Find A Permanent Member Of The Family Authored By Russell Banks Rendered As Textbook

like Russell Banks a lot and I like short stories a lot and I liked this book a lot, I thought the first stories in this book were sensitive and touching but gradually the stories got a little rougher and finally were in some pretty tough territory, But the writing was uniformly very good, Just some that I appreciated more than others, And thats always the story with a collection of short stories! Mea culpa : je n'avais encore rien lu de Russell Banks, Je me lancerai sans doute dans une autre oeuvre cet été,

Si vous avez des idées suicidaires, ce livre vous fera passer à l'acte, Noir, noire, noir. Et déprimant. Douze nouvelles, douze tranches de vie américaines déprimantes, De l'exmarines voleur et à cette Noire éviscérée par un pitbull ou ce fondamentaliste chrétien à la recherche de satisfactions perverses, jamais l'humanité n'aura paru atteindre avec autant de puissance le fond du baril des âmes perdues.
Troublant de vérité.

Pourtant, l'écriture est si fine et complexe, Au travers les nouvelles, l'auteur passe du présent au passé, de la première personne à la troisième mais toujours avec ce désengagement intime envers les personnages.


Trois étoiles plutôt que quatre car les nouvelles ne sont pas toutes de la même qualité,

Oui, je relirai Russell Banks,
The characters in Russell Banks' stories are suffering with quiet desperation, their needs and desires capitulated to circumstances beyond their control divorce, abandonment or the tacit resignation of middle age where certain realities are no longer escapable.
His stories are vignettes of smalltown life where the complicated realities of people's lives are masked by the simplicity of their surroundings, making their actions all the more surprisingin "Christmas Party," a man's exwife adopts an Ethiopian infant in a small, Upstate NY town in "Former Marine," a destitute man finds creative ways to get money that belie his strict adherence to military principles.
The subject matter isn't pretty or cheerful, but, than again, neither is real life, I appreciate authors who can write about dog and human deaths in a way that doesn't compel me to blow my brains out,

Though the blurb on the book jacket describes this book as being about family relationships and how we see ourselves in the context of others and some other vague nonsense, I don't think that's what it's about at all.
It's a catalog of the shortcomings and compromises made in the context of relationships and how these decisions may alter the course of our lives, In "Lost and Found," a man struggles with the decision he made not to have an affair, though he is unhappily married, In "Blue," a woman sacrifices her whole life for others, until finally she has enough money to purchase a car, but she's put in a dangerous situation before she can make a decision.


Some of the realities laid bare in these stories are depressing, sad, even heartbreaking, more so, perhaps, because the characters are at a point in their lives when things are unlikely to change.
At times it was almost too painful to contemplate, But, like most good writing, it forces the reader to reevaluate what they think they know about life, I have long been an admirer or Russell Banks' work, This collection of short stories is excellent and many of them kept me riveted for the duration, The collection consists of twelve stories, most of them about the families we have and the families we make, Others are about the figments of truth that make up our experiences while we decide what is worth believing and what is not, The stories take place in different geographic settings from Florida to upstate New York to Portland, Oregon,

There are a few that are my favorites and will stay with me for a long while, One of the ones I loved was 'Former Marine', Connie is a former Marine who raised his three sons by himself after his wife deserted the family, He is now without work, "Let go. Like he was a heliumfilled balloon on a string, he tells people, " What he always wanted was to be able to take care of himself and his family "because you're never an exfather, any more than you're an exMarine, " Desperate times require desperate measures,

In 'Permanent Family', a family dog holds the memory of permanence and stability intact after a divorce, She was "the last remaining link to our preseparationto a time of relative innocence, when all of us, but especially the girls, still believed in the permanence of our family unit, our pack.
"

'Big Dog' is about Erik's winning a MacArthur genius award for his giant art installations of kitchens and bathrooms, He is told not to tell anyone about the award until it is formally announced, However, at a dinner party that night with close friends, he spills the news, What occurs is far from what he expected,

