Cloudsplitter

Rating:
Summary: A haunting, elegiac work.
Review: A haunting, lyrical work about a non-descript boy who is forced to into radical introspection by his domineering father. A tale of immense sadness about Owen Brown and his relationship with his famous father, John Brown. Owen, mesmerized by John and his heroic stance concerning slavery can never become his own man. The writing is superb, especially the eerie scene where Owen and John, through an unusual twist of geo-physics, helplessly witness a tragedy taking place miles away across the prarie. A fascinating historical novel with a finely detailed main character(Owen)who cannot escape the demands of a heroic, but ultimately dysfunctional family. I've forgotten many of the books I've read over the past several years, but not this one.

Rating:
Summary: Well Worth the Read
Review: An extraordinary novel about an extraordinary life.

Rating:
Summary: The human condition!
Review: A truely great book. What amazes me most is the psychological and emotional complexity Russell Banks puts into John Brown. I have learned just as much about love and responsibility in a family as I did about abolitionists and their bloody fight. John Brown is a real hero to me because he never forgot his role as a father. Russell Banks shows an enormous sensitivity when it comes to explain the realtionships between fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, brothers and brothers, and men and wives. This intimate knowledge and description of the human condition makes this book all the more real and enables the reader to relive one of the most dramatic times in American History. Well done!

Rating:
Summary: long book, but worth every word
Review: Russell Banks has given us in "Cloudsplitter" a grand novel on a grand scale, giving his readers a detailed and moving account of what it meant to be a radical abolitionist, a deeply religious person, the center of the family universe. John Brown comes across as a complex, multidimensional person, as does his son Owen, who defies any sort of stereotyping. What makes this book readable, despite its length, is the detail Banks gives to his characters and their philosophies and motivations. My only complaint is that the ending was very abrupt, as if Owen had stopped his narration in mid-thought. Perhaps that was an intentional device on Banks' part, given Owen's state of mind as he completes his voluminous letter to Miss Mayo. Still, it was a little jarring, and left me wanting maybe just another page or two to wrap up the seeming unfinished thought.

Rating:
Summary: Way, way, way too long
Review: I'm with the minority of reviewers who found that this book could have been half its length without losing anything. To be sure, there is much to admire about Cloudsplitter, most notably the vivid descriptions of mid-19th century frontier life and its hardships, and Banks' tightly focused description of John Brown's plans for the Harper's Ferry raid near the end of the book, but this novel is far too repetitive and includes a lot of dross. The framing device was also annoying, although it did have the benefit of warning the reader right up front that a lot of dull excess was to follow. Cloudsplitter is a decent book, but on balance it's not really a worthwhile endeavor for the reader unless he or she has both abundant free time and the patience of a mule.

Rating:
Summary: An epic; a masterpiece
Review: When my father gave me this book for Christmas (yes, I did request it), he said, "This should keep you busy until NEXT Christmas!" I feared he might be right. He wasn't. If you are interested in the history (somewhat doctored, but this IS a novel) of the abolitionist movement, then you will not be able to put this book down. If you are an admirer of the awesome power of some writer to capture emotions, senses of place, pain, joy, or horror, this (again) is not a book to put down.

As most of you will know by now, Russell Banks has written a huge work on the life of John Brown as seen through the eyes and life of his son, Owen. Admittedly, Owen was not a highly educated man, although he seemingly was a highly principled one. Some readers have criticized Banks for allowing Owen to speak and write to eloquently. How could an uneducated man speak thusly? To which I would reply (as a reader, not an author) that the monumental events of that time could not be expressed with pedestrian prose. Banks' gift is to bring us into those times of life, death, murder, cruelty, and ultimately, madness. How can we live it with him and the Browns in any other way?

After reading this work, I feel like I know the Browns intimately. Whether the facts as presented are all true, is grist for another mill. However, Banks has achieved something great here. He has not just given us a taste of the history (as any ordinary historical novel might), but has given us some insight into the psyche of its characters. Why did John Brown take on the establishment in this way? Why did some of his sons and friends sacrifice themselves in the fight against slavery? Banks paints some very interested psychological profiles, but does it so deftly through Owen's first person narrative (actually, Owen's voluminous letter to a historian in NY), that it was a natural part of the story.

