Overview

An Omnibus Edition of Three Classic Early Novels from the Critically Acclaimed Author of Cloudsplitter and Affliction ""Banks has skillfully used his repertoire of contemporary techniques to write a novel that is classically American--a dark, but sometimes funny, romance with echoes of Poe and Melville."" -- Washington Post ""A marvelously written little book, fascinatingly intricate, yet deceptively simple. Well worth reading more than once."" -- New York Times Book Review Family Life: Russell Banks's first novel is an adult fairy tale of a royal family in a mythical contemporary kingdom where the myriad dramas of domesticity blend with an outrageous slew of murders, mayhem, coups, debauches, world tours, and love in all guises, transcendent or otherwise. Hamilton Stark: This tale of a solitary, boorish, misanthropic New Hampshire pipe fitter--the sole inhabitant of the house from which he evicted his own mother--is at once a compelling meditation on identity and a thoroughly engaging story of life on the cold edge of New England. The Relation of My Imprisonment: Utilizing a form invented by imprisoned seventeenth-century Puritan divines--an utterly sincere and detailed, if highly artificial, recounting of great suffering--Banks's novel is a remarkably inventive, lovingly good-humored argument, exploration, and map of the caged religious mind.

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9780060976804

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Reviews

This is a marvelously written little book, fascinatingly intricate, yet deceptively simple. Well worth reading more than once. --New York Times Book Review

A marvelously written little book, fascinatingly intricate, yet deceptively simple. Well worth reading more than once. -- New York Times Book Review Witty and profound. . . Russell Bank's tale of a jailed coffin-maker is a small but marvelous addition to the gallery of trapped minds. -- Washington Post Book World Stunning and original. . . . Russell Banks's most sustained, intricate, and impressive work to date. -- Chicago Sun-Times A success. . . . Ironic, melancholy, and haunting. -- Newsweek Banks has skillfully used his repertoire of contemporary techniques to write a novel that is classically American--a dark, but sometimes funny, romance with echoes of Poe and Melville. -- Washington Post

"""A marvelously written little book, fascinatingly intricate, yet deceptively simple. Well worth reading more than once."" -- New York Times Book Review ""Witty and profound. . . Russell Bank's tale of a jailed coffin-maker is a small but marvelous addition to the gallery of trapped minds."" -- Washington Post Book World ""Stunning and original. . . . Russell Banks's most sustained, intricate, and impressive work to date."" -- Chicago Sun-Times ""A success. . . . Ironic, melancholy, and haunting."" -- Newsweek ""Banks has skillfully used his repertoire of contemporary techniques to write a novel that is classically American--a dark, but sometimes funny, romance with echoes of Poe and Melville."" -- Washington Post"

Author Information

Russell Banks, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, was one of America's most prestigious fiction writers, a past president 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 he received numerous prizes and awards, including the Common Wealth Award for Literature. He died in January 2023 at the age of eighty-two.

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