A Permanent Member of the Family
Russell Banks
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0061857661
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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.
“Because of the surgery, yes. Are you all right? I mean . . .” “Yes, I’m fine,” he said, cutting her off. “Listen, this is kind of uncomfortable for me. But I did want to be able to tell you how grateful I am for what you did. I don’t know why you wanted to meet me, but that’s why I wanted to meet you. To tell you . . . to thank you.” “You don’t have to thank me. It’s what Steve, my husband, it’s what he would have wanted.” “Yeah, well, I guess I should thank him, too.” He paused for a moment.
truck, which was no more than ten minutes after the accident, I’d guess. A citizen with a cell phone in a car right behind you saw the truck go over and called 911. I happened to be driving north on 87 just below the exit. You came to in the ambulance, but they knocked you out when you went in for surgery. You don’t remember the ambulance and all that?” “Last thing I remember is the truck going into a slide. Hello, boys,” he says to Chip and Buzz. “Sorry to bring you out like this.” They look
and takes a city map from a second rack clipped to the wall. The black woman and Billy reach the register at the same time. She shoots Billy a sharp look: another pushy young white man. Not him. No way. He turns and checks out the candy stand. She plunks the plastic jug and chips on the counter, sighs audibly and waits for the Chinese woman to acknowledge her presence. The black woman clears her throat, gets no response. She works a wrinkled envelope from her back pocket and studies a list
to the ATM and run her twenty-something-dollar bank balance down to zero. Check. Now she buys a liter of Diet Pepsi and a bag of potato chips for breakfast. Check. After Charlotte eats her breakfast sitting alone on a bench at the bus stop on Alton and Lincoln Road she’ll walk to the Florida Power & Light office at the Stop & Shop on West, where she’ll pay her overdue electric bill in cash because her checks have bounced too many times. Check. Charlotte will head for Jeannie’s Cut-Right Cut-Rate
Minneapolis. THE GREEN DOOR The Piano Hollywood is a piano bar squeezed between the casino and the hotel at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, and like I deal cards instead of drinks the guy wants me to tell him the rules for Texas Hold’em. I know the rules, of course—who doesn’t? This guy doesn’t. He’s a somewhat oversized, maybe fifty-year-old pear-shaped dude with pink skin and a thinning gray-blond comb-over. He’s wearing a blue-on-gold striped bow tie and a tan