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beyondthevalley's review against another edition
4.0
As much Rolf's story as it is Wade's. I'm so excited to dive deeper into Russell Banks, the way narrative is used to add another layer of character, story, and contemplation for the reader is done so expertly here. Weaving in and out of different periods of time, making it clear sometimes and opaque other times about how much you're reading is truth and how much is speculation based on Rolf's own memory and experiences. He is afflicted by the same things Wade is, though in different ways and he lets it affect him different ways. As the narrator, he never sits and contemplates those ideas for long, it's clear he does not want to. But Banks allows the reader to see that subtle discomfort, the sadness and the guilt, all while telling a totally other story.
Also have to say I started watching the movie afterwards and was shocked by how much it all looked exactly the way I pictured in my head. Banks has a way with words I didn't even realize at the time of reading.
Also have to say I started watching the movie afterwards and was shocked by how much it all looked exactly the way I pictured in my head. Banks has a way with words I didn't even realize at the time of reading.
jabnj's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
bookhawk's review against another edition
4.0
A very good book. Banks' writing provides a good voice with excellent descriptions of both people and settings. It is interesting to cheer for and dislike the protagonist in a melancholy atmosphere. I have not seen the movie but it almost seems the story was written for Nick Nolte to play Wade Whitehouse. A good book on Esquire's list of 75 books every man should read.
thrifty_librarian's review against another edition
3.0
I want so badly to like Russell Banks. And really, I guess I do. I've now read three of his novels: [b:Lost Memory of Skin|10870053|Lost Memory of Skin|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348716813s/10870053.jpg|15785308], [b:The Sweet Hereafter|26924|The Sweet Hereafter|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1167856529s/26924.jpg|1446] and this one (in that order). I gave each three stars, though part of me felt stingy for that, while another part of me was like, "Why did I even finish reading this?"
Banks is a master at exposing the gravity of mundane situations. He takes normal people in small towns and shows what really bad things can happen to them suddenly, with nobody to blame. There it is - that's what I like about him. He's a master at creating real characters. There's nothing I hate more than a book about "good guys" and "bad guys," which is probably why I don't read a lot of James Patterson. [b:Lost Memory of Skin|10870053|Lost Memory of Skin|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348716813s/10870053.jpg|15785308] features a likable pedophile, [b:The Sweet Hereafter|26924|The Sweet Hereafter|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1167856529s/26924.jpg|1446] is about a school bus accident that rocks a quiet neighborhood, and this novel is about policeman Wade, whose sole goal in life is to not be like his alcoholic, abusive father but ends up...an abusive alcoholic. Just like his father.
There's a weird kind of suspense in this novel. It's suspenseful because of the atmosphere - it's all dark and snowy and everybody is hunting deer, which seem to be constantly bleeding from the mouth (and you people make fun of me for eating tofu). Plus the narrator, Rolf (possible name for my first-born?), is telling Wade's story, so you just KNOW something terrible happened to Wade. And it's weird because like nothing is happening, but people start dying and Wade gets all paranoid and I felt like I had no choice but to keep reading.
Reading this made me uncomfortable, which is how I knew it was good. Wade is by no means a protagonist, but you can't hate him, even when he makes his daughter cry or lashes out at his kind-hearted girlfriend. Somehow, it's not his fault, and don't we all just feel like things are beyond our control sometimes?
Banks will never be one of my favorite authors, but if you check back with me in a year, I'll probably have read [b:Rule of the Bone|106133|Rule of the Bone|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348655289s/106133.jpg|226431]. The man has a hold on me.
Banks is a master at exposing the gravity of mundane situations. He takes normal people in small towns and shows what really bad things can happen to them suddenly, with nobody to blame. There it is - that's what I like about him. He's a master at creating real characters. There's nothing I hate more than a book about "good guys" and "bad guys," which is probably why I don't read a lot of James Patterson. [b:Lost Memory of Skin|10870053|Lost Memory of Skin|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348716813s/10870053.jpg|15785308] features a likable pedophile, [b:The Sweet Hereafter|26924|The Sweet Hereafter|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1167856529s/26924.jpg|1446] is about a school bus accident that rocks a quiet neighborhood, and this novel is about policeman Wade, whose sole goal in life is to not be like his alcoholic, abusive father but ends up...an abusive alcoholic. Just like his father.
