Affliction

Name: Affliction
Brand: Harper Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Russell Banks
ISBN: 9780062955166

Author: Russell Banks

Narrator: Richard Ferrone

Unabridged: 15 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Published: 10/27/2020

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Small Town & Rural

Synopsis

""Banks has taken on a profound theme, the ruinous and awful affliction of violence that seems to live like a secret blood-disease handed down in men like Wade. . . . He turns it into a living art that can bring recognition and awe."" — Los Angeles Book Review""A masterwork of contemporary American fiction"" (Chicago Tribune) from one of the most acclaimed and important writers of our timeWade Whitehouse is an improbable protagonist for a tragedy. A well-digger and policeman in a bleak New Hampshire town, he is a former high-school star gone to beer fat, a loner with a mean streak. It is a mark of Russell Banks's artistry and understanding that Wade comes to loom in one's mind as a blue-collar American Everyman afflicted by the dark secret of the macho tradition. Told by his articulate, equally scarred younger brother, Wade's story becomes as spellbinding and inexorable as a fuse burning its way to the dynamite.

About Russell Banks

Russell Banks, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, was 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 he received numerous prizes and awards, including the Common Wealth Award for Literature. He died in January 2023 at the age of eighty-two.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Chris on January 11, 2023

Picked this one off the shelves last night in a turn back to more serious stuff. New England family/alcoholic dysfunction. Sounds like Richard Russo w/o the laughs. Andre' Dubus territory ... This was made into a film a few years ago with Nick Nolte and James Coburn. My other Russell Banks read was......more

Goodreads review by Tyler on September 19, 2020

What makes this story stand out is its narrator. Younger brother to Wade, the protagonist, the narrator relates his sibling's story with keen precision. And his account touches on family violence, a potent topic. Such a topic can be overdone in fifty ways and gotten right in perhaps only one. Having......more

Goodreads review by Larry on March 25, 2023

Once again, I have found myself listening to an audible book that I have read in the print version. Nearly exactly 10 years ago. Once again, I have no recollection of having previously read the book, and I had no flashes of recollection as I experienced it for the second time. Pretty often in crime a......more

Goodreads review by Josh on January 17, 2012

Okay... I don't know if I can do Banks' novel any justice with a review. Just a few hours after finishing it, I'm still awe-struck and a little numb. All evening, I've felt myself digesting it. Felt it seeping from my brain into my blood. 'Affliction' is the kind of novel I would love to write. So, m......more

Goodreads review by Gerald on March 10, 2008

First of all, Russell Banks, thank you for your style. I had not read you before, and showing a masterful style is the first standard for my admission into the fan club of any novelist. Your style is intelligent, fluid, and rich. It is art. It is not USA Today, or even NY Times, not vanilla. Some re......more