The cover of Russell Banks’s mountain-sized novel Cloudsplitter features an actual photo of Owen Brown, the son of John Brown — the hero of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” whose terrorist band murdered proponents of slavery in Kansas and attacked Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 on what he considered direct orders from God, helping spark the Civil War.
A deeply researched but fictionalized Owen narrates this remarkably realistic and ambitious novel by the already distinguished author of The Sweet Hereafter. Owen is an atheist, but he is as haunted and dominated by his father, John Brown, as John was haunted by an angry God who demanded human sacrifice to stop the abomination of slavery. Cloudsplitter takes you along on John Brown’s journey — as period-perfect as that of the Civil War deserter in Cold Mountain — from Brown’s cabin facing the great Adirondack mountain (called “the Cloudsplitter” by the Indians) amid an abolitionist settlement the blacks there call “Timbuctoo,” to the various perilous stops of the Underground Railroad spiriting slaves out of the South, and finally to the killings in Bloody Kansas and the Harpers Ferry revolt. We meet some great names — Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a (fictional) lover of Nathaniel Hawthorne — but the vast book keeps a tight focus on the aged Owen’s obsessive recollections of his pa’s crusade and the emotional shackles John clamped on his own family.
Banks, a white author, has tackled the topic of race as impressively as Toni Morrison in novels such as Continental Drift. What makes Cloudsplitter a departure for him is its style and scope. He is noted as an exceptionally thorough chronicler of America today in rigorously detailed realist fiction (he championed Snow Falling on Cedars). Banks spent half a decade researching Cloudsplitter, and he renounces the conventional magic of his poetical prose style for a voice steeped in the King James Bible and the stately cadences of 19th-century political rhetoric. The tone is closer to Ken Burns’s tragic, elegiac The Civil War than to the recent crazy-quilt modernist novel about John Brown, Raising Holy Hell.
A fan of Banks’s more cut-to-the-chase, Hollywood-hot modern style may get impatient, but such readers can turn to, say, Gore Vidal’s recently reissued Lincoln, which peeks into the Great Emancipator’s head with a modern’s cynical wit. Banks’s narrator is poetical and witty at times — Owen notes, “The outrage felt by whites [over slavery] was mostly spent on stoking their own righteousness and warming themselves before its fire.” Yet in the main, Banks writes in the “elaborately plainspoken” manner of the Browns, restricting himself to a sober style dictated by the historical subject.
Besides, John Brown’s head resembles the stone tablets of Moses. You do not penetrate him, and you can’t declare him mad or sane, good or evil. You read, struggling to locate the words emanating from some strange place between history, heaven, and hell.
Cloudsplitter Russell Banks Ex Libris Used Books
$ 8,99 Original price was: $ 8,99.$ 5,39Current price is: $ 5,39.
Fast Shipping & Professional Packing
Thanks to our longstanding association with UPS FedEx DHL and other leading global carriers, we can offer a variety shipping options. Our warehouse staff are highly educated to pack your items exactly according to the specifications we provide. Before shipment, all items are carefully examined and secured. We deliver to hundreds of thousands of customers each day across various countries. The fact that we are dedicated to becoming the largest online retailer in the World is clear. We have distribution centers and warehouses located in Europe and the USA.
Note: Orders containing more than one item will be assigned a distinct processing time for each item.
We will thoroughly inspect all products before they are shipped. The majority of orders will be shipped within 48 hours. Delivery time ranges between 3-7 days.
Returns
The stock is constantly changing and is not completely managed by us due to the involvement of many parties including the factory and our warehouse. Therefore, the actual inventory could alter at any time. Please be aware it's possible your order could become unfulfilled once you've placed your order.
Our policy is valid for 30 days. We cannot replace or refund your purchase after 30 days since the purchase.
In order for your item to be eligible for return it must be in its original packaging, unopened and in the same state as you received it. It must also be in the original packaging.
Related products
Uncategorized
1,001 Delicious Recipes for People with Diabetes by Sue Spitler (2001) Ex Libris Used Books
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
“Plain Papers on the Doctrine of The Holy Spirit” Scofield Vtg 1969 Ex Libris Used Books
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
1,000 Playthinks: Puzzles, Paradoxes, Illusions & Games Ivan Moscovich Ex Libris Used Books
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
“On the Beach Novel by Nevil Shute illustrated edition” by Nevil Shute Ex Libris Used Books
Uncategorized
Uncategorized
1 2 3 Books: Simple Books To Make For Working With Young Children Jean Warren Ex Libris Used Books
Uncategorized
…I Never Saw Another Butterfly… by the Children from Terezin Concentration Camp Ex Libris
Uncategorized
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (Coca Cola Santa Hallmark) Ex Libris
Uncategorized