There's a weird kind of suspense in this novel. It's suspenseful because of the atmosphere - it's all dark and snowy and everybody is hunting deer, which seem to be constantly bleeding from the mouth (and you people make fun of me for eating tofu). Plus the narrator, Rolf (possible name for my first-born?), is telling Wade's story, so you just KNOW something terrible happened to Wade. And it's weird because like nothing is happening, but people start dying and Wade gets all paranoid and I felt like I had no choice but to keep reading.
Reading this made me uncomfortable, which is how I knew it was good. Wade is by no means a protagonist, but you can't hate him, even when he makes his daughter cry or lashes out at his kind-hearted girlfriend. Somehow, it's not his fault, and don't we all just feel like things are beyond our control sometimes?
Banks will never be one of my favorite authors, but if you check back with me in a year, I'll probably have read [b:Rule of the Bone|106133|Rule of the Bone|Russell Banks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348655289s/106133.jpg|226431]. The man has a hold on me.
danbydame's review against another edition
4.0
So sad. So hopeless. Take a guy that wants to be good, wants the simple things most people want --home, family, job. Then watch as life beats him up. As spirals will do, this one starts out slow and gentle, but unrelentingly picks up speed and dumps its victim out in hell.
I guess it isn't a unique story. What sold it for me was the total believability of the main character, Wade. I don't actually know anyone like him, but I "know" him. I see him everywhere, just trying to keep it together but never quite managing to gain ground. For every success story, there are probably dozens of Wades who want to succeed but can't -- no means, no coping skills. Then layer on the depressed rural town in the book and outside my window, snow flying and wind blowing in the book and outside my window, rifles cracking in the book and outside my window.... You get the idea.
All in all, an excellently done character study.
SPOILER --
if any of my friends read this, tell me what you think about the significance of who he kills. Am I reading too much into it when I say I believe he chooses his victims carefully, if subconsciously? Of all the people in that town who would have made good targets, Wade only kills the man he once was and the man he was becoming.... Was he committing suicide in some "acceptable" manner? Or was he murdering himself? I've scanned a bunch of community reviews and I don't see anyone else suggesting this interpretation.
I guess it isn't a unique story. What sold it for me was the total believability of the main character, Wade. I don't actually know anyone like him, but I "know" him. I see him everywhere, just trying to keep it together but never quite managing to gain ground. For every success story, there are probably dozens of Wades who want to succeed but can't -- no means, no coping skills. Then layer on the depressed rural town in the book and outside my window, snow flying and wind blowing in the book and outside my window, rifles cracking in the book and outside my window.... You get the idea.
All in all, an excellently done character study.
SPOILER --
if any of my friends read this, tell me what you think about the significance of who he kills. Am I reading too much into it when I say I believe he chooses his victims carefully, if subconsciously? Of all the people in that town who would have made good targets, Wade only kills the man he once was and the man he was becoming.... Was he committing suicide in some "acceptable" manner? Or was he murdering himself? I've scanned a bunch of community reviews and I don't see anyone else suggesting this interpretation.
leighnonymous's review against another edition
4.0
Banks did a tremendous job of showing Wade Whitehouse's slow mental erosion. Initially I found him unsympathetic and somewhat of a sad sack, but by the end I understood. A person can take only so much. I found a lot of myself in him - feeling that justifying fairness and righting wrongs was more important than humanity. And again, I saw myself in him when he got ideas in his head that weren't there. Neuroticism. Painful.
Well-written prose and a great atmospheric detail of late Autumn in New Hampshire make this book worth the read. But be prepared that it's as bleak as the landscape and there is very little redeeming in it that will boost your faith in humanity.
Well-written prose and a great atmospheric detail of late Autumn in New Hampshire make this book worth the read. But be prepared that it's as bleak as the landscape and there is very little redeeming in it that will boost your faith in humanity.
alijc's review against another edition
2.0
The book was not well received. It was depressing, of a sort that we've been inundated with lately - the down on his luck loser and the terrible things that happen to him. It was a struggle to find a sympathetic character to identify with. And after 600-some pages of build-up, it almost came as a relief that Wade didn't leave more bodies on the ground as he fled the town.
cousinrachel's review against another edition
3.0
Well, Affliction lives up to its title. It's pretty disheartening watching Wade Whitehouse destroy his life, especially seeing how many chances he got to turn it around and, if not dwell in paradise, at least live respectably. On the other hand, he didn't get much of a chance starting out. What I got out of it was that there wasn't anything else he could have done because the violence and anger in his family doomed him to be violent and angry as an adult.
