Rule of the Bone : Novel, A

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Summary: Holdin Caufield meets The Teachings of Don Juan
Review: Banks has created an incredibly wonderful read. Bone is a strong voice for the youth and a view of adults rarely seen in adult fiction. A coming of age story for those of us who feel left out of Huck and Holdin and search for a new set of eyes through which we can view the world. Whether you have just passed through those "teen" years or are well beyond, do not miss this book

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Summary: Funny, original, engaging, and unfortunately...true to life.
Review: Russell Banks' modern David Copperfield from upstate New York is engaging, funny, shocking, and moving. This is a really well written, fun, modern, memorable book.

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Summary: The Rule
Review: Rule of the Bone by Russel Banks is an instant classic. Banks weaves a beautiful tale of redemption and the sins committed against a lost boy named Bone in an unforgiving world. Bone's criminal attitude towards all property and ethics does not hinder the attachment you gain with him. You can not believe what hell Bone goes through as you turn the pages. Throughout the entire book Bone is rejected from the people who we take for granted loving. His Mom, Dad, Step Dad and entire family look at him as an exile. This book is a eye opener. So many people today need to read about the injustice inherent in modern society. The book is the story of a Punk, Bone, who starts his journey around the Adirondack mountains. Bone chooses to live with a friend rather than live with his alcoholic mother and perverted father. He leaves the pain of his home to live with his friend Russ. Russ lives with Adirondack Iron, a biker gang and when the house burns down Bruce, Bone's only friend runs into the house to save Bone not knowing Bone has already escaped and burns up with the house. Throughout the entire book I don't think there are any commas used except for lists or quotation marks and the story is a first person book. Bank's ear is perfectly tuned into the modern anti-culture and Bank's Bone is the quintessential member of this insurrection. Bone's character arcs throughout the entire book and while his principles (or rather lack of them) don't change he changes his lifestyle from a homeless dropout to a Rastafarian when he meets another homeless man from Jamaica and helps him get back home. They save a little girl who was raped for porn films and Bone and the Jamaican, I-man, grow to love her. Eventually they scrounge enough money to send her to her mom. They find out later that she was killed because of neglect from her mom. Bone meets his long lost Dad and while at first likes him until he realizes what a horrible person he is and then his Dad kills the last person Bone ever cared for. Rule of the Bone is the story of the worst of the worst reclaiming his soul and harmony. You really feel for Bone and wish you could help him badly but you have to trust in his judgment that will eventually find the peace that so many people get for free. You can only hope that his vision, however fogged, will finally see the light. In conclusion I say "Bravo Mr. Banks!" because he wove a romance of the underdog which is definitely more inspiring and thought provoking than any coming-of-age book I have ever read.

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Summary: Ahhh Jamaica
Review: "Rule of the Bone" was my first introduction to Mr. Banks. What an adventure. He writes with spirit and so intelligently, once you read fine lit as this you see the rest of popular fiction for what it is. eck. Pick it up. It's smart, funny, If I still had my copy I share some of my favorite lines, I highlighted a bunch for his wit and insight. One of my favorites Russell Banks.

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Summary: Great Book!
Review: I think everyone has certain books they will associate with periods of their life. This is one of those books. I'm not going to sit here and tell you this is the best book I've ever read. But I will tell you this is an amazing story and that Russell Banks is very talented and under appreciated writer. I had never heard of him untill my roomate gave me his book, and now I'm turned on to his other works. Do yourself a favor, read it!

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Summary: a great book... worth the read
Review: I'm going to keep this short, because i'm sure the other 32 current reviews do a great job of comparing to catcher in the rye and such. This book was recommended to me by my english teacher when I first finished catcher, and wanted more. It's definitely a great book, but as someone growing up in the era definied, I found it somewhat cliche at parts. I figure enough years have passed that most people picking it up now wouldn't recognize the cliches, and would enjoy the book for it's great adventure story.

