Tuesday, December 13, 2011

THE LOST MEMORY OF SKIN by Russell Banks

What happens when political correctness gives rise to zero tolerance and zero compassion?


Many of the reviews I’ve read of this book call the protagonist impossible to sympathize with, and the subject matter nearly too disturbing to touch. I disagree. At the heart of the novel is a loner of young man, a convicted sex offender, who has been thrown out of the garden. Banks writes about human urges, about sanctimony, about compassion. His ear and eye are finely tuned to contemporary American language and culture, and his imagery is spot-on. He turns out a beautifully-crafted plot, except perhaps in the final chapters of the book where he goes a little Hollyrock (as he did in Rule of the Bone). Important and a great read.

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