Catherine's review
The Reserve
by Russell Banks
Catherine's review
The Reserve by Russell Banks
Catherine's review
rating:
I love Russell Banks. I've read much of his short and long fiction over the years. I enjoyed the Reserve but I don't know that it will stay with me in terms of the moral urgency that most of his works leave me feeling. There is a very great-gatsby-ish quality to the Reserve, and while many of us admire and remember the Great Gatsby, I don't know many people who claim they loved it. The Reserve is so filled with by-now stock and familiar characters who all have way too much passion - the beautiful but deranged and much-married heiress; the stoic woodsman of strong back and morals; the artist/flyboy who only beds women whom he loves less than his wife .... And the settings of woods vs. civilization, America vs. Europe, the locals vs. wealthy vacationers... then add in fireworks, flames, and burials .. I have read it all before. I enjoyed reading it again in RB's version, but can't help but wonder what Banks was up to with this.
