Continental Drift (P.S.)
by Russell Banks
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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 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 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 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, 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 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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Read in January, 2008
We read this for my book club and if it wasn't for that I would have put the book down and not finished it. The first couple chapters were hard to get through. The book did get a little better towards the end. His writing style was very good, but I didn't really enjoy the book overall.
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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 November, 2007
This is the first Russell Banks book I've read, and it is devastating in its cynicism. Still, it is a true portrayal of underdog America. I felt sorry for the characters, but then again everything that befell them seemed inevitable.
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Read in December, 2007
I have some problems with the structure (one of the book's plots is significantly stronger than the other) and it's generalized in a very unusual way, but there's a bleakness about it that makes it tragic on a grand level.
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So damn good. In my top five. Great writing, deals with issues around race, family, immigration, violence, all in ways that are profound and evocative. Love the way he weaves the two stories found within.
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Didn't LOVE it when I read it, but parts of this story have stuck with me over the years. An interesting meditation on the chasing of the American Dream. I need to reread this.
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