'Blue' is my favorite story in the collection, Ventana Robertson has saved up,to buy a used car, She arrives at the car lot atp, m. They close at:. Forgetting Ventana is still in the lot, the salesmen lock up the fenced yard, Ventana finds herself locked in with a vicious pit bull on her scent, She scrambles on top of a car to get away from him, What happens that night is heartstopping,

I also loved 'Searching for Veronica', a story that takes place in a bar in the Portland Airport, Russell sits down in the airport bar and Dorothy, a woman he doesn't know, proceeds to tell him the story of Veronica, a drugaddicted young woman who once lived with her and her daughter Helene many years ago.
Dorothy had to kick Veronica out because of her drug use and now thinks that she is dead, Consequently, she visits the morgue every time an unidentified female body shows up, Is the story true or is it something that's been manufactured by an addled mind

Several of the stories deal with the obtuse meanings of truth and what exactly is happening.
There are narratives that come out of addiction, some that are about starting a new life, and others that result from finding oneself a witness to a horrific deed.
All of these push the meaning of truth to the limit, Additionally, there is almost always a picture of family, of one sort or another, that governs these tales,

Banks has a wonderful way with words and the stories, which can be dark, are often balanced with humor or questioning, I found this book one of the best short story collections I have read this year, I highly recommend it. A masterly collection of new stories from Russell Banks, acclaimed author of The Sweet Hereafter and Rule of the Bone, which maps the complex terrain of the modern American family

The New York Times lauds Russell Banks as "the most compassionate fiction writer working today" and hails him as a novelist who delivers "wrenching, panoramic visions of American moral life.
" Long celebrated for his unflinching, empathetic works that explore the unspoken but hard realities of contemporary culture, Banks now turns his keen intelligence and emotional acuity on perhaps his most complex subject yet: the shape of family in its many forms.


Suffused with Banks's trademark lyricism and reckless humor, the twelve stories in A Permanent Member of the Family examine the myriad ways we tryand sometimes failto connect with one another, as we seek a home in the world.
In the title story, a father looks back on the legend of the cherished family dog whose divided loyalties mirrored the fragmenting of his marriage, In "Christmas Party," a young man entertains dark thoughts as he watches his newly remarried exwife leading the life he once imagined they would share, "A Former Marine" asks, to chilling effect, if one can ever stop being a parent, And in the haunting, evocative "Veronica," a mysterious woman searching for her missing daughter may not be who she claims she is,

Moving between the stark beauty of winter in upstate New York and the seductive heat of Florida, A Permanent Member of the Family charts with subtlety and precision the ebb and flow of both the families we make for ourselves and the ones we're born into, as it asks how we know the ones we love and, in turn, ourselves.
One of our most acute and penetrating authors, Banks's virtuosic writing animates stories that are profoundly humane, deeplyand darklyfunny, and absolutely unforgettable,

Russell Banks is 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 has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, He lives in upstate New York and Miami, Florida, I really like reading short storiesthe characters, scene and plot have to be captured so quickly and the mood set immediately, These were great even when or especially when the endings were what whatabrupt and surprising,

Scoreboard: Doggies, People, No cats seemed to be harmed in any stories,

Happy relationships:Sad/finished relationships:

I have no idea what the blue egg in the nest on the cover means, but I have an ARC so maybe that will change.
No birds were harmed either,

While this author has written many things, this was my first time reading a collection of his short stories, While from a technical standpoint, Banks is talented, His voice is unique. And his characters thoughtfully fleshed out, They flow. And the stories are compelling, Most of the time I felt like I was eavesdropping or witnessing something I shouldnt, Every single story, and there are, is some sort of tragic, awful portrayal of moral dilemmas set in the mundane everyday lives of ordinary people, But misery abounds in this book, Suicides. Sudden death. Dog attacks. More than one death of a beloved pet, The list goes on. Itspages of a train wreck, Russell Banks short stories dont rely on fireworks and bells and whistles theres no hint of postmodernism or genre bending in them, Theyre deceptively simple and straightforwardeven dispassionate in tone, Yet in many ways, they are morally complex certainly, they pack a wallop,

