Cloudsplitter

The John Brown story is fictionalized in minute detail by Russell Banks; told through the remembrances of Owen Brown, his son; and narrated remarkably well by John Edwardson. Edwardson stays on track with the author's characterization of the self-righteous, relentless Bible-thumping Brown, whose martyrdom to a political cause becomes holy and whose family is destroyed in his terrorist approach to freeing the country from slavery. Now and then there is dialogue interspersed between passages from the Old Testament, and Edwardson is able to show the scope of his excellent narrative ability. He breathes life into the solemn landscape and a brief touch of sunshine flickers through a dour listening experience. J.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Starred review from February 1, 1998
At first glance, aside from the setting, this massive novelized life of Abolitionist John Brown, told from the viewpoint of one of his sons, has nothing in common with Banks's book of outlaw excess, Rule of the Bone (HarperCollins, 1995). Yet both deal with single-mindedness, rebellion, and codes--except that Brown's versions of these are more honorable (he would have agreed with Dylan that "to live outside the law you must be honest"). This book has all the stark beauty of the Adirondacks setting and of Brown's religion, and the elderly, reclusive narrator's coming to terms with himself and his father is an achievement in its own right. Besides, like the works of Thomas Mallon and Thomas Gifford, this is not just a fine novel (and a wonderfully structured one at that) but a way to participate in history. Recommended, without hyperbole, for all collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/97.]--Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Oswego, N.Y.

November 15, 1997
Like Bruce Olds's recent Raising Holy Hell (LJ 6/15/96), this new novel from award winner Banks re-creates the life of John Brown.

December 1, 1997
Making a case that long novels by definition are not necessarily flabby, Banks' opus, perhaps his best novel, reaches deeply into its subject matter, but with clean, tight, stunning results. A historical novel by classification, this one becomes, in addition, a profound novel of psychology. It focuses on the life of John Brown, the infamous abolitionist whose notorious 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, led to his execution. The vehicle by which Banks so thoroughly and engagingly reconstructs Brown's leadership of his antislavery band and their increasingly drastic actions ("Our specialty would be killing men who wished to own other men") is having Brown's third son, Owen, relate it all in his own intimate, felicitous fashion to a historian years after the fact. What is so dramatically revealed by this technique is how Brown brought up his children to be his followers ("It was his gentleness, not his huge, male ferocity, that gathered us in and kept us there"). The reader sees less a madman in Brown than an ardent self-believer, and what the reader sees in author Banks is a sensitive comprehension of Brown, about whom Owen says, "Nothing human beings did with or to one another or themselves shocked him. Only slavery shocked him." Much more straightforward and less impressionistic than Bruce Olds' novel about John Brown, "Raising Holy Hell" (1995)--but no less effective; expect high demand from Banks' fans as well as lovers of historical fiction. ((Reviewed December 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)