The "Rule of the Bone" novel by Russell Banks

I made the literary acquaintance of the late Russell Banks, one of the greatest American writers of the last 50 years, with the novel Rule of the Bone (published in 1995) and I think this book can get anyone familiar and accustomed to the dark atmosphere of Banks’s novels which are often focused on characters belonging to the American working class, like in Affliction or Continental Drift, besides some bold experiments like his approach of the fight against slavery in the novel Cloudsplitter, dedicated to the 19^th century abolitionist, John Brown, or in The Book of Jamaicia, and American Darling, set mostly in Africa.

As to the novel Rule of the Bone, it’s a coming-of-age novel of a special type, since the teenager protagonist, Chappie, lives in an unprivileged family and befriends several persons practising illegal activities for a living, including his loyal companion, Russ, and a group of unapologetic bikers who deal drugs and sell stolen electronic devices, living in the first floor above a video-rental shop without paying a rent.

When Chappie got fired from school his relations with his mother and stepfather worsen (his father has left home for a long time), and he eventually choses to leave home too and starts a life of successive loyalties to dangerous people and outlaws who put his life in danger because of their illegal activities, although they give him shelter and protection in some respects.  Consequently, this ironic situation induces him to question the morality and legitimacy of adults and all persons to whom he is subdued, keeping in mind that he comes from a troubled family where his stepfather has broken the ties of authority and trust by his behaviour, but I don’t want to spoil the major events of the novel.

Worth-mentioning is the style used by Russell Banks who leans on precise and powerful metaphors which managed brilliantly to grasp the emotion felt by a given character at a certain stage of the story or to express a specific idea of the author. As I said previously, what characterizes Banks’ novels is that dark atmosphere which is not created necessarily by tragic events (although the worst is often feared) but by his use of specific terms and a disillusioned cynical tone which imparts the novel an effect of “Clair-obscure” like in some nuanced paintings, so that reality unfolds through the grim aspect of the protagonists, their half-smiles and their choked indignation, under the cold indifferent sky of the gloomy suburbs of Au Sable in New York State.

Nevertheless, 14 years old Chappie will try his best to get through; shifting from one group to another wherever his life is in danger, then he becomes alone for a certain period; alone but not selfish as the reader who follows his urban adventures can perceive it. He also changes his name to “Bone” that he tattoos on his forearm; a way to free himself from his past and to forget his family and unsavory companions. However, this loneliness proves to be unbearable at a moment, in the absence of money and perspectives, but hopefully Bone makes the acquaintance of I-Man, a Jamaican mature man who initiates him gradually to Rastafarian spirituality and inculcates him some discipline by teaching him how to grow fruits and vegetables in the Jamaican fashion or what is called “Ital cuisine”. But I-Man is an immigrant worker and his visa has expired, thus he is forced to return to Jamaica, and Bone feels a compelling need to go with him. Thus, the wild teenager will make other discoveries over the island; he will belong again to a new group of people with their own set of rules that can, nonetheless, be broken at every opportunity, which just makes it harder for the kid to understand the principals of the adults and what they can or cannot do.

Bone’s tone naivety can be laughable sometimes. Still, he is often quite perceptive and makes us realise that even adults themselves don’t fully understand the world where they live, nor can always tell what’s right or wrong. In this respect, one can but notice the resemblance of Bone with the character of Holden Cauldfield in J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, except that the novel Rule of the Bone tackles more complex issues like the loss of landmarks within family and society, the (bad?) influence of the group over the individual, freedom of choice and race relations, especially in the last part of the book set in Jamaica,  which deals also with the history of slavery and the origins of Reggae music.

Sincerely, I have read this novel by Russell Banks at least five times and I never get sick of it thanks to the writer’s poignant style, and his sharp look and analyses which turn even mondain events to episodes of the everlasting human tragicomedy.

Russell Banks died in January 2023. May he rest in peace.

Lyes Ferhani