Is there a discussion on this yet?

[Serese]

This book was pretty good, I'd like to hear from others. Has it been discussed yet?

[Gerhard]

I have just finished reading it, my first Russell Banks. There are two distinct aspects to the book: the dehumanising impact of technology / the Internet, and the legislation, classification and rehabilitation of sex offenders in the US.

I do not think Banks manages to reconcile these two elements successfully, especially with the rather baffling character of the Professor, whose own story is so much larger-than-life that it detracts from that of the main protagonist (or anti-protagonist?), the Kid.

And then we have another character towards the end, the Writer, who is clearly Banks himself making sure his shallow, technology-addicted, socially-impoverished readers get The Point.

Banks is at his best when describing the harrowing living conditions under the Causeway, and the Kid's family life (if you can call it that). He is least successful when he has the Kid pick up a discarded Bible, and then proceed to discern Garden of Eden and good-and-evil metaphors everywhere (even poor old Iggy the Iguana?).

I also found this a somewhat sordid and uncomfortable read -- just how does one come up with such an inside-look at the sex-offender sub-culture? (Ha ha, the Internet, I suppose ...)

So there is a powerful sociological approach to the account of this sub-culture that is severely diluted by too-obvious preachifying. Fortunately Banks manages to pull everything together at the end -- that long final paragraph is one of the most gut-wrenching things I have ever read.

[Marilyn]

I had a hard time reading this book because of the sordid characters and the sub-culture it addressed. But I was even more uncomfortable when I began sympathizing with the Kid and thinking of him as the "hero". I thought the novel had some faults (I, too, found the Professor to be baffling and the Writer to be a bit obvious), but it served to make me look closely at my liberal self and examine my own prejudices and shallowness surrounding those biases.

[Gerhard]

Marilyn wrote: "I had a hard time reading this book because of the sordid characters and the sub-culture it addressed. But I was even more uncomfortable when I began sympathizing with the Kid and thinking of him ..."

Yes. I know exactly what you mean. I think Banks encourages this empathy with the Kid, especially given the true circumstances of his back story. You do feel incredibly sorry for him, and repulsed at the same time. To some extent, I found the mother even more awful than the guys he was hanging out with.

[Marilyn]

She really was awful. In a way she seemed to personify the attitude of the whole "normal" society...self-absorbed and shallow, yet so self-righteous because she fed and housed this poor creature she brought into the world. But she gave him nothing else.

[Gerhard]

Marilyn wrote: "She really was awful. In a way she seemed to personify the attitude of the whole "normal" society...self-absorbed and shallow, yet so self-righteous because she fed and housed this poor creature s..."

Definitely. And how she wanted nothing to do with him after his conviction. For me the saddest part was how his truest emotional link -- apart from the bloody pet iguana -- remained his mother, and how he hankered to return to her good graces.

[Marilyn]

And could Banks have picked a less lovable pet than an iguana? That sharply illustrated how starved the Kid was for someone to love.

[Gerhard]

Marilyn wrote: "And could Banks have picked a less lovable pet than an iguana? That sharply illustrated how starved the Kid was for someone to love."

I found the iguana really creepy, especially all the clinical detail about its breeding cycle. But after the raid when the Kid finds it dead -- that was quite heartbreaking. As I recall, near the end the character of the Writer equates the iguana with the Serpent in the Garden of Good and Evil, which I thought a bit heavy-handed.

[Bda31175]

Gerhard wrote: "I have just finished reading it, my first Russell Banks. There are two distinct aspects to the book: the dehumanising impact of technology / the Internet, and the legislation, classification and re..."

I agree that Banks' leaves little to interpretation with the questions he feels need to be posed. The explanations of character motives are also diagramed with almost clerical efficiency. That kind of didaticism runs the risk of heavy handed imagery and plotting. But given the thorny subject matter, I welcomed the structured proposals and clear arguments if only for the fact that the alternative, a non-committal exploration of the age of post-privacy through the lens of the national sex registry, would have been a really difficult read. The book stakes its claim in taboo territory and I believe that it benefits from the fact that the statements made therein are clear.

[Bill]

This is the closest thing to satire I've seen come from this author, and I loved it. Made me laugh out loud at times.

He makes a controversial and troubling point about what the future holds for a society where people are intimate online more than they are in person.

[Taryn]

especially with the rather baffling character of the Professor, whose own story is so much larger-than-life that it detracts from that of the main protagonist (or anti-protagonist?), the Kid.

Complete agree with this statement! There was so much more to the professor character that I feel the author lost his direction with this. Sections of the story became so embroiled with him that I started to forget what the novel was about.

Once completing the book, I was reminded of the Seinfeld series ending where the last episode ends with the beginning of the first. There is conflict with no real resolution.

[Marcy]

Bill wrote: "This is the closest thing to satire I've seen come from this author, and I loved it. Made me laugh out loud at times.


Satire?? Laugh?? I thoguht this book, strange tho it was in ways, said a lot that needs to be addressed regarding pedophilia, sex laws, and whether or not a young guy who accepts a girl's invitation to come over and "have fun" deserves to be treated like a criminal. The attitude in this country towards this topic is tunnel-vision and knee-jerk.

For ex, some People felt bad when they started liking The Kid! Why is that? Bc he is a "sex offender". Well, I believe Banks DID want us to sympathize with him so we'd look at this issue from a new perspective instead of the tired old BS that every kind of sex offender is the same, a dangerous child-molesting criminal. Read the review I wrote at the time I read it: http://marsheiner.wordpress.com/book-...

[Silverpiper]

Marcy wrote: "Bill wrote: "This is the closest thing to satire I've seen come from this author, and I loved it. Made me laugh out loud at times.


Satire?? Laugh?? I thoguht this book, strange tho it was in ways..."
So true Marcy.
will read your review asap.

[Marcy]

Thanks.

I have an irrelevant question: can anyone explain how on earth GR knows what I have read, besides my lists, and how they post all the book discussions I'm interested in on my page?