Russell Banks Summary

"No modern author writes more perceptively about ordinary men's stumbling quest for the American grail of material comfort and self-respect," remarked Salon.com contributor Cynthia Joyce regarding the... Read more

Russell Banks has been publishing innovative fiction for more than twenty-five years, gaining praise from critics for his short stories and novels. Although he is primarily a realist, he has experimen... Read more

In the following review, Binding praises Banks's insight and sense of mercy in the stories collected in The Angel on the Roof, comparing Banks to Raymond Carver. “It's true of ... Read more

In the following essay, Leckie investigates how the narrative minimalism of Banks's short story “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat” functions to explore issues of cu... Read more

In the following review, Yardley contends that Trailerpark “is an odd, quirky book that offers satisfactions different from those provided by the conventional, or even unconventional, novel.&#x... Read more

In the following review, Eder provides a positive assessment of Success Stories. Quite steadily, and often powerfully, Russell Banks has been devising fictional varieties of the “this is poi... Read more

In the following essay, Fonseca offers a mixed review of Success Stories. Russell Banks's novel Continental Drift, published in the UK last year (TLS, October 25, 1985), traces the fate of t... Read more

In the following essay, Niemi categorizes the stories comprising Searching for Survivors and surveys the major themes of the collection. Nobody had enough imagination. —John Barth, ... Read more