{"product_id":"outer-banks-paperback","title":"Outer Banks - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRussell Banks\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Banks has skillfully used his repertoire of contemporary techniques to write a novel that is classically American\u003c\/strong\u003e--\u003cstrong\u003ea dark, but sometimes funny, romance with echoes of Poe and Melville.\" \u003c\/strong\u003e-- \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A marvelously written little book, fascinatingly intricate, yet deceptively simple. Well worth reading more than once.\" -- \u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom acclaimed author Russell Banks comes a work of fiction utilizing a form invented in the seventeenth century by imprisoned Puritan divines\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDesigned to be exemplary, works of this type were aimed at brethren outside the prison walls and functioned primarily as figurative dramatizations of the tests of faith all true believers must endure. These \"relations,\" framed by scripture and by a sermon explicating the text, were usually read aloud in weekly or monthly installments during religious services. Utterly sincere and detailed recountings of suffering, they were nonetheless highly artificial. To use the form self-consciously, as Banks has done, is not to parody it so much as to argue good-humoredly with the mind it embodies, to explore and, if possible, to map the limits of that mind, the more intelligently to love it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e An Omnibus Edition of Three Classic Early Novels from the Critically Acclaimed Author of \u003cem\u003eCloudsplitter\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eAffliction\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFamily Life: \u003c\/em\u003e Russell Banks's first novel is an adult fairy tale of a royal family in a mythical contemporary kingdom where the myriad dramas of domesticity blend with an outrageous slew of murders, mayhem, coups, debauches, world tours, and love in all guises, transcendent or otherwise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHamilton Stark: \u003c\/em\u003e This tale of a solitary, boorish, misanthropic New Hampshire pipe fitter--the sole inhabitant of the house from which he evicted his own mother--is at once a compelling meditation on identity and a thoroughly engaging story of life on the cold edge of New England.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Relation of My Imprisonment: \u003c\/em\u003e Utilizing a form invented by imprisoned seventeenth-century Puritan divines--an utterly sincere and detailed, if highly artificial, recounting of great suffering--Banks's novel is a remarkably inventive, lovingly good-humored argument, exploration, and map of the caged religious mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 560\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.98 x 8 x 5.68 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 24, 2008\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42135913660551,"sku":"9780061544521","price":21.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/10d2bd8154323f2a20ac956c35f5c42e.webp?v=1732652849","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/outer-banks-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}