Award-winning author Russell Banks has died at age 82. He rooted such novels as “Affliction” and “The Sweet Hereafter” in his native Northeast and imagined the dreams and downfalls of everyone from blue-collar workers to the abolitionist John Brown.
Banks lived part of the year in Florida, and for a time had a home in Jamaica, but he was essentially a man of the North, with an old Puritan’s sense of consequences. Snow fell often in his fiction, whether on the upstate New York community torn by a bus crash in “The Sweet Hereafter” or on the desperate, divorced New Hampshire policeman undone by his paranoid fantasies in “Affliction.”
The story long precedes Banks’ lifetime, but the inspiration was literally close to home. Banks lived near Brown’s burial ground in North Elba, New York, and he would pass by often enough that Brown “became a kind of ghostly presence,” the author told the AP in 1998. Two of his books were adapted into acclaimed film releases in the late 1990s: “The Sweet Hereafter,” directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Ian Holm, and director Paul Schrader’s “Affliction,” which brought James Coburn an Academy Award for best supporting actor.
He was an idealist in search of ideals, among countless young people of the 1960s to adopt Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” as a kind of Bible. He dropped out of Colgate and drove South with dreams of joining Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army in Cuba, a quest which ended in St. Petersburg, Florida.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Russell Banks, praised author of ‘Cloudsplitter,’ dies at 82He was a plumber’s son who wrote often about working class families and those who died trying to break out.
Read more »
Russell Westbrook plays key role in Lakers’ recent wins despite cold shootingComing into Saturday night’s game, the Lakers’ four-game win streak probably wouldn’t have been possible without Russell Westbrook.
Read more »
Salem man killed in Russell County crashA Salem man has died after an early morning crash in Russell County.
Read more »
Banks gain favor in risk-off environment but earnings uncertainty remainsJPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and Bank of America are on deck to provide fourth-quarter results next Friday, while Goldman and Morgan Stanley report on...
Read more »
Doctor Who: RTD Will Protect Show's Britishness from Disney InfluenceDoctorWho fans worried about Disney impacting the show can keep calm. RussellTDavies and others have vowed to defend its Britishness. / BBC BadWolf DavidTennant NcutiGatwa
Read more »