Most of them focus on men of a certain age timetested, timebroken men who have struggled through broken dreams and damaged relationships,

In the eponymous story the story of a postdivorce family the aging dog is the last tenuous link to the two families, “None of us knew that she was helping us postpone our anger and need for blame blame for the separation and divorce, or the destruction of the family unit, for our lost innocence.
”

In Christmas Party, a cuckolded husband attends the holiday party of his exwife and her new husband and discovers that their veneer of amiability is strained during the time of good cheer.
The story Snowbirds begins with the death of Isabels spouse George her good friend Jane flies down to Florida to comfort her, Yet Isabel is in scant need of comforting and the focus shifts to Jane herself, “It made Jane believe for a moment that she could be fearless, as fearless as Isabel, that she could be reborn as someone else, as someone unformed, and that, like Isabel, she could become an adolescent girl again.
”

Lost and Found is a beautifullycrafted story about a middle aged man, lonely in his marriage, who teetered on the brink of infidelity and “didnt want to remember what I lost that night.
And what I found. ” The satiric story Blue set in a usedcar lot is different type of story with shades of Stephen King, And the final story, Green Door, is a more complex tale about postponing desires, cultivating fantasies, and ultimately realizing that what we want isnt necessarily what we get,

A Permanent Member of the Family is proof positive that short stories can shine through sharp insights, provocative themes, and a laser focus on alienated individuals yearning for understanding and connection.
Its another triumph for Russell Banks,
I received this book courtesy of Goodreads First Reads,

I adored this book of simple, elegant vignettes, The writing is simplistic, but never fails to tell the reader what needs to be said, The simple writing worked with these stories because it left so much up for audience interpretation,

Every story begins by throwing the reader headfirst into the character's life directly before an important life event, Things may seem bland and normal at first, but the story moves from a slow simmer of tension into the climax, Often, I was physically uncomfortable as a seemingly normal scene slowly and skillfully progressed into a release of pent up emotions, Just as the reader begins to feel as if they are grasping the situation, the author abruptly throws you out and ends the story, I lingered for a few minutes to think about what had just occurred after every story,

Something else I really loved about this short story collection was that it was loosely connected through themes of family and pentup desire, You can easily move from story to story because of the feeling of cohesion between them,

Pick this book up, I'm excited to check out more of Banks' work, Depressing. He's a talented writer, but way, way, way too depressing the dreary suburban settings, the lives plagued with loss, the moribund futures of his characters, The quality of the prose shines through, but just way too mournful for me and I say that as a reflection on me more than a judgment upon the author if you' like literary fiction on the dark side, you will like this book.
Given the unsettled nature of the families in Russell Banks' dozen stories, the title of his sixth short story collection, A Permanent Member of the Family, might have a bit of an ironic aroma to it.
Marriage is, if anything, impermanent here, The title character in Former Marine had to raise his boys alone after their mother took off, Philandering, while not depicted, is noted as causative in the demise of several other relationships in the collection, And even when a marriage has not dissolved, it is often shown to be or to have been threadbare, There are a few stories where things marital are not seen, Blue, The Invisible Parrot, but the tendency is to the sorry state of home and hearth.
It is not surprising that marriage has such a central place in the author's work, His current marriage is his fourth,

all of us were fissioned atoms spun off nuclear families, seeking new, recombinant nuclei

Lines are drawn, and crossed, They separate before from after, denial from acceptance, uncertainty from realization, In Christmas Party, for example, a man is invited to the home of his ex and her husband for a party, and his underlying humiliation and rage must find an outlet before he can cross over from before to after.
A singular event in the title story defines the place where the stretching of connections snaps,


