Rule of the Bone

*** By Russell Banks. (Playing catch up...) This book is frequently compared to The Catcher in the Rye, as you'll notice if you read any of the critic quotes on the cover, and it's a fair comparison. Let's not get into any silly arguments on "great literature," and whether anyone could ever possibly compare to the demigod J.D. Salinger. Just take my word for it that Rule of the Bone is a good book in its own right.

Our antihero is comparable to a Holden Caulfield from a family that was way too poor to send him to prep school. Bone, as he soon renames himself, is a teenage boy who lacks direction and discipline but stays eternally optimistic and compassionate even when tragedy strikes. Again. And again. And again.

We seen Bone grow from a scraggly kid pawning off things from home in order to buy drugs, to a slightly older, slightly less scraggly kid who's achieved the Rastafarian equivalent of Zen (almost). On the way he makes friends and enemies, betrays and is betrayed by his parents, finds a child and then loses her. On the way he breaks a lot of laws and smokes a lot of dope, but he still manages to convince the reader that he's a "good kid" and that he's going to make it okay in the end.

Which of course is an achievement on Banks's part. Character is definitely the strongest point in this book, and the voice is terrific. Also, the plot is refreshing, as it twists and turns away from the conventional "coming of age" props and takes the reader to unexpected places with unexpected results.

Posted by Lisa on January 24, 2003 03:31 PM