In the more powerful tales, Mr. Banks uses his sturdy gifts as a writer—his plain-spoken language, his sympathy for the downtrodden and depressed, his eye for detail…to give us visceral portraits of people trying to make sense of the past and the present.
The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
Banks is a master of the kind of old-school, unadorned realism that hasn't really been the fashion in short stories since the days of Raymond Carver. But here he executes it with a psychological precision that would be the envy of any of the latter-day fabulists or word-drunk genre-benders currently in vogue. And while most of these stories cleave to his signature plain-spoken aesthetic, there's still room in this sly collection for a few surprises, including a grisly, satiric parable called "Blue." I won't give away any details, but I will say that after reading it, you may never set foot in a used-car lot again.
The New York Times Book Review - Gary Krist
09/09/2013
Banks is a master of the kind of old-school, unadorned realism that hasn’t really been the fashion in short stories since the days of Raymond Carver. — New York Times Book Review
“Mr. Banks uses his sturdy gifts as a writer — his plain-spoken language, his sympathy for the downtrodden and depressed, his eye for detail (those unstrapped shoes, flipped off Ellen’s feet) — to give us visceral portraits of people trying to make sense of the past and the present.” — New York Times
“It’s a gift to experience such expertly evoked pathos, to see how Banks meticulously picks out and exposes the strands of his characters’ muddled and suppressed feelings.” — Boston Globe
“[T]he writing rings with the weight of decisions made in constrained circumstances, decisions that become more moving because of how common they are… There’s a reflective quality, a sense of choices made, of consequence, in which redemption and resignation may be two sides of the same coin.” — Los Angeles Times
“Old-fashioned short fiction: honest, probing and moving.” — Kirkus Reviews
“[O]ne of the best books I’ve read in years” — Real Simple magazine
“While these exquisitely crafted stories are highly personal, they are also permeated by a sense of sadness about the death of the American dream, as the country struggles, out of work and seemingly out of hope.” — Publishers Weekly
A resounding collection by an essential American writer. — Booklist
“…an exceptionally well-written, engaging, unified collection” — New York Journal of Books
“…Banks’s short fiction is relentlessly realistic, never cynical, and always attentive to the human condition.” — Shelf Awareness
“These characters are all broken in wonderfully literary ways (’When a terrible thing happens, and it’s your own damn fault, there’s no closure, he thought. Whatever happened, you live with it.’) but Banks is primarily concerned with telling a good story, and the pages fly by.” — Daily Beast
“His prose is strong and meaty - high in content, low in pretension - and he’s a dab hand at credible dialogue.” — Financial Times
“Banks uses simple language to reveal complex despair in characters you’ll recognize from the coffee shop nearest you.” — People
“Unlike many short stories, Banks tells gratifying, sewed-up tales. Readers may be left wanting more from the characters he creates, but he doesn’t leave his stories unraveled. True to form, he ties them up, not neatly, but thoroughly and satisfyingly.” — Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
“All of these are good, strong, perceptive stories about individuals trying to make connections or find comfort in a world where they feel neither necessary nor desired.” — Chicago Tribune
“[V]irtually all are remarkable sharp-focus snapshots of the giddy whirl and tragicomedy of modern-day American life.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“[T]hese stories are straightforward, honest accounts of lives in moments of small change, poignant and gorgeous and nearly heartbreaking in their understatement.” — Oregonian
“Difficult to put down and even more difficult to forget.” — Roanoke Times
“The discoveries made by most of the other characters in this collection remain, by contrast, rather dark. But taken together, these stories comprise a richly composed tribute to life.” — NPR (All Things Considered)
It’s a gift to experience such expertly evoked pathos, to see how Banks meticulously picks out and exposes the strands of his characters’ muddled and suppressed feelings.
Mr. Banks uses his sturdy gifts as a writer — his plain-spoken language, his sympathy for the downtrodden and depressed, his eye for detail (those unstrapped shoes, flipped off Ellen’s feet) — to give us visceral portraits of people trying to make sense of the past and the present.
…Banks’s short fiction is relentlessly realistic, never cynical, and always attentive to the human condition.
…an exceptionally well-written, engaging, unified collection
New York Journal of Books
A resounding collection by an essential American writer.
Banks is a master of the kind of old-school, unadorned realism that hasn’t really been the fashion in short stories since the days of Raymond Carver.
New York Times Book Review
[O]ne of the best books I’ve read in years
These characters are all broken in wonderfully literary ways (’When a terrible thing happens, and it’s your own damn fault, there’s no closure, he thought. Whatever happened, you live with it.’) but Banks is primarily concerned with telling a good story, and the pages fly by.
A resounding collection by an essential American writer.
[T]he writing rings with the weight of decisions made in constrained circumstances, decisions that become more moving because of how common they are… There’s a reflective quality, a sense of choices made, of consequence, in which redemption and resignation may be two sides of the same coin.
