Rule of the Bone (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Russell Banks
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1994
- Setting: Au Sable, New York, and environs; Burlington, Vermont; and Jamaica
- Principal Characters: Chapman “Chappie” Dorset (a.k.a. Bone), Mom, Ken, I-Man, Russ, Bruce, Buster Brown, Sister Rose (a.k.a. Froggy), Doc, Evening Star
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: Homelessness or homeless people, Parents and children, Murder or homicide, Child abuse, Substance abuse, Fathers, Drug addiction or addicts, Theft
- Locales: New York, Jamaica, Burlington, VT
Russell Banks began his literary career in the late 1960’s as a writer of experimental fiction. Over the years, Banks has steadily moved away from aesthetically self- conscious avant-garde forms in order to embrace a relatively straightforward realist idiom. At the same time, Banks has chosen to focus ever more intensively on the lives of working-class people. Both of these moves indicate a deliberate ideological agenda that happens to be at variance with that of most mainstream writers, who tend to make a fetish of their “art” or confine their subject matter to more politically...
[The entire page is 1804 words long]
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