What do you think?
Rate this book
Success Stories: Astute and Forceful Moral Fables of Greed, Violence, and Upward Mobility
In Success Stories, an exceptionally varied yet coherent collection, Russell Banks proves himself one of the most astute and forceful writers in America today. Queen for a Day, Success Story, and Adultery trace fortunes of the Painter family in their pursuit of and retreat from the American dream. Banks also explores the ethos of rampant materialism in a group of contemporary moral fables. The Fish is an evocating parable of faith and greed set in a Southeast Asian village, The Gully tells of the profitability of violence and the ironies of upward mobility in a Latin American shantytown, and Children's Story explores the repressed rage that boils beneath the surface of relationships between parents and children and between citizens of the first and third worlds.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
20 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Russell Banks
103 books1,012 followersRussell 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 27, 2008
Well now, nothing can get you more into the mirthfully joyous Christmas spirit than reading Russell Banks' sorta-short story collection/sorta-novella, "Success Stories". After all, what could make you feel cheerier than reading about how inevitably dreary and disappointing life is?
I've read Banks before, so I wasn't exactly surprised at how glum his little world was, but it definitly stands out as a defining quality of this collection. I call it a sorta-collection because many of the stories are actually related, following the life of an optimistic, yet constantly down-on-his-luck working class boy named Earl Painter. The stories (most of them) chart his early boyhood, when his father leaves his mother and his siblings high-and dry, into young-adulthood, when he flees the stark cold landscape of New Hampshire for the sunny, yet equally destitute landscape of Florida. His story is seen through to show off his clumsy courting of a workplace sweetheart, to his later adulthood when the relationship with his estranged father is touched on. This was possibly the most depressing story, seen through his father's eyes, as the relationship isn't cold or mean or uncivil, as much as it is pointless and dripping with apathy on the son's part. You get the sense that pointed animosity from Earl would have been more fulfilling to his old man than the casual manner in which the son brushes off his father when the son is offered the mundane, yet desperately important gift of a cord of firewood. All rather sad and gloomy. Not to say unenjoyable, as long as you read to appreciate a well-told story and not for some kind of vicarious happiness.
Interspersed among stories about the Painter family, are a few actual short stories, all of which are equally cynical and depressing. The doomed fate of a magic fish; the good, though corrupt, intentions of the citizens of a Latin American slum; the sad almost-love story between a beautiful person and his physically ugly counterpart.
"Success Stories" is definitly a quality read if you're into Banks' brand of cold and empty gloom.
I've read Banks before, so I wasn't exactly surprised at how glum his little world was, but it definitly stands out as a defining quality of this collection. I call it a sorta-collection because many of the stories are actually related, following the life of an optimistic, yet constantly down-on-his-luck working class boy named Earl Painter. The stories (most of them) chart his early boyhood, when his father leaves his mother and his siblings high-and dry, into young-adulthood, when he flees the stark cold landscape of New Hampshire for the sunny, yet equally destitute landscape of Florida. His story is seen through to show off his clumsy courting of a workplace sweetheart, to his later adulthood when the relationship with his estranged father is touched on. This was possibly the most depressing story, seen through his father's eyes, as the relationship isn't cold or mean or uncivil, as much as it is pointless and dripping with apathy on the son's part. You get the sense that pointed animosity from Earl would have been more fulfilling to his old man than the casual manner in which the son brushes off his father when the son is offered the mundane, yet desperately important gift of a cord of firewood. All rather sad and gloomy. Not to say unenjoyable, as long as you read to appreciate a well-told story and not for some kind of vicarious happiness.
Interspersed among stories about the Painter family, are a few actual short stories, all of which are equally cynical and depressing. The doomed fate of a magic fish; the good, though corrupt, intentions of the citizens of a Latin American slum; the sad almost-love story between a beautiful person and his physically ugly counterpart.
"Success Stories" is definitly a quality read if you're into Banks' brand of cold and empty gloom.
January 19, 2024
A collection of twelve very diverse short stories, most that can best be described as dismal and disturbing. Two of the stories that stood out to me the most were the title story Success Story about a young man who is accepted to an Ivy League college but drops out in the first term and goes to Florida to try to make something of himself and The Fish a very strange story about a huge fish in a pond. Although the stories were a bit dreary they were entertaining.
April 22, 2012
“One of the most difficult things to say to another person is I hope you will love me. Yet that is what we all want to say to one another—to our children, to our parents and mates, to our friends and even to strangers” (36).
“…walked straight down the hill from the eighteenth-century brick dormitories and classroom buildings to the wide boulevard below, where huge, neoclassical fraternity houses lounged beneath high, ancient elms” (50).
“…and she was wailing, a high, unbroken keening sort of sound, as if she were an old Greek woman who’d been told her favorite son was dead” (126).
“Three left. If I didn’t open a fresh one now, he’d get two and I’d get one. But then I’d have two warm beers instead of one cold one. Hard to choose” (126).
“…their pleasant faces glance, as instructed slightly off camera and down to the right, as if they are trying to remember the name of the capital of Montana” (151).
“…walked straight down the hill from the eighteenth-century brick dormitories and classroom buildings to the wide boulevard below, where huge, neoclassical fraternity houses lounged beneath high, ancient elms” (50).
“…and she was wailing, a high, unbroken keening sort of sound, as if she were an old Greek woman who’d been told her favorite son was dead” (126).
