"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 American writer Russell Banks. The author of over a dozen works of fiction, Banks is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the O. Henry and Best American Short Story awards, the John Dos Passos Prize, and the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. One of the rare breed of literary authors to cross over into mainstream popularity, Banks has had two of his novels, Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, adapted for film. He is also the author of such acclaimed novels as Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter. Quoting the author Joseph Conrad, Banks told Paula Deimling in an interview for 2000 Writers Market: "I believe and have always believed that before all else I want my...