The Angel on the Roof

by Russell Banks

"At his shattering best. . . Banks offers answers that are tough, honest, and inevitable without being simple. . . . A book that is not to be missed." — New York Times With The Angel on the Roof, acclaimed author Russell Banks offers readers an astonishing collection of thirty years of his short fiction, revised especially for this volume and highlighted by the inclusion of nine new stories that are among the finest he has ever written. As is characteristic of all of Bank's works, these stories resonate with irony and compassion, honesty and insight, extending into the vast territory of the heart and the world, from working-class New England to Florida and the Caribbean and Africa. Broad in scope and rich in imagination, The Angel on the Roof affirms Russell Banks's place as one of the masters of American storytelling.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, American, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Anthologies

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 1999

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

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this collection never intending to finish it – nearly 500 pages, of short stories! But I did, trapped as I was in the middle of the ice storm, and was glad for the experience.

I was reminded of Raymond Carver and John Steinbeck when reading these stories, many of which are located in a town called Catamount, New Hampshire. The characters are mostly blue collar workers, often plumbers, leading hard scrabble lives, hanging at the edges of penury. They are scarred individuals, prone to alcohol, adultery, violence, racism, sexism, greed, and vanishing jobs, but with a strong homing call toward their roots in this small state that seems to be fond of Canadian Club whiskey. Children of broken marriages feature prominently and I wondered whether the 12-year old boy in the ‘50’s with a younger brother and sister, whose father abandons the family, a scenario occurring in more than one story (“Queen for a Day” and “The Visit”), is a reflection on the author’s life. However, adult children of broken families should never question their aging parents about what happened those many years ago to disrupt the family unit, as we discover in “Assisted Living.” Plain but strong women are entwined with younger and attractive men, leading to disastrous results (“Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story”). Some of the shorter stories are told in parable form such as “The Fish,” and “The Neighbour.” Communist leanings come out in “With Che in New Hampshire” and in the dramatic recreation of Simon Bolivar’s last hours in “The Rise of the Middle Class.” An unexpected event can lead a man to question the new direction he is taking with his life after the collapse of a long term marriage (“Xmas”). And the final story “Lobster Night” is a dramatic exploration into what happens when individual breaking points are breached, for both men and women. The most moving story for me was “The Moor,” where a 50-something local thespian (also in the plumbing business for his day job, and divorced) meets his 80- year old former lover from 30 years ago, in a restaurant, and escorts her home.

Banks is a slow burn on the longer stories where he takes time and lengthy sentences (some of which are clumsy and pretentious) to build character, but you have to stay the course to gain the benefit. Two of the stories, “The Fisherman” and “The Guinea Pig Lady” run 120 pages between them, and take place in the same trailer park (there are other stories too from this trailer park, pulled from his 1981 collection, aptly named Trailerpark) and are similar in construct; they portray the outsider who goes against the norms of society for altruistic reasons; there is even a section in both stories where the individual judgements of the trailer park denizens (aka society) on these outcasts who dare to go against the grain are laid out candidly and embarrassingly, for we too could be one of those people casting those judgements. The opening story, Djinn, set in a fictitious African state, is similar in theme, where those who rise to the top and look beyond are pulled down by the dictates of a conformist society.

The unfortunate aspect of throwing a writer’s entire body of short fiction into a one mammoth collection is that there will be unevenness between stories, and there is in this one too given the 37 year span over which they were written. Styles vary from 1st person to 2nd person to 3rd person. In fact, the 2nd person constructs are very effectively rendered.

All that said, if you have the time and patience to let Banks conjure up his scenes and characters in his deliberate and methodical fashion, this is a very enjoyable and memorable read.

[mj durocher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russell Banks. I am incapable of doing an honest review about Banks' work because I will only say good things. Because that's all there is.

Banks tells stories of everyday life that permeate and disappear into the mundane backdrop of normalcy. Nobody really cares about these people. Except us, those that are those people. Meaning: everyone. But most people just don't care about stories like this. Most people want to read over-the-top action, fictional retellings of history, or tales of magic and sorcery. I love all stories and that stuff is wonderful and serves as a suitable necessity in our current world bereft of fantasy, but sometimes entering another life as mundane as our own can help give us perspective that we wouldn't normally have access to.

