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    A Permanent Member of the Family
    A Permanent Member of the Family
    A Permanent Member of the Family
    Audiobook5 hours

    A Permanent Member of the Family

    Written by Russell Banks

    Narrated by Danny Campbell, Andrus Nichols and Robin Miles

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Suffused with Russell Banks’s trademark lyricism and reckless humor, the twelve stories in A Permanent Member of the Family examine the myriad ways we try—and sometimes fail—to connect with one another, as we seek a home in the world.

    In the title story, a father looks back on the legend of the cherished family dog whose divided loyalties mirrored the fragmenting of his marriage. “A Former Marine” asks, to chilling effect, if one can ever stop being a parent. And in the haunting, evocative “Veronica,” a mysterious woman searching for her daughter may not be who she claims she is.

    Moving between the stark beauty of winter in upstate New York and the seductive heat of Florida, Banks’s acute and penetrating collection demonstrates the range and virtuosity of both his narrative prowess and his startlingly panoramic vision of modern American life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 12, 2013
    ISBN9780062120892
    Author

    Russell Banks

    Russell Banks, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, was one of America’s most prestigious fiction writers, a past 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 he received numerous prizes and awards, including the Common Wealth Award for Literature. He died in January 2023 at the age of eighty-two.  

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    Reviews for A Permanent Member of the Family

    3.5/5

    35 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Not every story is top notch, but good Russell Banks is great for this reader. And there are a couple great Banks stories here, too. I think that he is mapping a picture of America in the present time that will last, without self-consciously trying to "capture our times." He does it one individual at a time...Look forward to his next novel.
    • 4/5
      a real montage of stories, some better than others
    • 4/5
      Russell Banks’ writes a collection of highly accessible stories about Americans, who have failed or are struggling for one reason or another and are now face opportunities for redemption. Should they take a chance, stay the course or just sit it out? The answers are not entirely clear for any of his characters. An African-American woman saves up to pay cash of a used car, but finds herself trapped in a situation that offers her few viable options. A middle-aged plumbing and heating supplier is offered a second chance for an extra-marital dalliance at a convention. An ex-marine resorts to armed robbery to make ends meet after losing his job. A newly widowed woman seeks to convince a close friend to join her in a new life in Florida. A heart transplant recipient meets his donor’s widow. Some characters cope with loss while others win big. Still others seem to be content to just sit on the sidelines and watch others.
    • 4/5
      This was my first Russell Banks collection of short stories and it was excellent. Previously I had read a couple of his novels, one of which "The Cloudsplitter" was a great book about John Brown. The stories in this collection were about people mainly in upstate New York or Miami who are dealing with the downside of life. He quickly gets into the story and the characters and writes his prose in a clear style free from the word smithing that we are seeing so much today. I do appreciate an author's ability to use language but a simple style and an interesting story are still what good writing is all about. One story "Blue" about a woman in a used car dealership was worth the entire collection. This was a short collection and having read this I now intend to go back and read some more Russell Banks.
    • 4/5
      I once dreaded short stories, but since so many of my favorite writers have been producing such gems as these stories by Russell Banks, I'm completely won over. Tom Perrotta, Andre Dubus III, Jess Walters - all their collections have been great recent pleasures.Here Russell Banks explores his two home turfs, mean and rural New Hampshire and frowsy Miami, with realistically rendered characters and situations. In fact, in my favorite "Searching for Veronica", he is in the tale.Other favorites were "Former Marine", about a father in dire straits, "Transplant", where an organ recipient meets the wife of a his donor, and "Snowbirds", a gem of a widow's tale of two states, NH and FL.Rather than feeling cheated by the lack of novel length, I'm now very happy with the feelings evoked by these brief encounters.