The working class gets stubbed out in Russell Banks' posthumous 'American Spirits'
The late author often wrote about the loneliness and isolation of the working class. His new short story collection puts a sharper focus on the politics of small town life.
The stories in Russell Banks' new short-story collection, American Spirits, feel like the most erudite guy at the bar telling you a story he'd heard from a different guy at the bar the other night. Which makes sense considering Banks, who died in 2023, based these stories off gossip he heard living part-time in Keene, New York.
"He used to go down to the local roadhouse and
