The Reserve by Russell Banks
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If your taste runs to classic American authors like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, you will enjoy reading Russell Banks’ latest novel - The Reserve. On the other hand, you can bypass the literary stuff and just enjoy this tale of madness, betrayal, and tragedy set in the Adirondacks in the late 1930’s.
The novel’s hero, Jordan Groves, bears a striking resemblance to a Hemingway character -- he’s an artist of some renown with a storied past as WWI flying ace. The story begins when Jordan “crashes” a party by landing his seaplane in the exclusive enclave known as “The Reserve.” There he finds himself intrigued by a beautiful, seductive, and somewhat unhinged heiress - Vanessa Cole. Vanessa embodies the fragility and carelessness typical of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s female characters (think of Nicole Diver (a character based on Fitzgerald’s own wife, Zelda) and Daisy Buchanan). Desperately unhappy in what she perceives as her gilded cage, Vanessa’s rebellion wreaks havoc beyond the well-heeled environs of The Reserve and into the lives of the barely-scraping-by locals. When Jordan realizes that Vanessa is too much for him to handle he retreats to the safety and serenity of his home and family, where his wife, weary of his philandering, takes matters into her own hands.
Russell Banks is well-known for giving voice to complex, multi-dimensional characters who convey the story to the reader in their unique voices. Banks employs the same character-driven style in The Reserve and he succeeds brilliantly in channeling Hemingway and Fitzgerald, although that faithfulness to "the masters" sometimes comes at the expense of Banks own voice and style. But that’s just a minor drawback in what is otherwise an entertaining and smart novel.
(Note: If you like complex, character-driven stories check out Affliction and
>The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks. Both novels were made into movies too.)