Part love story, part murder mystery, set on the cusp of the Second World War, Russell Banks' sharp-witted and deeply engaging new novel raises dangerous questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness-and explores what happens when two powerful personalities begin to break the rules.
29-year-old Vanessa Cole is a wild, stunningly beautiful heiress, scandalously linked to any number of rich and famous men. But at her parents' country home in a remote Adirondack Mountain enclave known as The Reserve, two events coincide to permanently alter the course of Vanessa's callow life: her father dies suddenly of a heart attack, and a mysteriously seductive local artist, Jordan Groves, lands his biplane in the forbidden Upper Lake...
Internationally known as much for his exploits and conquests as for his paintings themselves, Jordan's leftist loyalties seem suspiciously undercut by his wealth and upper-crust clientele. But for all his worldly swagger, Jordon is as staggered by Vanessa's beauty and charm as she is by his defiant independence. He falls easy prey to her electrifying personality, but it is not long before he discovers that the heiress carries a dark, deeply scarring family secret. Emotionally unstable from the start, and further unhinged by her father's unexpected death, Vanessa begins to spin wildly out of control, manipulating and destroying the lives of all who cross her path. The Reserve is a clever, incisive, and passionately romantic novel of suspense that adds a new dimension to this acclaimed author's extraordinary repertoire.
The Reserve provides woodsy pleasures for its upper-class members, who remain insulated from the economic vicissitudes grinding away at most Americans in 1936. Jordan Groves, an artist loosely based on the real-life Rockwell Kent, lives on the border of the property and fails to see how much he has in common with the rich he believes he despises. His inner conflicts come to a head when he becomes involved with heiress Vanessa Cole. Tom Stechschulte lightly tints the dialogue to give a sense of characterization--flat tones for north country locals, Germanic accents for Jordan's wife--and to add color to the setting. As the protagonists' problems mount, Stechschulte's quiet delivery dramatizes their mounting fury and a world gone out of control. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
Russell Banks is the founding president of Cities of Refuge North America and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. He lives in upstate New York and is the New York State Author.
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