The Author from Wikimedia

The characters here often face moral choices, a favorite concern of Banks, Faced with financial stress in his old age, a Former Marine must make difficult decisions in order to be able to continue providing for his children, and later, in order to protect them.
In Lost and Found, a businessman at a convention is confronted with the time when he brought a woman who was not his wife to his hotel room, and the decision he faced then.
In Searching for Veronica, a woman confronts the guilt she felt for turning out of her home someone who was at great risk in the larger world.
The choices are never black and white,

Banks sets his stories largely in the upstate New York town of Keene, his current residence, near Lake Placid, and Florida, his other current residence, so his descriptions of place ring with authenticity.
He has a background as a politically concerned sort he tried joining Castros revolution, despite not knowing how to speak Spanish, but got no farther than Florida and his appreciation for the struggles faced by working people is never far.
He had a working class upbringing himself,

I think I inevitably end up feeling a special kind of sympathy for people whose lives are shaped and controlled and manipulated by people with more power than them.
from Harpers article

It is also pretty clear that he holds a less than fond opinion of the media, whether the whores are the media professionals or those who would use them to personal ends, as shown in Blue.


Banks has achieved a status as one of the top writers of his generation, with a dozen novels to his credit, including Continental Drift, Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter and sitelinkLost Memory of Skin.
A Permanent Member of the Family is his sixth collection of short stories, I found these tales to be extremely well told, There are ironic twists, as every writer of short stories must have at least a bit of O Henry DNA floating about, Banks won an O Henry award for his short story collection Searching for Survivors, A few did not grab me, seeming somewhat obscure commentary on writing per se, but most presented relatable characters confronting realworld choices, or repercussions, Banks has a gift for detail, without cluttering the place up with too much, His style is straight ahead storytelling with less of the lyrical description some other writers employ,

The work of a seasoned pro, A Permanent Member of the Family merits at least a temporary place with yours,


THE STORIES
Former Marine
Faced with the loss of his business and a need to support himself and help out his three sons, who far too conveniently are all in police work, a man takes to a life of crime.


A Permanent Member of the Family
A family pet does not go along with a splitting couples custody arrangements, An event regarding the pet defines where one family situation ends and another begins

Christmas Party
A man is invited to the Christmas party thrown by his ex and her husband, who are living the life he had hoped for.
What to do with the rage How to move on

Transplant
A recent heart transplant recipient is approached by the widow of the man whose heart he received, wanting to hear it beat one last time.
The heart may replace the one that stopped working, but cannot truly replace the one that was broken,

Snowbirds
While snowbirding in Florida, a womans husband dies, Instead of grief,

she appears to feel liberated, And when a friend offers to come help her with arrangements she finds something more,

Big Dog
Seems like it would be a cause for celebration when a sculptor is awarded a Macarthur Fellowship, but his wife and friends seem more resentful than anything else.


Blue
After saving for years to be able to by a car of her own, a black woman in Florida finds herself accidentally trapped in a used car lot after hours, beset by a watchful pit bull.


The Invisible Parrot
A young man in a local store tries to imagine the experience of others there, but imagination is not quite enough.
Is this the writer wondering about the ability of writers to imagine the experience of others

The Outer Banks
A retired couples dog has passed away while they are RVing about the country.
They stop at a beach in North Carolina to bury it,

Lost and Found
A man meets a woman he had almost slept with at a conference years before, When he comes across her again he looks back on that decision,

Searching for Veronica
A woman is fearful that a person she tossed out of her house some years back has come to a bad end.


The Green Door
A questionable character in a bar is looking for a place where he can get unusual entertainment, The bar tender directs him, but faces another decision about helping or not helping the man later,

first posted

This review is crossposted on sitelinkCootsreviews, com

EXTRA STUFF

From December,Harpers sitelink A Conversation with Russell Banks by Jesse Barron

A wideranging interview in the sitelinkParis

A sitelinkcritical review of his work up to

sitelinkBanks reads his story “The Moor” on This American Life inminutes long, from theminute mark in the program

A New York Times interview with BankssitelinkRussell Banks By the Book.