Continental Drift, Russell Banks.
It is hard for me to choose between AFFLICTION and CONTINENTAL DRIFT as
my favorite novel by Russell Banks. But I am going with this one today.
You may have seen the filmed version of AFFLICTION, a tremendous film
with Nick Nolte and James Coburn.
Bob Dubois is a furnace repairman in a blue-collar town in New
Hampshire, a state the American Dream has bypassed. Although Bob has a
wife, three kids and a steady, if low-paying job, he is persuaded to
look for a better life in Miami by his brother.
Bob is a good man although not a smart one. The sixties has persuaded
him that there is something better out there. That it is foolish to be
satisfied with a meager living in a depressed town.
Another character is also seeking a better life in Miami. A female
Haitian refuge, who truly does need asylum and comes to the U.S. in a
perilous manner. These two lives intersect in a Florida that is the
antithesis of paradise, both characters suffering tragedy. This is not a
happy book or one to escape into, but it is one that presents
characters and situations that seem real and compelling.
Friday, December 20, 2024
FFB: CONTINENTAL DRIFT, Russell Banks
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4 comments:
I have always wanted to read this one, but somehow it hasn't happened. It just seemed too depressing at the time. I do remember the movie of AFFLICTION, which was well done but a real downer.
That's the thing, Patti; these characters seem real and seem relevant. Their stories happen, and that's what makes this one seem compelling to me.
Right, Margot. If it gets it right, I get so much out of it. I read many book that entertain me but also enjoy reading about the human condition. They allow me to bond with characters that have had the ups and downs I have had.
Well. I lived in New Hampshire in '76-'79...in a town, Londonderry, that was growing at some ridiculous rate, with tax/rent refugees from the Boston area flooding in. A whole lot of junior/senior high jerks to contend with, sadly, so I don't know how much better their parents and older siblings were. (New England in my experience, '69-'79, in MA, CT, and NH, was (I'm sure I've mentioned this before) a Whole Lot of people raised to hate themselves and take that out on as many people around them as they possibly could. Therefore, during any sluggishness of the mid-'70s free-floating despair reflected in the fiction, particularly those who resented "Massholes" invading to live or to "summer"...
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