“Three left. If I didn’t open a fresh one now, he’d get two and I’d get one. But then I’d have two warm beers instead of one cold one. Hard to choose” (126).
“…their pleasant faces glance, as instructed slightly off camera and down to the right, as if they are trying to remember the name of the capital of Montana” (151).
March 28, 2014
Read Banks' "Angel on the Roof" instead as most of these stories are there plus many others.
March 11, 2024
What do I like about searching the shelves of a first-rate second-hand bookshop? Reaffirming that the amazing thing about literature is, good work has the potential to last forever.
Case in point: these stories were written over 40 years ago, collected in 1986 -- and here I am, discovering the material in 2024. (Isn't that the dream of every writer? To still be making an impact on new readers, ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty years down the down?)
I gave this collection four stars because some of the stories were real easy to skip.
But "Queen for a Day", "Success Story", "Adultery" and "Firewood" (basically, the Painter family material) are all five stars. Throw in "Sarah Cole" (I know I read this one someplace else, as I am sure it has been widely anthologized) and you have a collection I'd rank right up there with ELEVEN KINDS OF LONELINESS by Richard Yates, my personal favorite short story collection of all time.
Looking forward to tracking down more writing by Russell Banks, now that my eyes are open.
Case in point: these stories were written over 40 years ago, collected in 1986 -- and here I am, discovering the material in 2024. (Isn't that the dream of every writer? To still be making an impact on new readers, ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty years down the down?)
I gave this collection four stars because some of the stories were real easy to skip.
But "Queen for a Day", "Success Story", "Adultery" and "Firewood" (basically, the Painter family material) are all five stars. Throw in "Sarah Cole" (I know I read this one someplace else, as I am sure it has been widely anthologized) and you have a collection I'd rank right up there with ELEVEN KINDS OF LONELINESS by Richard Yates, my personal favorite short story collection of all time.
Looking forward to tracking down more writing by Russell Banks, now that my eyes are open.
January 15, 2020
Exploring the ordinary... successfully.
With the exception of one or two stories, this collection holds together beautifully. Titled ironically, Success Stories, one wonders if just making it through each day in the face of bad luck, poor decisions, misfortune and chronic depression makes the protagonists candidates for success. The writing style is clear, concise, and poetic. I can certainly visualize the characters’ lives as they weave in and out of a web of ordinariness that is so eloquently described, it seems almost, (but not quite), desirable.
With the exception of one or two stories, this collection holds together beautifully. Titled ironically, Success Stories, one wonders if just making it through each day in the face of bad luck, poor decisions, misfortune and chronic depression makes the protagonists candidates for success. The writing style is clear, concise, and poetic. I can certainly visualize the characters’ lives as they weave in and out of a web of ordinariness that is so eloquently described, it seems almost, (but not quite), desirable.
February 15, 2023
I was first introduced to this book back in college, and have made it a point to revisit it over the years.
This was probably my 10th read of the book, and still appreciate the author's writing after all this time.
This was probably my 10th read of the book, and still appreciate the author's writing after all this time.
Want to read
April 25, 2025Cutting is for Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story
By Russell Banks
By Russell Banks
May 25, 2025
A couple stories are just OK imo, but there’s a lot of good stuff here. Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story is a personal favorite of mine
December 9, 2019
misleading title a lot of these characters are actually quite unsuccesful
December 20, 2010
I always seem to read Banks's books in the winter, and somehow the bleak outlook of his stories and novels is something of an anodyne to the insane nostalgia and bittersweet banquets of the holiday season. Success Stories alternates between Banks's naturalism in his Painter family stories of mid-century, working class American life, and some fables that take place in Latin ghettos and Korean villages. Banks should stick with his own milieu, because these strange fables just don't work.
April 18, 2017
Not my favorite of Bank's work, (compared to Rule of the Bone which I adored), but a few of the stories were well worth the read- I felt like I was seeing Banks from a much earlier place in his life- some stories I might have skipped over, but I always feel compelled to give a writer's work my full attention... a dark melancholy covers so many of these tales- just when you think something might go well for a character, sigh... things fall apart....
September 4, 2008
I found this book on the shelf of an extrememly well read roommate and devoured it . I had heard the author read "Sarah Cole: a type of love story" on "This American Life" and was hooked on Russell Banks. It's the only book I never returned to that roommates bookshelf.
May 4, 2010
Painfully tragic. Some of the stories don't seem to fit in with the others that are vignettes from the life of a male protagonist from age 12 onward. They are good stories, but seem like added filler.
November 21, 2014
“Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story” is my favorite (recommended by PH). He uses two points of view. Alternates between first and third—third person to distance narrator from the awful way he treats Sarah, first person to express his sorrow, his shame. Excellent.
September 12, 2007
hard fellow. good writer.
Want to read
September 23, 2007I haven't read this collection yet, but "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story" is one of the better short stories in the universe.
June 21, 2011
よいのもいくつかあったけど、全部とはいえない。それにしても、思うのは、ダザイやアクタガワの短編はうまい。どれをとっても、楽しめる。
March 7, 2024
One whole star is for "Sarah Cole" and "My Mother's Memoirs..." which are both beautiful and complex.
September 3, 2014
Read this collection of earlier stories after reading Banks' newest collection. These are not as polished as the newer ones, but their rawness is appealing too. He writes beautifully.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews