Foregone

Russell Banks Press Reviews

'As always, Banks's prose has remarkable force to it... there is such brio in the writing... that we follow Fife into the depths. The book's real theme is the curse of being convinced that one is unlovable. And who among us hasn't suffered that conviction to one degree or another?' - New York Times Book Review

'Foregone is a subtle meditation on a life composed of half-forgotten impulses and their endless consequences, misapprehensions of others that are accepted and exploited almost passively, a minor heroism that is only enhanced by demurral. In the rages of a sick old man profound questions arise-what is a life? A self? And what is lost when truth destroys the fabrications that sustain other lives?' - Marilynne Robinson

'During a career stretching almost half a century, Russell Banks has published an extraordinary collection of brave, morally imperative novels. The same marrow-delving impulse runs through them all... He traces the forces that influence whole societies as deftly as he explores the impulses that drive ordinary people...a remarkably fluid use of prose to represent the experience of delirium while wrestling to the final moments with the challenge of absolution... in this complex and powerful novel, we come face to face with the excruciating allure of redemption' - Washington Post

'Russell Banks is, word for word, idea for idea, one of the great American novelists' - Colum McCann

'Russell Banks, as cinematographer, is known to move in close. Foregone focuses his sharp eye on the feints and fictions amid life's

facts,

as he reveals his fascinatingly fallible character, Fife, whose personal life has been contextualized by history. As we zig-zag through the character's past and present, it becomes apparent that the writer is simultaneously, and subtly, demonstrating the act of writing fiction' - Ann Beattie

'Vibrant new novel by a grand man of American letters... Banks' crystalline storytelling is both one man's deathbed quest to grasp his own life and a pure pleasure to read' - Oprah Mag 'The most anticipated books of 2021'

'A powerful novel' - Boston Globe

'Banks, a conduit for the confounded and the unlucky, a writer acutely attuned to place and ambiance, is at his most magnetic and provocative in this portrait of a celebrated documentary filmmaker on the brink of death... Masterful' - Booklist (starred review)

'Strikingly effective... Banks explores aging, memory, and reputation in thoughtful and touching ways... A challenging, risk-taking work marked by a wry and compassionate intelligence.' - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

'The mixture of bravado and vulnerability is characteristic of Mr. Banks's impressive body of work, whose range has been underappreciated' - Wall Street Journal