Hamilton Stark is a New Hampshire pipe fitter and the sole inhabitant of the house from which he evicted his own mother. He is the villain of five marriages and the father of a daughter so obsessed that she has been writing a book about him for years. Hamilton Stark is a boor, a misanthrope, a handsome man: funny, passionately honest, and a good dancer. The narrator, a middle-aged writer, decides to write about Stark as a hero whose anger and solitude represent passion and wisdom. At the same time that he tells Hamilton Stark's story, he describes the process of writing the novel and the complicated connections between truth and fiction. As Stark slips in and out of focus, maddeningly elusive and fascinatingly complex, this beguiling novel becomes at once a compelling meditation on identity and a thoroughly engaging story of life on the cold edge of New England.
Hamilton Stark
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Book Description
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Banks has skillfully used his repertoire of contemporary techniques to write a novel that is classically American -- a dark, but sometimes funny, romance with echoes of Poe and Melville.""--Washington Post""Stunning and original.... Russell Banks's most sustained, intricate, and impressive work to dote.... Bunks is a writer who has a mind."--" Chicago Sun-Times ""A successIronic, melancholy, and haunting."--" Newsweek"
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Russell Banks, one of America's most prestigious fiction writers, is president of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. He lives in upstate New York, and he is the New York State Author.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unforgettable American character; reads smoothly,
By j. olsen (minneapolis, mn) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hamilton Stark (Paperback)
I found "Hamilton Stark" to be an unexpected page-turner. Hamilton Stark, the fictional man, is an unforgettable creation. The novel, eschewing conventional plotting, clips along fluidly and swiftly nonetheless. Experimental fiction is rarely this readable (certainly Banks' "Family Life," and "Relation of My Imprisonment" are not).The daily-life-variety exploits of New Hampshire pipe fitter Hamilton Stark are a guilty pleasure to follow. As the man's habits and life history unfold, one wonders, with great eagerness, what absurdity of will and character will be exhibited next. Through what strange behavior will he lose his 5th wife, for example, in comparison to how he lost #4, etc. And one wonders what has so moved the highly educated, intellectual, borderline-sycophantic narrator- and at an earlier point Stark's sharp-witted estranged daughter- to revere, worship, and indulge in the compulsion to decipher and document for the ages, the life and ways of this near-feral, anti-social, misanthropic, eccentrically-principled lone wolf New England plumber. Maybe the secret to the Hamilton Stark Phenomenon lies in the generations-buried influence of the pre English-settlement Abenooki Natives? A uniquely American character and novel, with curious epic undertones. Possibly a work of genius. Highly recommended.
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