Some readers might be angry with the mundane. That's fine. It's not for everyone. But if you're willing to dive deep into the dirty, regularity of life in the Northeastern U.S. Then by all means, dig in and discover the angel on the roof.

[Federico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il perché di questo libro: perché dal mio punto di vista Russell Banks è un autore da leggere. Perché sono incappato in Russell Banks poco meno di venti anni fa, ed è diventato presto uno degli scrittori di cui leggere tutto, anche la lista della spesa.
Banks, a pensarci bene, si inserisce in quella fascia di età in cui tutto (la musica ascoltata, i libri letti, le esperienze vissute) è stato così intenso da diventare parte di me, interiorizzata.

L'angelo sul tetto è una raccolta di racconti brevi (il più lungo è di una cinquantina di pagine; gli altri, mediamente, di una quindicina), che raccontano un'America fuori dalle mappe turistiche, rimasta ai margini del Sogno Americano, sconfitta dagli eventi.

Storie di fallimenti, raccontate da un narratore onnisciente che non giudica mai le debolezze dei personaggi, ma li racconta con un delicato affetto che non diventa mai compassione.

Pur non essendo un amante della forma 'racconto' ho trovato questo libro denso, intriso di quel lirismo che solo la tensione delle storie vere (o verosimili) possiede.

Mi sono avvicinato a questo libro dubbioso, lo lascio a voi conquistato.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russell Banks continues to be an author who makes me regret not having found him earlier in my life. On the other hand, I wonder if I would have been able to truly appreciate him before now, or if his particular blend of melancholy and regret are only suited to the man I've become.

This is a great collection of short stories, and it was especially exciting to see his occasional jumps outside the comfort zone of rural New Hampshire. Still, my favorites from the collection are probably "The Fisherman" and "Plains of Abraham," both of which manage to merge Banks' genius at characterization with a compelling story. "The Moor" is also great, although it lacks much in the way of plot.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is not called “The Best of Russell Banks”, but Banks carefully selected these 31 stories as the best short works of his long career. He is mostly known for his novels, but this collection displays his skills at short fiction to great effect.

Many of the stories involve the residents of the Granite State Trailer Park, near the small town of Catamount, New Hampshire. The eleven trailers contain a variety of individuals who we come to know. The stories migrate through time, so that we often read a story about a character in his later years, then later on read a story about his youth. It's a mesmerizing way of building a pantheon of characters. The reader has to pay attention to realize all the connections being made.

Although these characters are all 'characters' in their own way, and none have much money, Banks is highly sympathetic to them. His fondness for these people just trying to get along shines through. The characters become almost Dickensian in their individual traits and foibles, but with affection.

Some stories are heartbreaking in their sympathy over an accidental tragedy (“Plains of Abraham”) while others are blindingly funny (“Success Story”). Many of them showcase a minor episode that causes a long-simmering fracture to finally break in a relationship. In all of them, Banks shows how people struggle to live their ordinary lives, with some success and also with some tragedy.

At 502 pages, most of the 31 stories are quite short. The longest is "The Guinea Pig Lady", at 73 pages. The brevity of the stories heighten the precision in which Banks uses his language to shape his effects. Many of them reward re-reading, to see how he did it.

Good fiction can highlight the reality of real life. These stories do that.

[Ted Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

If there was a sense of humor, or even hope in Russell Banks' life, it must have been beaten out of him a long time ago, if these tales are any indication. There is a perverse yearning glamor to be found in these stories about the hard, bitter truths the characters find, or don't, almost as if the hopelessness is something to be envied. Cheever, it can be said, is often times dour and melancholic, but at least lightens the load with transcendent prose , and a dark wit. In the art of using finely wrote sentences and skillfully rendered imagery to depict narratives where a sad ending is inevitable, Cheever is a master; the tragic, the forlorn, the ache and condition of the character's lives are made more emphatic by the elegant framing Cheever places around the particulars. The lesson, intended or not, is that art needn't be limited to helping us appreciate the pretty, peaceful and serene matters of life; only to make us feel the conditions of existence deeper. Additionally , Cheever knew when to quit; craft and art are ever present in his stories,Banks lacks even that, and this succession of dark skies, long winters, and teeth-grinding pain bearing just wears out: the writing, dare we say, even veers towards the cliche. A better written and more incisively written set of stories are needed in place of this.

