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The Angel on the Roof
With "The Angel on the Roof, " Russell Banks offers readers an astonishing collection of thirty years of his short fiction, revised especially for this volume and highlighted by the inclusion of nine new stories that are among the finest he has ever written. As is characteristic of all of Bank's works, these stories resonate with irony and compassion, honesty and...more
Paperback, 528 pages
Published
May 1st 2001
by Harper Perennial
(first published January 4th 1999)
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I often have difficulty reading a collection of short stories from beginning to end, but "Angel on the Roof" held me from the whole way through. There were a couple less impressive stories (thankfully they were all short) but some of these will hold me for some time. The squallor of the Guinea Pig Lady, the moral of the Fisherman, the heart-wrenching decision in the Burden, etc. Many of these stories revolve around decisions and their consequences - most often through the elusive natur...more
If there was a sense of humor, or even hope in Russell Banks' life, it must have been beaten out of him a long time ago, if these tales are any indication. There is a perverse yearning glamor to be found in these stories about the hard, bitter truths the characters find, or don't, almost as if the hopelessness is something to be envied. Cheever, it can be said, is often times dour and melancholic, but at least lightens the load with transcendent prose , and a dark wit. Banks lacks even that, and...more
I'm really writing this review just about the story "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story" which is part of this collection. This is probably one of the most interesting, provocative, and (enjoyably) cringe-worthy short stories I've ever read. Definitely one of my all time favorites.
The story features a narrator who is in his late twenties and just coming out of a divorce, which has naturally provoked a certain identity crisis. Through a series of chance encounters, he be...more
The story features a narrator who is in his late twenties and just coming out of a divorce, which has naturally provoked a certain identity crisis. Through a series of chance encounters, he be...more
Not all the stories are amazing, but the four stars (I only reserve 5 for those rare classic stand the test of all time reads) are alone for all the stories collected from an earlier book, Trailerpark. That book, from its collection of stories assembled here, reads like a slightly more depressing Cannery Row - which to me, is fantastic. Banks' short stories have a Hemmingway influence but also Carver and Cheever too. Anyway, he is certainly on of the better short story writers I have read and...more
I read about half the stories in this collection. They cover some of the same ground as the stories of Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus--hardscrabble, working class lives, ordinary people making mistakes and living with their consequences. Yet Banks's stories don't have the moral complexity of Carver's or the compelling density of Dubus's. In his note at the end of the book, Banks comments on the difference between novels and short stories: "The novel ... accrues, accretes, and accumulates it...more
Jim
rated it
Recommends it for:
Short story readers, ann beattie readers, and raymornd carver readers
Shelves:
short-story-collections
Russell Banks is a grand storyteller. A few of my favorites are: Sarah Cole is my favorite of his short stories, i'd reread this and it was still powerful story about a conceited man and his retelling of a brief relationship. Djinn was a riveting sociological and psychological story for any world traveler, it touches on internal strife, fears, and politics. The Fisherman, it's almost a Hemmingway feel with a Shirley Jackson "Lottery" short-story feeling to it. While Russell has quite a...more
most all these short stories deal with the question of character, that is what sort of character does one poseess to cheat on their wife? or disown their son? or steal from an aquiantance? or destroy all your money rather than "give it to a good cause"? makes you think. this author has a new collection of stories out in 2010, i think. great great writer.
great short stories. the last about the daughter was great. also the one about the father spending time with his boys. he is a divorced father and in the morning he gets in his car and breaks down because the frost on the window is from his sons, who lives with his wife and new husband. most are excellent.
"The light filtered through the ice is still, hard, and cold, like an algebraic equation, and you can watch the world pass through it with clarity, objectivity, and love that is usually thought to be the exclusive prerogative of gods." - The Fisherman, page 45
Wendy
rated it
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Wendy by:
heard the story I mentioned read on NPR
What is, perhaps, my favorite short story is in this book: "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story." It's a great story to read aloud. Not all the stories in this collection are of this caliber, but most are well worth reading.