Ultimately, we are left to marvel at John and Owen Brown, and to wonder if they really were mad. For me, their madness was their gift. Who else in their right mind would have taken the risks that these men did? And without their madness, would the fight against slavery have been so successful?

This issue of madness is visited in another incredible and true story, "The Professor and the Madman," which recounts the making of the Oxford English Dictionary (speaking of pedestrian!). It it entirely likely that in today's society, the protagonists in each of these magnificent works would be "treated" in some manner.

Had that been the case, the world would be a worse place for it. And had that been the case, we would not have this incredible work of Russell Bank's to celebrate.

Rating:
Summary: Inspired in me a desire to learn more about the Civil War
Review: Intrigued by the the review, I picked this book up while on a business trip and ended up reading till way past my bedtime. I was invited by Mr. Banks into the lives of the fanatic Brown family and treated to a first hand account of a very important chunk of American History. It is uncanny how the reader is sucked in and becomes a part of the action and feels the emotions of Owen Brown. This epic novel brings the antebellum world to life.

I am from the deep south and have worked in the fields and forests where American men killed each other but never really put forth an effort to learn more. Russell Banks embarrassed me with my ignorance and since reading Cloudsplitter I have gone on to read the Killer Angels and Battle Cry to Freedom. I was truly inspired to learn more about the Civil War because of this experience and look forward to reading more. I will look at the fields and forests with new eyes when next I walk there.

Rating:
Summary: At last!
Review: A deep, moral, personal account of when the minorities' rights justify (indeed, require of moral men) that they shed blood to purify a nation.

Thank goodness, an account has finally been written which portrays John Brown and his men as real American heroes, thoughtful and brave, who overcome their flaws and take on the greatest evil that humanity has ever known.

This is the first novel by Russel Banks I have read. He has the ability to show this kind of courage in context; rather than simply flag-waving or pretending that these men did NOT do unpleasant things when necessary to purify their souls and the soul of a nation.

Rating:
Summary: A wise and well written trip into little known history
Review: In Cloudsplitter, Russell Banks once again proves that he is a master storyteller who is not destined to repeat himself, as so many major writers do. This book deals with a period of American history that is not well known to the average person and with a figure who has always been more myth than man. Told through the words of John Brown's son Owen, the picture of Brown's life that is presented in the novel is a moving Old Testament size tragedy, with the 'hero' - a flawed and fanatical man - doing harm in the name of doing good. It is a very engrossing tale, moving and intellectually stimulating. It makes one feel - and think about those feelings.

A very satisfying book.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant, epic novel of deep relevance
Review: I do not like the idea of heros; but Banks is able to humanize his characters so deeply and movingly that there is nothing else to call them. Instead of a vacuous glory like that ascribed to the so-caled founding fathers of the United States in American high school history classrooms, Banks presents us with Owen and John Brown, full of doubts and weaknesses, yet able to achieve amazing ends regardless. For these characters, bravery and integrity means something. For example, much confusion has surrounded the Pottawatomie Massacre carried out by John and Owen; it was a horrible deed, cold, ruthless, and terrorist. It is to Banks' credit that he develops his characters so well that this incident can be dealt with clearly. Reading Cloudsplitter, we can get a picture of how the real occurence might have happened.

Nearly everything about this book hits the mark. It is well-researched (although if you want to know the true history of these stories, you should look elsewhere, since Banks at times diverges from the record). The language Banks uses is appropriate to the subject, as is the epic length and scope of the work. The issues of racism are handled in their unresolved complexity, making the novel eminently useful for those living in the US today. The novel integrates broad, important ideas about spirituality, identity, and power with the emotional and psychological eruptions of all-too human beings in a way that will perhaps make it a classic statement about the human condition.