[Simone Subliminalpop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Semplici scene di famiglie: uomini, donne, giovani e vecchi. Semplicemente la bravura di usare le parole giuste, non una di più, nel modo migliore per costruire un’atmosfera, una sensazione.

Tra i migliori racconti: Il pescatore – Le pianure di Abramo – Mucca-mucca – Il moro – Sarah Cole: un certo tipo di storia d’amore – Regina per un giorno.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Banks is another Hale Award winner I had not read previously. I started reading this collection of his short stories just to get a sense of his writing but ended up reading every one of them. They are unforgettable. Many of the characters live in a trailer park in a town n central New Hampshire and they weave in and out of these stories written over thirty years. Unlike Banks who has written himself out of a miserable childhood, most of these people are still struggling. Almost all of them have been married multiple times, abandoned their children, and work at unsatisfying jobs. Alcohol plays a major role in their lives. They take out their anger on wives and children and regret the terrible life mistakes they’ve made. The women left behind to raise kids on their own aren’t any happier. Sad as this all sounds, Banks give us glimpses of souls that each deserve so much more. His pitch perfect descriptions of these New Hampshire men and women ring with truth and the big questions of life.

[Lylah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russell Banks is not for everyone. His writing has been described as "harsh" and most people who prefer either light reading or fantasy hate his work (and in my experience Banks seems to provoke love or hate responses). You have to appreciate gritty realism, methodical character and plot development, and preferably have a familiarity with northern New England and upstate New York, to appreciate his stories. With that stated upfront, he is a very talented writer with a deep understanding of human nature, and his best work (including "Affliction" and "The Sweet Hereafter") leaves the reader with a deepened understanding of human nature. This is a collection of short fiction from close to four decades of writing, selected by the author to represent what he feels is his strongest work. "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story" in particular stands out as a little masterpiece of first-person short story writing.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Russell Banks does not do much happy. But if you like winter and New Hampshire you may find much to like in the short stories of this book. There was a story early in the book about a boy learning to ice skate. It brought me to my youth in Michigan winters skating in a variety of places from small lakes to flooded rinks in the neighborhood.

Some of the characters live in trailers and drink too much and experience and sometimes initiate violence. It is said that the 30 some short stories in the book were selected by Banks himself who considered them the best of his work. I like reading short stories. But these days I am mostly listening to audible books rather than flipping paper pages. With this book the reader was competent but not extraordinary. Every story was red in about the same voice. I think and hope that I have another broker two by Banks I like him.

[Krenner1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed Russell Banks' novels but they have left me just short of high praise. Good writing but just lacking, for me, a story stamina. So was I ever thrilled to pick up his book of short stories. In my opinion THIS is his genre, where he captures a snippet of a life or thought and intensifies it without the frustration of building a story for commercial reading/success. These are wonderful.

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read quite a few of Russell Banks‘ books, I have liked them. He’s always been a 4.5 read for me, but there are passages and scenes that are surpassing. This uneven collection seems to reach only those same levels at best. I read three of the stories that are supposed to be the best. They are good, but they lack the density of Banks’ best novels, and they are not enough to hold me for 500 pages.

I recommend starting with his novels. The Darling is a good place to start. The Sweet Hereafter is his best, imo. But Affliction and Continental Drift are also very good. I haven’t read his long Civil War book (Cloudsplitter).

The three stories I read were:
* “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story” [4.5];
* “Plains of Abraham” [4.5];
* The Moor” [4.5].

[Prima Seadiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. Reader was decent. I would give this 3.5 stars.
A number of stories were connected by place and characters.One disadvantage of listening was not being able to easily look back at some of those connections. I often wish audio books had better table of contents.
Most of the stories were quite good. As they were written over a period of time some were better than others.
The stories involve the lives of working class and lower middle class and how people so often get stuck by circumstance and decision was poignant. The depiction of those lives rang true.