Russell Banks continues to be an author who makes me regret not having found him earlier in my life. On the other hand, I wonder if I would have been able to truly appreciate him before now, or if his particular blend of melancholy and regret are only suited to the man I've become.
This is a great collection of short stories, and it was especially exciting to see his occasional jumps outside the comfort zone of rural New Hampshire. Still, my favorites from the collection are probably "...more
This is a great collection of short stories, and it was especially exciting to see his occasional jumps outside the comfort zone of rural New Hampshire. Still, my favorites from the collection are probably "...more
Thomas Thonson
added it
I have been reading these to my bed ridden mother and who is in a nursing home and having some dementia. She listens and responds to the stories. It has been a helpful way to spend time with her. And I've enjoyed the stories.
wonderful stories about rural poverty in NH and NY. Many of the stories discuss the same characters and you get different perspectives. The one about animal hoarding, The Guinea Pig Lady, really made me understand why people fall into that. . . a terrific read.
I first heard about Russell Banks about a year ago when he read a story from this collection called "The Moor" on NPR's This American Life. Initially I wanted to read this book of short stories, but fell into reading a few of his novels first. Given that this book spans Banks' entire career, there's a range of stories here. Some are absolutely brilliant, and some fall short. A few of my favorites were The Fisherman, The Burden, Success Story, The Moor, The Guinea Pig Lady, Queen for a ...more
I had this book sitting on my to read shelf for ages because I'm not always in the mood for short stories. I hadn't read any Russell Banks in ages and although some of the stories weren't so great (but they were taken from his whole writing career so some were written when he was quite young) on the whole it was really good. There was a lot of interweaving between the stories which made it feel like a big novel sometimes as the same characters popped up throughout.
'It's hard to know more about a person's life than what that person wants you to know, and few people know even that much. Beyond what you can see and are told (both of which are controlled pretty easily by the person seen and told about), what you come to believe is true of who a person is, was, and will be, comes straight from your imaginings.' (pp. 81)
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Mary Newcomb
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This collection of short stories is breathtaking. Some of the stories are related, some are not. All have well developed characters and interesting plots, often with unexpected endings.
There's no question Banks is a talented writer, but his stories are beyond bleak, in a way that makes Carver look downright optimistic. They were a bit too painful for me to enjoy reading.
Patricia
rated it
Recommends it for:
Fiction, short story readers
Recommended to Patricia by:
Me...working in a publishing house there were some benefits...
Shelves:
fiction
Great American storyteller. Russell Banks lays it all on the line from father/son, romantic and sibling indifferent,good & bad relationships. I can so relate.
Zoloft!
Zoloft!
Most of these stories are about cold, lonely people in the cold, lonely north. Most of them are also awesome. Hell, the introduction and the Author's Note are awesome.
I saw him speak recently (EXCELLENT), and had to re-read the wonderful, sad story, Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story. I forgive him for The Reserve now!
What a fine and eloquent writer this Mr. Banks is. I sure would like to party with him someday.
He does only a few character types but he does them flawlessly.
best collection of short stories I've read since Raymond Carver
"The Fisherman" is one of the best stories I've ever read.
my favorite story is The Moor.
He is so raw!
He is so raw!
So far I have read two stories and I liked them.
as people say some excellent stories here.
Nancy
added it
An expert on the short story genre.
Great collection of short stories.
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Russell Banks is a member of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. He has written fiction, and more recently, non-fiction, with Dreaming up America. His main works include the novels Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, Cloudsplit...more
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“One of the most difficult things to say to another person is, I hope that you will love me for no good reason. But it is what we all want and rarely dare to say to one another – to our children, to our parents and mates, to our friends, and to strangers. Especially to strangers, who have neither good nor bad reasons to love us. And it’s why we tell each other stories that we pray will be transformed in the telling by that angel on the roof, made believable and about us all, no matter who we are to one another and who we are not.”
—
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