migrate pervading the plot. A predictably depressing ending. I like Russel Banks better when he writes in the first person. It's a better voic...more
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Read in May, 2007
This book is a product of the decade that it was written, the 80s. The U.S. was in a recession, times were hard for the common man, and there wasn't a lot of sympathy to go around. "Continental Drift" sculpts a story out of the attitudes of the era and tries to tie together the story of a man who pathologically makes self-defeating choices, and a Haitian woman trying to make it to America. It is this spurious tie that corrupts the strong writing and character development of this novel....more
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Read in June, 2008
I decided to start reading Russell Banks after listening to Joyce Carol Oates talk about him (they are good friends) at the Burlington, VT Book festival, Banks spoke to an audience of a few hundred people at the same festival. Continental Drift is a clever combination of two migrations that cross paths. One migration seemed to be of necessity and the other trivial by comparison. The worst part, children and elderly people getting thrown from a boat during a storm ... how low can humans go in ...more
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Read in May, 2007
Bob Dubois, a blue-collar worker with two daughters and a wife he is unfaithful to, decides to move his family from New Hampshire to Florida in an attempt to make more money and find happiness. He first works for his corrupt brother in a liquor store, and then moves to the Keys to work on a friend’s fishing boat. Along the way, the stories of others in search of the American dream are interwoven.
Slow; a good story but sometimes there is a bit too much character observation that could be ...more
Slow; a good story but sometimes there is a bit too much character observation that could be ...more
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This is two stories, one about a New England man who is going through a "life is futile" phase and packs his family up to seek his fortune down in Florida. The other story is about a Haitian woman trying desparately to get out of Haiti and to America. Eventually, their stories collide, but it happens very late in the book. Banks' story drifts around, much like the title. It wasn't good enough for me to truly recommend, but it was enough to get me to want to read others, like The Sw...more
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Read in February, 2008
The first Banks book I've read, Continental Drift at first was hard to enjoy (due to the lead character's personal flaws and the secondary story arch's foreignness), then it forced me to warm up to it (both stories became far more emotionally gripping), and finally it left me thoroughly entertained yet wondering if Banks accomplished his task stated on the novel's final page. Perhaps.
Is this book going to change the world? No way. But it is one hell of a story. Ain't nothin' wron...more
Is this book going to change the world? No way. But it is one hell of a story. Ain't nothin' wron...more
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Read in July, 2008
What a strange feeling to unwittingly re-read a book. It had been sitting on my shelf for years, and after reading another Banks book, I thought I should finally pick this one up. Turns out I read it before -- or at least began to. How embarassing that it didn't dawn on me until page 150 or so. This time around I think this book (although bleak) is having more resonance. Still a few pages to go...this time all the way to the end!
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Read in January, 1983
recommends it for:
anyone who thinks THEIR life is screwed
This book, with its two converging storylines, was profoundly moving in its tale of two downward-spiralling lives. These are not beautiful losers, rather one tale of someone who continually fucks his life up worse rather than appreciating what he has and one tale of someone who grasps at the only straws on offer only to find the cure worse than the disease. This is not a feel-good book.
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Read in August, 2004
When I finished this book I literally felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. I've only had that happen from literature a few times in my life, and it is truly stunning. It's a stunning novel, in scope, in prose, in personal-is-political, political-is-personal thought.
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Read in August, 2000
You certainly cannot label this novel a "feel-good book." Russell Banks once again plumbs the depths of man's soul and his struggle (usually fruitless) to obtain a certain moral certainty in his life. The story starts off just before Christmas in New Hampshire and ends in a dingy back alley in the Haitian section of Miami. Another great novel by one of my favorite writers.
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Read in February, 2008
Info on the ban: http://www.ncac.org/education/...
I was very much disappointed with this one. The writing is excellent, but it is very hard to stick with a story that has no redeeming characters. The whole thing seemed sort of pointless. Very depressing.
I was very much disappointed with this one. The writing is excellent, but it is very hard to stick with a story that has no redeeming characters. The whole thing seemed sort of pointless. Very depressing.
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Read in January, 2008
A modern day Grapes of Wrath, this book is about the loss of the American Dream. Set in the early 80s, it chronicles the downward trajectory of the main character, while he searches for happiness. I think in 40 years people will look back at this book in the same sense that we look at books like "The Grapes of Wrath" in the historical sense.
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Read in August, 2008
This is an insanely excellent book. I usually put books on my "to read" list when they come up, but I rarely remember why, or who recommended it.
I got if from the library without a dust jacket - so I pretty much had no idea why I thought I should read it. Surprised and delighted...it is a heavy-duty, hefty, heart wrenching tale.
I got if from the library without a dust jacket - so I pretty much had no idea why I thought I should read it. Surprised and delighted...it is a heavy-duty, hefty, heart wrenching tale.
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Read in June, 2008
Like getting beaten up and savoring it. Reminded me of so much, from Willy Loman to Heart of Darkness to Love and Garbage...and yet it's not quite comparable to any of them. It's about relationships and race and Immigration and exploitation and crime and redemption and class and "American Dreams" and illusions.
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Read in December, 2007
I love everything Russell Banks writes. I picked this one up at the Miami Book Fair... recommended by Mitchell Kaplan who owns Books & Books (the world's finest bookstore). Mid-way through with no time for reading, but as with all Banks books, it is alive, running around my brain all the time.
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Read in January, 2006
A sad tale of the American Dream gone wrong. Set in New England and the coast of Florida. We follow the highs and los of one man chasing his dream of a life "more than this".
Banks is one of the best writers America has to offer. He gets Americans and our country like almost no other.
Banks is one of the best writers America has to offer. He gets Americans and our country like almost no other.
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