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A Permanent Member of the Family

A Permanent Member of the Family

by RussellBanks (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2013

    $3.29
Synopsis

One of America's most prestigious writers, Russell Banks is a literary icon whose works probe the deepest recesses of American life. His profound and resonant stories of the lives of ordinary Americans have appeared regularly in anthologies and collections, including The Best American Short Stories. Reminiscent of Don DeLillo and Raymond Carver, this collection of twelve short works showcases a master at the peak of his intuitive powers. As he did in his haunting, classic works The Sweet Hereafter, Rule of the Bone and Lost Memory of Skin, Banks explores provocative themes with pathos and sharp insight. Each of the stories in this powerful collection demonstrates the range of his narrative virtuosity and a startlingly panoramic vision of humanity which recalls the moral sweep of John Steinbeck's writing. A Permanent Member of the Family is a stunning addition to the canon of a writer 'whose great works resonate with such heart and soul' (New York Times).

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 256
 Edition: Main
 Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 07 Nov 2013
ISBN 10: 1846689694
ISBN 13: 9781846689697
Book Overview: The first story collection in a decade from the great Russell Banks

Media Reviews
Of the many writers working in the great tradition today, one of the best is Russell Banks -- Jonathan Franzen
Banks is one of those precious writers like Twain or Salinger who creates a voice so wonderfully real that the experience of reading them is like a conversation with an old friend * Sunday Times *
If you've never read Russell Banks it's time you acquired the habit -- Elmore Leonard
Russell Banks's work presents without falsehood and with tough affection the uncompromising moral voice of our time ... I trust his portraits of America more than any other - the burden of it, the need for it, the hell of it. -- Michael Ondaatje
A living master at the height of his powers. -- Jennifer Haigh
. Praise for The Lost Memory of Skin: Electrifying * Sunday Times *
Destined to be a canonical novel of its time ... it delivers another of Banks's wrenching, panoramic visions of American moral life, and this one very particular to the early 21st century ... Banks, whose great works resonate with such heart and soul, brings his full narrative powers to bear. -- Janet Maslin * New York Times *
Banks's enormous gamble in both plot and character pays off handsomely ... By the end, Kafka is rubbing elbows with Robert Ludlum, and Banks has mounted a thrilling defense of the novel's place in contemporary culture. * New Yorker *
Russell Banks tackles hard subjects with verve and courage -- Margaret Atwood
Like our living literary giants Toni Morrison and Thomas Pynchon, Russell Banks is a great writer wrestling with the hidden secrets and explosive realities of this country. -- Cornel West
His boldest imaginative leap yet into the invisible margins of society ... Lost Memory of Skin is a haunting book. * Wall Street Journal *
Among contemporary writers giving voice to America's beleaguered working class, Russell Banks may have no peer ... [a] beautifully crafted novel * San Francisco Chronicle *
Russell Banks really does know how to pull his readers into a dark, dark world only to deliver us into the light. * Boston Globe *
Lost Memory of Skin should be required reading for anyone interested in fixing the country's broken criminal justice system ... Banks, in his latest novel, takes an unflinching look at people at their worst and manages to turn it into art. * Associated Press *
Banks is a master of peeling back the veneer to show us for the desperate creatures we are, no more so than in his fearless Lost Memory of Skin...[Banks] writes here with a combination of compassion and outrage ... a compelling read and an indictment of our age. * Miami Herald *
A compelling story ... one of those rare, strange, category-defying fictions that grabs hold of you ... It's hard to shake it off. And even when you do, it leaves a mark. * Chicago Tribune *
One of America's greatest writers * Esquire *
Banks remains a master. -- Nicholas Barber * Sunday Express *
This is a collection to shout about. It is one of the best books published this year... Exactly how good a writer is Russell Banks? How about wonderful? -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *
It's hard to resist the power of such clear and bracingly honest writing. -- Simon Ewing * The List *
Each story has the ripe, full-blooded power of a vintage William Trevor tale...A short story collection that ranks highly among the books we have read this year - and a short story collection that might well be the short story collection of 2013 -- Peter Wild * Bookmunch.wordpress.com *
Russell takes all his characters and his stories in such unexpected directions that we start to see loss in a different way. -- Christena Appleyard * Daily Mail *
Banks is excellent at imbuing short sentences with real heft, and there's an emotional weight that pervades the collection. * Sunday Business Post *
These stories show us an America we don't see as often as we should: down on its luck, but sympathetic and dignified. -- Joanna Biggs * Sunday Times *
Author Bio
Russell Banks is 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 has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He lives in upstate New York and Miami, Florida.