[Brigitte Messier-Legendre · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'auteur se spécialise dans les histoires de gens sans histoire, et c'est fait tout en subtilité. Les ambiances parlent beaucoup, ça transpire la mélancolie et la banalité du quotidien, et je me rend compte que plusieurs nouvelles me sont restées en tête. J'ai aussi apprécié le fil conducteur entre les nouvelles, qui s'est révélé à moi petit à petit.

[Noonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy could write like nobody’s business. He very recently died. A master of the short story. He’s now on my TRY TO READ ANYTHING THEY EVER WROTE list..

[Brooksie Fontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't put my finger on why this collection of stories feels so hopeful.

The subject matter, in most of the stories, is far from an optimistic look at the human condition: many of the stories focus on people living difficult lives, striving for human connection in strange and unhealthy ways, only to sabotage their own, already questionable efforts.

Many of the characters are completely unaware of the source of their compulsions, making them difficult to resolve: from a handsome and financially successful man who finds himself compelled to sleep with (in his words) "the homeliest woman he's ever met," to an eccentric woman who compulsively breeds guinea pigs, to a girl struck by lightning who's disgusted at the idea of anyone knowing about it. Banks makes these situations feel human, and invites the reader to empathize with them. And empathize we do.

One of the most interesting stories was a bit more mundane than the aforementioned scenarios, yet no less interesting: "Firewood," in which an alcoholic father who abused his wife and left his children decades ago, realizes that his adult sons want nothing to do with him. One won't answer his calls, and one -- the older and more responsible, who was left to rise to the occasion -- politely "deals" with his father, but the effect is more or less the same. Having abandoned his children, he cannot reap the reward of a responsible and attentive parent.

A recurring theme throughout the stories is how we effect other people, how we -- in our self-absorption and ignorance -- often don't realize the ramifications of our actions until later, at which point they should have seemed obvious. The aforementioned handsome man remarks that he irrevocably hurt the "homely" woman, and didn't realize it was cruel until after the fact; in telling the story, he hopes to determine if he is, in fact, a cruel person for what he did.

Many of the stories central around the residents of a New Hampshire trailer park, and successfully made me care about them -- even feel affection towards them -- while also using them to showcase the more unpleasant attributes of human behavior and their capacity to make one another's lives unnecessarily difficult.

Many of the characters are difficult people, but their stories are narrated with immense understanding. No one is a caricature, even people who -- in real life -- prejudiced people might view as caricatures, like the Guinea Pig Lady.

I would be remiss if I neglected to mention "The Moor," which I happened to hear read by its late author on "This American Life," and which first illustrated to me the immense power of Banks's writing. It was the first I'd head of him, an episode intended to commemorate his life and legacy. In learning of him and his death, I was transported into the worlds of his words, which are very much alive.

The book opens with the hypothesis that each story is an appeal to be understood, a prayer to the "angel on the roof." And the angels are listening.

[R. M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read half of the stories in this collection and may read one or two more although that seems unlikely at this point. The best thing about the book is the author's "By Way of an Introduction." If only the stories that follow were as good.

[Defne Ipek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hikayelerin ilginç yanları olsa da malesef bu kitabın içine dalamadım

[Mmars · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often have difficulty reading a collection of short stories from beginning to end, but "Angel on the Roof" held me from the whole way through. There were a couple less impressive stories (thankfully they were all short) but some of these will hold me for some time. The squallor of the Guinea Pig Lady, the moral of the Fisherman, the heart-wrenching decision in the Burden, etc. Many of these stories revolve around decisions and their consequences - most often through the elusive nature of male thought and the unexplainable actions men take. I felt the women were more weakly drawn characters, but was not bothered by this - probably because so many of the stories' characters had so many faults or bad luck or repeated family cycles of poverty, abuse, alcoholism, etc. that I didn't desire to know all the characters well.