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Summary: An honest review
Review: There is something very beautiful and intriguing about a twisted life like Bone's, from Russell Banks's novel Rule of the Bone. Banks builds his character on honesty and impulse, sending readers on a turbulent journey of a troubled teenage mind, starting with a sincere, Catcher in the Rye style opening vowing everything told is true.
Rule of the Bone is narrated through Banks's main character Bone, who like Holden Caulfield, uses slang and colloquial language to compliment his image. Banks does a wonderful job of writing his book to seem as if it were coming out of the characters mind itself, using run-on sentences to represent jumbled thoughts, a vocabulary that seems appropriate for its speakers, slurred words and repetitions, and above all, an innocent truthfulness. This syntax of Banks's is similar to J.D. Salinger's, and becomes evident on the first page.
"You'll probably think I'm making a lot of this up just to make me sound better than I really am or smarter or even luckier but I'm not. Besides, a lot of the things that've happened top me in my life so far which I'll get to pretty soon'll make me sound evil or just plain dumb or the tragic victim of circumstances. Which I know doesn't exactly prove I'm telling the truth but if I wanted to make myself look better than I am or smarter or the master of my own fate so to speak I could. The fact is the truth is more interesting than anything I could make up and that's why I'm telling it in the first place."
This is the first taste of Bone that Banks feeds us, drawing us in with the mystery of the "the truth." What struck me most about this opening was how personal it is- a great method to draw readers into the book by making them feel closer with the characters.
Though the openings may be similar, this story is not a reproduction of The Catcher in the Rye. Banks introduces his own idiosyncratic characters along with scandalous scenarios creating a wild, modern flavor. Readers are easily seduced as Bone honestly recounts a time in his life when he was nothing but an immature punk trying to build an image. We are given this fourteen year old boy whose family life is shattered and seeks euphoria in pot smoking and low key mischief. He finds comfort in nothing, he commits several criminal acts, and he follows all the wrong leaders. By and large, Bone is an offbeat, lost teenager with a shattered life who subconsciously embarks on a mission to find himself.
"Basically people don't know how kids think, I guess they forget. But when you're a kid it's like you're wearing this binoculars strapped to your eyes and you cant see anything except what's in the dead center of the lenses because you're too scared of everything else or else you don't understand it and people expect you to, so you feel stupid all the time. Mostly a lot of stuff just doesn't get registered. You're always f***ing up and there's a lot that you don't even see that people expect you to see..."
Something that remains constant about Bone's character is that he is always worried about doing what is expected. For example, there is a period in the beginning of his escape when he lives with the gang of bikers and a sixteen year old high school dropout. During this time, they expect him only to keep the marijuana on a steady flow.
Bone reaches a higher level of maturity towards the middle of the book when he meets I-Man, a homeless Jamaican Rasta with whom Bone ends up living for a few months. During his stay with I-Man, Bone learns more about himself than he knew possible, and gains a certain level of wisdom and knowledge. We begin to see that Bone actually digs deeply into everything he thinks about, though he appears to just be a punk rock kid without thought or direction. At this point, Bone begins to set a really curious tone in the story with all the new perception and maturity that begins to flood his life. This tone took me by surprise because Bone usually does not let many people intrigue him. However, when he meets I-Man, he becomes extremely curious and fascinated by everything that I-Man has to offer. For example, when it seems like his adventures with I-Man may be coming to an end, Bone says "...I wasn't actually thinking too much about my future just then, it was too scary and lonely to contemplate any possible futures without the company and teaching of I-Man to guide me..." From this the reader can gather that I-Man has taught Bone about life, something that he never knew about, therefore sparking this curiosity in his mind to always be around I-Man and learn more. He gives Bone confidence and courage- something that is not present within him at the beginning of the story.
The plot only picks up as the story still progresses. Towards the end, Bone actually ends up becoming Rastafarian and living in Jamaica, which adds to the voyage through his mind by introducing new characters and untamable situations. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a creative attention-grabbing novel. I have little criticism for Banks- only praise for his style, his plot, and his chaotic entertaining characters. This is a book you should not miss.