Relation of My Imprisonment

by Russell Banks

“Banks has skillfully used his repertoire of contemporary techniques to write a novel that is classically American — a dark, but sometimes funny, romance with echoes of Poe and Melville.”  —  Washington Post "A marvelously written little book, fascinatingly intricate, yet deceptively simple. Well worth reading more than once." —  New York Times Book Review From acclaimed author Russell Banks comes a work of fiction utilizing a form invented in the seventeenth century by imprisoned Puritan divines Designed 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.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Russell Banks was a member of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. He has written fiction, and more recently, non-fiction, with Dreaming up America. His main works include the novels Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Hereafter, and Affliction. The latter two novels were each made into feature films in 1997.

Reviews

[Bob Luxenberg]

Ballsy. Who else but Banks would dare write in a style from the seventeenth century of imprisoned Puritans!. Entertaining; not his best. But - as he is a master- that’s not saying much. One histerically funny part.

[Jesse]

Three stars, begrudgingly. It's creative and it definitely shows Banks' ability as an author but this book is mostly pointless. In fact, I don't get it at all and I don't really care either.

[Grady Ormsby]

Literature has an assortment of genres and sub-genres. One is the relation. Popular among 17th Century Puritans, a relation is the retelling of a personal experience. It was usually the retelling of the author’s spiritual conflicts and tribulations, quite often involving imprisonment as religious persecution. The narratives were designed to be exemplary as a test of faith and didactic for the instruction of other true believers and for the benefit of their salvation.

I first learned of this niche in literature when I read The Relation of My Imprisonment (1983) by Russell Banks. Banks is a contemporary, of course, but he wrote in the imitative style of the 17th Century. The language is ornate and decorous with long convoluted, formulaic sentences. The unnamed first-person narrator was the devotee of a somewhat creepy death-worshipping cult. His sect is ill-defined but rather evocative and the reader is left with many questions. There are quotes from scripture and interesting citations from Craig, The Book of Discipline, Dirk, Carol, Trib., and Carol.,

The narrator’s travails stem from the fact that his religion is illegal. He describes his eleven-year imprisonment in great detail, focusing not so much on the suffering itself, but on his own reaction to it and how his attitude of obstinate perversity affects his spirituality. In a theme of redemption though suffering, he begins to welcome further adversity as a source of opportunity to prove his strength of faith. His legal situation is nightmarish and especially notable is a rather Kafkaesque court scene. All this leads to an eventual deterioration of memory and of self.

The Relation of My Imprisonment is one of three novels in a volume entitled Outer Banks. In the “Preface” Banks provides an interesting essay about his autodidactic journey as a writer. He writes that the three early novels were written so long ago they seem to have been written by someone else. He then goes on to describe his earlier, younger self and the journey taken to become the recipient of multiple awards, medals, and prizes and induction into scholarly academies.

[Kevin S.]

An odd novella about a coffin maker imprisoned when coffin making is ruled illegal because it worships the dead.
Banks style for this book reminded me of Kafka or Camus who wrote at times about choking bureaucracy. The story mocks religious texts and the be!ief in them as life guides but at the same time acknowledges their comfort and the stability they give.
Mostly the book seems about how man can be convinced of anything given the right context.

[Lynn Demarest]

Early Banks. Entirely weird.

[Avery]

2.75

[R. Thorn]

I do not like this book. I must at least blame myself for this, as I do not know how upon reading the first pages i came to the conclusion I would enjoy the book and that purchasing it seemed prudent. The book is not to my taste and I cannot rightly so blame that on the author. Yet regrettably I still find myself irritated and disinterested in this fictional man’s preaching of his self inflected woes. The self evident subtle misogyny baked into this man’s casual remarks of his partner as “woman” and “young wife” with no mention of name continue to bite me under the skin. Why is it that I learn the names of so much other men but not his wife nor his children. As of yet he has also still not mentioned himself by name, and thusly one might argue he views himself and his wife one the same. But still it feels to me he cannot help but view his wife as property.

I distain a man who puts his faith above his family. I cannot truly find his resolve in his faith to be powerful in face of the children going hungry and having 2 ways die to stress, neglect, and poverty. The second of which he surely could have helped if he so deigned. I understand that in his own eyes of faith that death is something to be celebrated and embraced and perhaps that is why he felt seemly no remorse at abandoning his family. But I strongly refute this. While the dead should be respected and most certainly not feared, still we should find joy in life.

While I clearly do not agree with characters preachings, that is not simply the only reason I found myself so at odds with this novel. Instead of inspiring or intruiging I found the writing too largely to be over-repetitive and drab. Self-reverential relentlessly so. Perhaps this writing is intentional and supposed to remark and criticize the main character himself. This does not mollify me. It hardly seems worthy enough of an excuse for an unenjoyable read. While already generally short at 120 pages, I feel greatly a more succinct read would have endeared me more greatly.

[Kevin]

A Swiftian satire on the conventions of religion and the political system of imprisonment. Don't let the mock-seventeenth century style throw you--this book is very droll. Unobtrusive details are telling and sometimes hilarious.

[Tanya]

Strange story essentially about a worshiping the dead religion and a man who practices it (and his insights henceforth).

[Mark]

An interesting literary excercise, but as compelling fiction? Not so much.

[Kenneth Chanko]

Something of an academic/literary exercise, often dry, this slender novel is primarily for Banks completists only.

[Dan]

I love Rusell Banks. This one just did not do it for me though. Very slow. Very dull. Very Very depressing. If that is what you are looking for in a book then this is the one for you.

[Joshua]

There's just something fun about short this novel to me. I imagine Russell will be better remembered for his longer novels from the 80s and 90s, but Relation deserves more love!