I may be wrong, but I think this would be a difficult book for some men to read because many of the characters are hurting and they just can't control or face it. Difficult, yes. But true? Sadly, too often.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read about half the stories in this collection. They cover some of the same ground as the stories of Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus--hardscrabble, working class lives, ordinary people making mistakes and living with their consequences. Yet Banks's stories don't have the moral complexity of Carver's or the compelling density of Dubus's. In his note at the end of the book, Banks comments on the difference between novels and short stories: "The novel ... accrues, accretes, and accumulates itself in small increments, like a coral reef, and through that process invites from its creator leisurely, circumambulatory exploration. By contrast, stories are like perfect waves, if one is a surfer." Based on the one Banks novel I've read, Continental Drift, I think the novel form suits Banks better. His stories often feel thin and one-dimensional; they haven't accumulated enough detail or nuance.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all the stories are amazing, but the four stars (I only reserve 5 for those rare classic stand the test of all time reads) are alone for all the stories collected from an earlier book, Trailerpark. That book, from its collection of stories assembled here, reads like a slightly more depressing Cannery Row - which to me, is fantastic. Banks' short stories have a Hemmingway influence but also Carver and Cheever too. Anyway, he is certainly on of the better short story writers I have read and I highly recommend this collection.

[Shannon Leahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russell Banks is an exceptional writer! I got lost in these stories and characters. They gave me the same feeling I get from viewing Caspar David Freidrich paintings -- Complex themes and characters (the crux of who we are as human beings) in landscapes that make your jaw drop. Wow!

[Tognabalogna · Rating 5 out of 5]

best collection of short stories I've read since Raymond Carver

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

as people say some excellent stories here.

[Richard Magahiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection of stories there is a fair amount of violence, addiction, deceit, regret, and death contained in tales of working class life. There are moments of realization, though it seems as though these might not have gotten through to all the characters at the same time they explode for the reader. I picked this up because I remembered hearing the story "The Moor" read on the radio, a good example of a tale about the burden and gift of memory re-emerging only after decades. Not all these stories end in that kind of epiphany though most have ingenious telling moments somewhere along the way. Some share characters and settings, others play with the same themes but branch off in slightly different directions. I felt as though every one of these selected stories had something valuable to offer me, a place deeply felt, though there were some I admired a lot more than others.

The audiobook version read by Robert Fass was a pleasure to listen to, clocking in at about eighteen hours in all. I think it might bring out more of the emotion than what I might easily get from the printed page.

[Greyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A five-hundred page collection of short stories is always fairly daunting -- having not read anything by Russell Banks prior, I decided to make this my "summer up north/camping" read, spread out over several trips and roughly six months. Only in the past week did I rip through the final 300 pages, and I'm glad I did. Around half the stories revolve around a small trailer park in rural New Hampshire, showing us a slice of life that's often cripplingly sad. Fathers dealing with losing sons, multi-divorcees musing on the past, a mad dash for small sums of lottery money, and eccentrics just trying to make it day-by-day.

Banks is reliably good for a brilliant opening sentence and satisfying ending to these small, intimate tales, and the writing is strong throughout.

A slimmer collection focused on the trailer park could be a classic. Generally, when he leaves the northeast US--particularly for abroad--the story is more experimental (with several stories in the second person) and these are the ones that, for me, fell a bit flat on the whole. Regardless - plenty of dog-eared pages and creative similes for days.

[Marie Zhuikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an unsettling, disturbing, thought-provoking collection of short stories. Many of the stories take place in a trailer park community in New England. Different stories jump around in time, which sometimes explains characters' actions in previous stories, but sometimes is just plain confusing.

My favorite stories were "The Moor," which deals with a past love, "Indisposed," in which a wife finds her power, and the story about the old man who wins the lottery, which functions as a parable about the power (or lack of power) of money.

The series begins with the fanciful image of the eavesdropping angel on the roof, to whom all our stories are offered, and it ends with a literal "bang." Yowza.

[Mary Appold · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. Easy to pick up and read a story or two, then come back a few days later and read one or two more. I was a few stories in before I caught on they were all connected. Soon it seemed like reading a story took on the feel of a call "back home" catching up on the lives of people you'd left behind. A good book for lunch breaks, waiting in lines and doctor's offices, and to keep handy on the side table between loads of laundry.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.45] I appreciated more than enjoyed these well-crafted stories about people stuck in poverty, depression and unhappy situations. I've read a few of Banks' novels, which I really liked, but the stories didn't work as well for me - perhaps because there wasn't enough time for the character development which he excels at.

[Jon Greenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never come across a writer who can tell the story of a plumber or an HVAC guy. So, this alone is reason to jump headlong into anything he ever wrote. He bridges dark, hopeless and hearbreaking sensitivity with economy and beauty.