Russell Banks
Paperback | Pages: 400 pages Rating: 3.78 | 2295 Users | 281 Reviews
Specify Appertaining To Books The Darling
| Title | : | The Darling |
| Author | : | Russell Banks |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 400 pages |
| Published | : | October 11th 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published October 12th 2004) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. Africa. Historical. Historical Fiction. Western Africa. Liberia. Novels |
Description Concering Books The Darling
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.
Present Books To The Darling
| Original Title: | The Darling |
| ISBN: | 0060957352 (ISBN13: 9780060957353) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Liberia |
| Literary Awards: | Audie Award for Fiction, Unabridged (2005), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction (2004), Prix Laure-Bataillon (2006) |
Rating Appertaining To Books The Darling
Ratings: 3.78 From 2295 Users | 281 ReviewsNotice Appertaining To Books The Darling
War, massacre and menage a trois (thanks to LC for coining this phrase!). That pretty much sums up this disappointing book by the author of the great "The Sweet Hereafter". "The Darling" is long-winded, self indulgent, and at times, quite unrealistic. The protagonist is a white woman who fled to Liberia after creating and setting off a few bombs for the Weather Underground. We are constantly reminded of her mindset (and her bed mates) and she doesn't come off as an authentic female character,The Darling is a masterpiece. It is the story of a woman, Hannah, who would today (2012) be seventy, who recounts her life and how she came to be who and what she is, and what she did, from the perspective of where she is just before September 11, 2001, at the age of fifty-nine: She is the unattached owner and operator of a small commercial farm in Keene Valley, New York. What is so remarkable is that the story is written by a man, Russell Banks, who is the same age and lives in the same place
the woman's point of view is so well done in this book that it's hard to believe it was authored by a man. i simultaneously loved and loathed the main character. the fact that it's historically accurate, and that charles taylor, who is featured prominently in the novel, has been in the press recently, make it all the more interesting.
A white male American writing a book with a white middle aged female narrator reminiscing over the time she lived in Africa seems like a potential minefield. But somehow, Banks pulled it off and didnt lose any limbs on the mines. For many mediocre writers Africa seems ripe for picking, full of conflict and tragedy provides the story with high enough stakes to make up for the lack of talent on the writers part. But Banks does it well. He doesnt use the continent as some shitty metaphor. He talks
I saw Russell Banks read when Affliction first came out. He came across as a very thoughtful man who was a novelist of the human heart--the book is one of his best, though I was also quite fond of Continental Drift. Banks had a mind towards international waters (he said in the Q & A afterwards, when someone asked how much he knew about Haiti when writing Drift, that he only started learning about the place when he decided he wanted to write about it and did not decide to write about Haiti
OK No. Anyone who says anything about this book is wrong. This book is about this girl in the weather underground, like your parents? And Forrest Gump. So she goes underground. But she's not like the girl in American Pastoral who becomes totally annoying and pisses everyone off. Not that she didn't piss a LOT of people off. So she goes into hiding, and fucks off to Africa. Aggra. Agra. Ghana! Word, I TOTALLY want to go to Agra, Ghana after reading this book.OK so she's hiding out. And who is she
Protagonist was completely unbelievable as a woman or mother. Doesn't seem as though the author's research on Monrovia was thorough. Please - especially if you are a friend of mine looking for information on Liberia - do not read this. Read The House On Sugar Beach, which is a much more accurate description.
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