Sadly, the novel is not as farfetched as one may think...

books:

	• Rule of the Bone: A Novel Russell Banks HarperPerennial, 1996 - 390 pages average customer review:based on 203 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Ugly World, Beautiful Book

Rule of the Bone has been compared to J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, but if you're looking for a safe, lovable anti-hero, you've come to the wrong place. Chappie (aka 'Bone') is a tortured adolescent, lost in a place of parental neglect, sexual abuse, violence and self-destruction. With his compelling novel, Russell Banks creates a world of teenage angst, loneliness and drug abuse that's so believable it's scary, and his ear for 'teenage language' is dead on. His challenge in creating such a starkly depressing world is to provide hope to the reader. Banks does so by creating a protagonist that, despite a bevy of flaws, is vulnerable, likable and sympathetic, and in the end realizes that no matter how bad life gets, he's still in charge of his own destiny. Salmon Run

for more information click here

Deserves to be read

This book started off with an amazing amount of potential. The first half the book takes you into the dark life of a boy dealing with issues far more than any adolescent should ever have to deal with. It starts off as an interesting insight into this boy and the unique friends he meets along the way. It is in the second half of the book that it falters. A complete change of setting takes away from the story. Also, issues that arise near the end of the first half that should be further addressed are brought up, but they are never then again addressed. Overall, this book is a moving story of a boy trying to figure out how to get through life, but ultimately it does not live up to all it starts out to be. None the less, it deserves to be read.

for more information click here

Sadly, the novel is not as farfetched as one may think...

Russell Banks, I have concluded, is our greatest American writer still working today. His style, his dedication and his elegance is so fluent and precise that one cannot help but become entranced in his every word. There are few authors who can string one along so gallantly, even when his words are harsh to the touch. `Rule of the Bone' is no exception, for even when the novel is making missteps and grievous errors it is always an engaging and forgivable read. We cannot help but enjoy each and every page, no matter how sporadic the prose may start to feel.

The novel exposes the life of fourteen-year-old Chappie, a young and rebellious boy living with his abusive step-father and blinded mother (blinded in the essence that she ignores signs of abuse in order to keep a disastrous relationship). After making a series of random and immature decisions, Chappie finds himself homeless and this leads him to make another series of random and senseless decisions; like moving in with a group of reckless bikers or hitching up inside someone else's home with a friend while the family is on vacation. He continues to make one poor choice after another, but this all makes sense when we get a true grasp on who he really is. This poor young man is bleeding inside, just aching for some guidance, any guidance to make his life feel more meaningful.

That's when he meets I-Man, a Rastafarian who imparts wisdom that Chappie (now known as Bone) can really sink into. He follows I-Man to Jamaica where he finally finds himself, and his father, becoming the man (man/boy) he was meant to become.

The novel starts off incredibly strong. Like I've mentioned, Banks is probably the greatest working writer, and his graceful and detailed style is so effortlessly captivating. What I noticed about `Rule of the Bone' though, was that it was also very brisk. With `Affliction' and `The Sweet Hereafter' I found myself laboring almost over certain passages (especially in `Affliction') that seem to go on forever. He's an amazing writer, but he's not a typically `easy' one. `Bone' flows wonderfully though. I actually finished this a few days as apposed to a few weeks. The problem with `Rule of the Bone' is that it borders on the absurd at times (Banks was so intent on making Bone the anti-hero that he creates a world almost too preposterous for us to fully grasp) and so when Bone accompanies I-Man abroad we are somewhat left feeling disconnected, for his life until that point had reached us on a personal and realistic level, and now he was leaving the bounds of our own realities and living a life foreign and a little farfetched for us. This works slightly against the effect of the novel, in my humble opinion.

We lose a little bit of our connection with Bone.

That said, there is so much here, especially within the first half, which deserves our utmost attention. Russell Banks once again spins a beautifully constructed web of pain and suffering and, in the end, awakening. The first half of the novel is so visceral, and so genuine, even when it feels as though it is spinning off course. The later half offers us the redemption of this lost soul, and this is effective, but not as effective as it would have been had young Chappie stayed grounded in a place we all can relate to. We still witness his change but the effect of it is dampened a tad.

