The Darling - Softcover

Banks, Russell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060957352 ISBN 13: 9780060957353

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2005

Synopsis

Set in Liberia and the United States from 1975 through 1991, The Darling is the story of Hannah Musgrave, a political radical and member of the Weather Underground.

Hannah flees America for West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends of the notorious warlord and ex-president, Charles Taylor. Hannah's encounter with Taylor ultimately triggers a series of events whose momentum catches Hannah's family in its grip and forces her to make a heartrending choice.

About this title

Review

Just what kind of novel is Russell Banks The Darling? The author is, after all, one of the most impressive writers in America today, and his work (in such books as Affliction has been marked by its refusal to deal with the parochial: Banks subject is always ambitious in every sense of the word, and this new book may be his most large scale yet. The Darling is a massive, multi-stranded novel about Africa today.

Banks heroine, Hannah Musgrave, is not a woman at ease with herself. Others might be happy with supportive parents and enthusiastic lovers, but Hannah finds that their blandishments do not plug the gap in her life. She abandons her comfortable middle-class existence and plunges into the dark terrorist world of the ruthless group known as the Weather Underground. Soon she is on the run from the FBI and takes refuge in Liberia in West Africa. It seems that her life will now change forever, as she marries a youthful politician and adopts the role of wife (and even mother). In the past, Hannah's life had been at threat from her own, internal forces, but now she finds that it is her environment which is the powder keg. The ruthless and corrupt military state which is Liberia (long shored up by America) is about to be plunged into massive bloodshed, and Hannah finds that all she has come to hold dear is at risk.

This is powerful and far-reaching writing, on a scale that few novelists (on either side of the Atlantic) are prepared to tackle today. The nearest modern equivalent to this epic novel of character, set against a seething backdrop is probably the work of Robert Stone, but the shade of Graham Greene is often evoked, and not to Banks' discredit. The conflicted heroine is a wonderful creation, and the turbulent dangerous world of war-torn Liberia is brilliantly evoked. -- Barry Forshaw

Review

"In The Darling, he is working at full strength, and his readers are in his debt."--Washington Post Book World

"Powerful and evocative..."--Newsweek

"Extraordinary...Banks is the rare epic novelist."--Virginian Pilot

"Once again, he has produced a novel that is searing, demanding and unforgettable."--Newsweek

"A powerful new novel."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Banks creates a heroine every bit as complex and flawed as someone out of Jane Austen."--Hartford Courant

"Banks has created a heroine every bit as complex and flawed as something out of Jane Austen."--St. Petersburg Times

"Hannah's story shows why Banks ranks among our boldest artists."--Boston Globe

"Reverberating with ideas and startling prose."--Village Voice

"Banks's novel is a vivid account of a time of terror, exposing the secrets of the soul."--O magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060957352
• ISBN 13: 9780060957353
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400