Scan barcode
A review by minsies
Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks
4.0
I'm sure that at one point, I must've known something about John Brown other than radical abolitionist mumble mumble Harper's Ferry. If I did, though, I had forgotten all of it except the fuzziest details before I starting reading Cloudsplitter.
I think, to some degree, that may be the best way of reading it; if you know too much about what happened in Kansas, at Harper's Ferry, about the Brown family in general, etc. (essentially, if you know too much of the truth of it), some of the power of Banks's story may be diminished.
It's not a perfect book - there are a few times when Owen Brown uses phrases that I wouldn't have expected of a 19th-century man, for example - but it is thoroughly captivating.
I think, to some degree, that may be the best way of reading it; if you know too much about what happened in Kansas, at Harper's Ferry, about the Brown family in general, etc. (essentially, if you know too much of the truth of it), some of the power of Banks's story may be diminished.
It's not a perfect book - there are a few times when Owen Brown uses phrases that I wouldn't have expected of a 19th-century man, for example - but it is thoroughly captivating.