I didn't agree with that, though. It's an interesting message, and of course everyone is influenced by his or her upbringing, but I thought it put too much stress on the "nurture" side of the debate and not enough on personal agency. There were plenty of times Wade could have made a different decision, especially given that he is obviously capable of love and a work ethic as much as punching people and alcoholism.
When it came to the violence, I was frustrated because Rolfe stated that Wade sometimes assaulted people, but gave very little context or detailed examples of when this happened. For instance, he liked to get drunk and hit other bar patrons: What started the fight? Was he provoked, or was the fault entirely on his side? (According to Rolfe, it's a town with a lot of troubled people and a culture of celebrating violence, so I find it plausible that some of these people picked a fight with Wade.) How badly did he hurt anyone? Didn't he ever go to jail or face charges?
Fortunately, it did delve somewhat into the individual characters' thoughts, motivations, etc. I liked that it included some development of Lillian's character. At first it seemed that the blame for her dead marriage to Wade fell entirely on a certain person's shoulders, but then gradually showed how that wasn't the case. Wade's boss LaRiviere and coworker Jack Hewitt get quite a bit of attention as well for more minor characters, and even some brief mentions of other residents of Lawford. (There's a lot of profanity, but it's in the context of the person using it, rather than gratuitously.) Banks gets across quite well that this is a sad little town in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by a number of lonely, unfulfilled people.
It's very descriptive with regard to setting as well. I wouldn't call the prose purple even though Banks writes like an English professor (points for pulling off that feat!). His writing is relatively plain for the most part, with occasional bursts of lyricism. Instead of drowning in repetition and long words, I got the feeling that Wade really did live in a New England small town. I hate it, I absolutely hate it, when an author merely says that the book is set in a certain place without showing what that place is like. It smacks of being too lazy to do the research. Banks is not one of those writers, at least not for Affliction.
Overall, I would recommend it for the character study, the social commentary, and prose. It wasn't one where I felt attached to the place, like wanting to move to Lawford, or could pick a favorite character and root for that person, but it's a cut above most books I've tried to read.
I didn't agree with that, though. It's an interesting message, and of course everyone is influenced by his or her upbringing, but I thought it put too much stress on the "nurture" side of the debate and not enough on personal agency. There were plenty of times Wade could have made a different decision, especially given that he is obviously capable of love and a work ethic as much as punching people and alcoholism.
When it came to the violence, I was frustrated because Rolfe stated that Wade sometimes assaulted people, but gave very little context or detailed examples of when this happened. For instance, he liked to get drunk and hit other bar patrons: What started the fight? Was he provoked, or was the fault entirely on his side? (According to Rolfe, it's a town with a lot of troubled people and a culture of celebrating violence, so I find it plausible that some of these people picked a fight with Wade.) How badly did he hurt anyone? Didn't he ever go to jail or face charges?
Fortunately, it did delve somewhat into the individual characters' thoughts, motivations, etc. I liked that it included some development of Lillian's character. At first it seemed that the blame for her dead marriage to Wade fell entirely on a certain person's shoulders, but then gradually showed how that wasn't the case. Wade's boss LaRiviere and coworker Jack Hewitt get quite a bit of attention as well for more minor characters, and even some brief mentions of other residents of Lawford. (There's a lot of profanity, but it's in the context of the person using it, rather than gratuitously.) Banks gets across quite well that this is a sad little town in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by a number of lonely, unfulfilled people.
It's very descriptive with regard to setting as well. I wouldn't call the prose purple even though Banks writes like an English professor (points for pulling off that feat!). His writing is relatively plain for the most part, with occasional bursts of lyricism. Instead of drowning in repetition and long words, I got the feeling that Wade really did live in a New England small town. I hate it, I absolutely hate it, when an author merely says that the book is set in a certain place without showing what that place is like. It smacks of being too lazy to do the research. Banks is not one of those writers, at least not for Affliction.
Overall, I would recommend it for the character study, the social commentary, and prose. It wasn't one where I felt attached to the place, like wanting to move to Lawford, or could pick a favorite character and root for that person, but it's a cut above most books I've tried to read.
bingo1300's review against another edition
2.0
Gorgeously written but a slow-moving, relatively uneventful book. I felt the same way after reading Affliction as I felt after watching "The Birds": a faint recognition that this is a masterwork, but that it is a relic, and that I have been ruined by pulp.
danteandvirgil's review
Bless the poor soul that reads this book. I only made it about 40 pages in wading through the never ending paragraphs of unnecessary information and boring prose.
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