Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Russell Banks is one of my favourite authors. Since reading his novel “The Sweet Hereafter” I have searched for more of his books. [The Sweet Hereafter was an excellent 1997 film by Atom Egoyan]. I also have “Cloudsplitter” waiting on my bookshelves. I’m now up to Page 140 in “The Lost Memory of Skin” and liking the novel so far. How does he do it, he mixes tenses seamlessly?
Now finished, it was a great read with so many twists and turns and definitely not predictable. I sympathized with the character Kid (main protagonist). Banks highlights how some people are victimized not through any fault of their own, but through a serious of life’s circumstances. The Kid, although an adult, is a convicted paedophile, wears an ankle bracelet which has to stay on for 10 years. However, you begin to realize that he is not really a criminal, that he’s been convicted through being young, uneducated both morally and socially. He is also a little naive and I liked him. I also understood the parallels with Banks’ other character the Professor. It makes you wonder about people in life, just who is the baddie?
I’ve now moved on to Cloudsplitter.
Helen
Helen Hagemann's Studio 