[V]irtually all are remarkable sharp-focus snapshots of the giddy whirl and tragicomedy of modern-day American life.
[T]hese stories are straightforward, honest accounts of lives in moments of small change, poignant and gorgeous and nearly heartbreaking in their understatement.
Difficult to put down and even more difficult to forget.
All of these are good, strong, perceptive stories about individuals trying to make connections or find comfort in a world where they feel neither necessary nor desired.
Unlike many short stories, Banks tells gratifying, sewed-up tales. Readers may be left wanting more from the characters he creates, but he doesn’t leave his stories unraveled. True to form, he ties them up, not neatly, but thoroughly and satisfyingly.
Banks uses simple language to reveal complex despair in characters you’ll recognize from the coffee shop nearest you.
His prose is strong and meaty - high in content, low in pretension - and he’s a dab hand at credible dialogue.
The discoveries made by most of the other characters in this collection remain, by contrast, rather dark. But taken together, these stories comprise a richly composed tribute to life.
NPR (All Things Considered)
His prose is strong and meaty - high in content, low in pretension - and he’s a dab hand at credible dialogue.
All of these are good, strong, perceptive stories about individuals trying to make connections or find comfort in a world where they feel neither necessary nor desired.
[T]he writing rings with the weight of decisions made in constrained circumstances, decisions that become more moving because of how common they are… There’s a reflective quality, a sense of choices made, of consequence, in which redemption and resignation may be two sides of the same coin.
[T]hese stories are straightforward, honest accounts of lives in moments of small change, poignant and gorgeous and nearly heartbreaking in their understatement.
Unlike many short stories, Banks tells gratifying, sewed-up tales. Readers may be left wanting more from the characters he creates, but he doesn’t leave his stories unraveled. True to form, he ties them up, not neatly, but thoroughly and satisfyingly.
[O]ne of the best books I’ve read in years
Who better to narrate these riveting stories by Russell Banks than these three skilled performers? Banks can be startling with his often surprising endings and bleak portraits of people and places, but there’s such beauty in this stark realism. Danny Campbell, Andrus Nichols, and Robin Miles are each comfortable with these edgy narratives, and their collective delivery is appropriately grounded in realism. While each narrator has an “everyman” quality to his or her voice, the drama that unfolds in each story transcends the ordinary to inspire thoughtfulness in any listener. Each story deserves more of a pause at its ending before another begins, but this is a minor issue in an outstanding collection. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2013 - AudioFile
Who better to narrate these riveting stories by Russell Banks than these three skilled performers? Banks can be startling with his often surprising endings and bleak portraits of people and places, but there’s such beauty in this stark realism. Danny Campbell, Andrus Nichols, and Robin Miles are each comfortable with these edgy narratives, and their collective delivery is appropriately grounded in realism. While each narrator has an “everyman” quality to his or her voice, the drama that unfolds in each story transcends the ordinary to inspire thoughtfulness in any listener. Each story deserves more of a pause at its ending before another begins, but this is a minor issue in an outstanding collection. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2013 - AudioFile
2013-09-15Lost Memory of Skin, 2011, etc.) also writes excellent stories, as his sixth collection reminds readers. Don't expect atmospheric mood poems or avant-garde stylistic games in these dozen tales. Banks is a traditionalist, interested in narrative and character development; his simple, flexible prose doesn't call attention to itself as it serves those aims. The intricate, not necessarily permanent bonds of family are a central concern. The bleak, stoic "Former Marine" depicts an aging father driven to extremes because he's too proud to admit to his adult sons that he can no longer take care of himself. In the heartbreaking title story, the death of a beloved dog signals the final rupture in a family already rent by divorce. Fraught marriages in all their variety are unsparingly scrutinized in "Christmas Party," Big Dog" and "The Outer Banks." But as the collection moves along, interactions with strangers begin to occupy center stage. The protagonist of "The Invisible Parrot" transcends the anxieties of his hard-pressed life through an impromptu act of generosity to a junkie. A man waiting in an airport bar is the uneasy recipient of confidences about "Searching for Veronica" from a woman whose truthfulness and motives he begins to suspect, until he flees since "the only safe response is to quarantine yourself." Lurking menace that erupts into violence features in many Banks novels, and here, it provides jarring climaxes to two otherwise solid stories, "Blue" and "The Green Door." Yet Banks quietly conveys compassion for even the darkest of his characters. Many of them (like their author) are older, at a point in life where options narrow and the future is uncomfortably close at hand--which is why widowed Isabel's fearless shucking of her confining past is so exhilarating in "SnowBirds," albeit counterbalanced by her friend Jane's bleak acceptance of her own limited prospects. Old-fashioned short fiction: honest, probing and moving.
