In this first full-length study, Robert Niemi provides a comprehensive view of Russell Banks's life and literary career, including his poetry, collected short fiction, and eight novels. Niemi examines Banks's complex evolution from counterculture aesthete to committed social critic. He argues a high degree of both political and aesthetic sophistication enable Banks to balance his narratives between chronicle and social critique. Stressing the author's...

When events shatter the quiet of his small town, Wade Whitehouse, with the aid of his new girlfriend, is forced to confront his past and reexamine his life.