`Rule of the Bone' is harsh at moments and soft and subtle in others. In the end it feels easy to swallow (thanks in large part to Banks' brilliant writing style) even when it's not (if that makes any sense). It is a definite must read for any fan of Banks, but also for those interested in the subject of jilted youth and the harrows of adolescence. There are few authors who can broach the subject of emotional scarring as delicately and honestly as Banks, and he manages to make Bone a real person to us, even when his actions are as far removed from our own as humanly possible. Like I mentioned in my title, this really isn't too farfetched (even if the flight to Jamaica comes off that way). I actually know a few kids who turned out the same way (emotionally) as Bone, and the scary thing is that we all do. This is a problem that is close to everyone's home, and Banks lays this on the table in a very understandable and engaging format.

Read it, and weep...

for more information click here

A Coming of Age Story for Generation X (I think)

Okay, every generation X,Y or Z (including my generation, the generation of '68) has to have its own coming of age stories, male or female. For this reviewer, always full of a sense of the necessity to understand his own misbegotten youth, J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye explored the longings for understanding, companionship (female variety in my case) and power in that strange modern experience of growing up absurd- the teen years. Well, after reading Brother Banks Holden Caulfield better move over because he has company, very good company, in the coming of age field.

Strangely, my first exposure to the name Russell Banks was in a review that Larry McMurtry (he of Lonesome Dove, and a million other good novels, fame) did for The New York Review of Books. But at that time it was just a name. Then, as I was recently re-reading Nelson Algren's Walk on the Wild Side, I found that in the edition that I had Brother Banks had done the Foreword. Now I rank Algren right up there with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker in my literary pantheon so when Banks does a review that hits almost exactly all the points that have caused me to admire Algren I have one question. Isn't it about time to see what this writer is all about? And, friends, off a reading of this my first book of his I was not mistaken in my instinct.

Bank's young `searcher for truth' Bones, of dysfunctional family (sound familiar?), dope smoking and all set in upstate New York in the 1990's (and then switches somewhat erratically halfway through to Jamaica, the only weakness in the story) is exactly the kind of character one needs to explore in order to understand Generation X (I think that would be the correct designation, right?).

Using the currently fashionable literary trope of magical realism Banks goes through the whole catalogue of coming of age experiences as Bones looks for companionship (not necessarily automatically sexual, like in my youth), longings and personal power. Hey, didn't I just talk about those questions concerning Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield. I guess that is the point. Read this book if you want the current `skinny' on this perplexing issues of growing up absurd in modern society written with a very nice literary flair for a sense of time, place and class. Kudos, Brother Banks.

for more information click here

On my "Top Ten" list!

Bank's exploration of a teenager's rite of passage into adulthood far exceeds anything of the kind I've previously read. His character's emotional journey from childhood into young adulthood, and his physical journey across continents, leaves me yearning to create this same sort of character who invites readers to mature along with them.
I'm impressed, particularly, with an important secondary character, I-Man. Banks does an excellent job of bringing this character to life, from his dialect and sentence structure, to his mannerisms and sense of life priorities.
You'll think about these characters long after you finish the book.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

When we first meet him, Chappie is a punked-out teenager living with his mother and abusive stepfather in an upstate New York trailer park. During this time, he slips into drugs and petty crime. Rejected by his parents, out of school and in trouble with the police, he claims for himself a new identity as a permanent outsider; he gets a crossed-bones tattoo on his arm, and takes the name "Bone."

He finds dangerous refuge with a group of biker-thieves, and then hides in the boarded-up summer house of a professor and his wife. He finally settles in an abandoned schoolbus with Rose, a child he rescues from a fast-talking pedophile. There Bone meets I-Man, an exiled Rastafarian, and together they begin a second adventure that takes the reader from Middle America to the ganja-growing mountains of Jamaica. It is an amazing journey of self-discovery through a world of magic, violence, betrayal and redemption.

for more information click here

hot or not? What's your opinion? Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Nail Soup...great books spanning many genres
Books that kept me awake all night
Brad's favorite books of all time
Bookshelf
top 100

novel

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel (Oprah Book Club #62)
The Brass Verdict: A Novel
The Host: A Novel
The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)
Watchmen

rule

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do ...
Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries
Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

bone

A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray (Unabridged)
Bone 3: Eyes of the Storm (Bone (Graphix Paperback))
The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology
Requiem for the Bone Man
The Doggy Bone Cookbook

search for books
rule of the, bone, novel, rule

Impressum / about us