Suspense Set in the 1930s
I found the perfect book to get me through the rainy winter doldrums now that the hype of the Oscar season is over. So you've already read the books that inspired the Academy Award winners - No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy; Oil! (the basis for There Will Be Blood) by Upton Sinclair; Atonement by Ian McEwan; Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi; and listened to Edith Piaf CDs as well as the soundtrack to Once. Maybe it's time for another literary drama that is just begging to be made into a movie. (And this author's books have made that successful transition before. . .) Here's a high-flying (literally) suspense in the vein of The Aviator about Howard Hughes, including wealthy financiers, impetuous and stylish artists, murder, intrigue, and illicit affairs.
Russell Banks spends some time setting the stage in his new book, The Reserve, and takes a bit longer to achieve the drama of some his earlier books - Cloudsplitter, about John Brown's revolutionary zeal, or The Sweet Hereafter, about a court case that overwhelmed the families in a small town after a deadly school bus crash, but the intrigue and the emotional entanglements for which he has become known still draw a reader in and hold attention.
The action takes place in a remote Adirondack retreat for wealthy socialites, financiers, and industrialists. The class element of those who rest and the local people who work for them is clearly defined from the outset. An heiress - beautiful, intelligent, scandal-provoking, impetuous - Vanessa Cole; her mother, Evelyn, who naturally questions her judgment and her behavior; a local adventurer, WWI pilot, and artist Jordan Groves and his artist and naturalist wife Alicia; and a local hunting and fishing guide Hubert St. Germain.
So The Reserve does have these questionable cinematic-style stock elements, putting it on the dangerous edge of being a thriller or a romance, but Mr. Banks merely uses them to engage the reader and then elaborates the characters enough to get to the critical climaxes of the book. He manages to skirt a line of treacle to explore the complex motivations and faulty decisions of the characters. Ultimately in question are marital and familial fidelity, artistic integrity, whether loyalty to self is at the expense or to the benefit of personal relationships, and how much emotion helps or hurts in making these decisions. Is anyone ever exempt from emotion in trying to make clear-headed decisions? Banks is not quite Ian McEwan in style or in exploring the labyrinth of the human heart, but he is a companionable guide to the human condition.
The Reserve (HarperCollins, 9780061430251) is $24.95, now on sale until Sunday for $18.71 during our Leap Year 25% off sale!
- Andrew
Russell Banks spends some time setting the stage in his new book, The Reserve, and takes a bit longer to achieve the drama of some his earlier books - Cloudsplitter, about John Brown's revolutionary zeal, or The Sweet Hereafter, about a court case that overwhelmed the families in a small town after a deadly school bus crash, but the intrigue and the emotional entanglements for which he has become known still draw a reader in and hold attention. The action takes place in a remote Adirondack retreat for wealthy socialites, financiers, and industrialists. The class element of those who rest and the local people who work for them is clearly defined from the outset. An heiress - beautiful, intelligent, scandal-provoking, impetuous - Vanessa Cole; her mother, Evelyn, who naturally questions her judgment and her behavior; a local adventurer, WWI pilot, and artist Jordan Groves and his artist and naturalist wife Alicia; and a local hunting and fishing guide Hubert St. Germain.
So The Reserve does have these questionable cinematic-style stock elements, putting it on the dangerous edge of being a thriller or a romance, but Mr. Banks merely uses them to engage the reader and then elaborates the characters enough to get to the critical climaxes of the book. He manages to skirt a line of treacle to explore the complex motivations and faulty decisions of the characters. Ultimately in question are marital and familial fidelity, artistic integrity, whether loyalty to self is at the expense or to the benefit of personal relationships, and how much emotion helps or hurts in making these decisions. Is anyone ever exempt from emotion in trying to make clear-headed decisions? Banks is not quite Ian McEwan in style or in exploring the labyrinth of the human heart, but he is a companionable guide to the human condition.
The Reserve (HarperCollins, 9780061430251) is $24.95, now on sale until Sunday for $18.71 during our Leap Year 25% off sale!
- Andrew
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