Books like Affliction by Russell Banks
Wade Whitehouse lives in a bleak New Hampshire town, working as a policeman and digging up the town's secrets. A former high‑school football star who has slipped into a life of drinking, Wade is a loner with a mean streak, embodying the rough, blue‑collar American everyman. The novel follows his descent into tragedy, exploring themes of mental illness, machismo, and the darker side of the American way of violence. The narrative is rendered through the eyes of Wade's articulate younger brother, whose own scars and honesty make the tale both psychologically compelling and a powerful indictment of societal norms. Banks weaves mystery, psychological insight, and social critique into this portrait of a man who has become a fuse primed to explode.
First publish date: 1989
Genre: General Fiction/General Fiction
Authors: Russell Banks
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