Amazon.com: Continental Drift: Russell Banks: Books

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Russell Banks is the author of sixteen works of fiction, many of which depict seismic events in US history, such as the fictionalized journey of John Brown in Cloudsplitter. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes, and two of his novels-The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction-have been made into award-winning films. His forthcoming novel, The Reserve, will be published in early 2008. President of the International Parliament of Writers and former New York State Author, Banks lives in upstate New York.

Customer Reviews

39 Reviews

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews)

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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, May 26, 2000

By

Christopher A. Smith (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Continental Drift (Paperback)

This is Banks' finest novel.

Bob Dubois, is a powerful and well developed protagonist; a blue-collar worker in snowy New Hampshire who tries to escape the hopelessness of his dead-end existence and fizzling marriage by traveling south to Florida. But Bob loses control of his situation, and his predestined path is dictated by forces outside of his control, just as plate tectonics dictates the drift of our wayward continents.

Dubois is a beautifully written character. He's a moral man who tries to do the right thing, and in the end it's his morality that brings the tragedy to its conclusion. On the other side of this collision course are two Hatian immigrants with which Bob shares everything and nothing. Banks once again shows his knowledge of Caribbean cultures - a reoccurring theme in his novels.

Love, sex, desperation, hope, good vs. evil, racism, free-will versus destiny, these are all elements interwoven into a tightly written story. An excellent novel.

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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Morally adrift in contemporary America, January 7, 2001

By

RL "RLBurnside" (Quito) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Continental Drift (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)

Truly a great book of the past few decades. Continental Drift parallels the lives of two individuals co-existing in North America. The main character, Bob Dubois, is a mediciocre, who flees his drab life in New Hampshire for the riches of Florida. In the process, Banks comments on racism, sex and materialism. In contrast, is the tragic story of a young Haitian woman seeking the American dream. Bob Dubois is a ghost of man morally; adrift in a society that rewards greed, consumerism and de-emphasizes love and committment. The Haitian story reflects on poverty and the moral bankrupcy it extracts. Russell Banks is one of our best writers today. Don't miss this book.

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36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly thought provoking,beautifully written, December 21, 1999

By

Julie Smedley (Ventura, Calif USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Continental Drift (Paperback)

This was one of the best books I've ever read. I learned alot from this book,alot about my own life and the lives of the people around me.Russell Banks hits quite a few nerves in his depiction of the American Dream and all the trappings of our overly materialistic,shallow lives. Banks beautifully blends two seperate lives on a collision course with destiny.Human nature at its best and its worst.Everyone should be able to identify with the main character Bob Dubois, a tragic figure who doesnt know who he is or what he wants.Life just happens to him. On the other side is Vanise Dorsinville and her nephew Claude two poor Haitians who seek a new life in America.The misery they endure will haunt you.Banks' knowledge of the Haitian culture was phenominal.What a remarkable book!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An American tragedy
"Continental Drift" is a novel about poverty and social class, in the line of Dreiser, Steinbeck, and Carolyn Chute. Read more

Published 2 months ago by M. Feldman

3.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Story Which Could Use Some Work
"Continental Drift," a novel by Russell Banks, is aptly named. It is the story of how two completely different people from two completely different places inch their way toward... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Lewis Brown Jr.

5.0 out of 5 stars Updike-ian and Barth-like Novel
As I read this novel, I found myself thinkinga about John Updike's Rabbit novels as well as John Barth's "Henderson the Rain King" because Bob Dubois is a character created within... Read more

Published 10 months ago by C. E. Selby

5.0 out of 5 stars Thy kingdom come
Nearly the end of masterful "Continental Drift", its main character, a guy in his early thirties named Bob Dubois, sees `a large hand-painted sign that cries: The Kingdom of... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Alysson Oliveira

3.0 out of 5 stars Unrelieved grimness
I usually like Russell Banks, but this novel gave me nightmares. The characters seem to have nothing likeable to balance the 'continental drift'. Read more

Published 12 months ago by K. B. Brown

4.0 out of 5 stars Impressive - once you get to the meat in the sandwich
This book is a bit like a sandwich made of stale bread but with a tasty filling. The beginning and end are chewy and lumpy, filled with cosmological ramblings that almost put me... Read more

Published 16 months ago by John Fitzpatrick

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Start, Tragic Finish
This novel is a great American novel on the scale of Grapes of Wrath--with the same kind of flaws. It has an extraordinary start--the chapter on the migrations of peoples is a... Read more

Published 18 months ago by keenb

4.0 out of 5 stars Book review
Interesting book and could have been written yesterday. The same issues that faced families in the 80's still persist.

Published 22 months ago by LLZERBE

5.0 out of 5 stars America's Modern Steinbeck
This book was introduced to me by my eldest son who is a student at the University of California, Berkeley. Read more

Published on August 26, 2009 by Andrew Desmond

5.0 out of 5 stars The Loa Narrator
In reading Continental Drift, a tragedy in every sense, I was struck by how usual the novel was in its structure and its distinct narrator. Read more

Published on March 6, 2008 by Jason Heath

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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
It's December 21, 1979, a Friday, in Catamount, New Hampshire. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Belinda Blue, Bob Dubois, New Hampshire, Oleander Park, Ted Williams, Winter Haven, Moray Key, Avery Boone, Doris Cleeve, New Providence, Clam Shack, Marguerite Dill, Mistah Bob, Elizabeth Town, George Dill, Sunny Isles, Claude Dorsinville, Mister Dubois, New York, Red Sox, Ave Boone, Coral Harbour, Depot Street, Florida Bay, Key Largo

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