Cloudsplitter


Cloudsplitter is a 1998 historical novel by Russell Banks relating the story of abolitionist John Brown.
The novel is narrated as a retrospective by John Brown's son, Owen Brown, from his in the San Gabriel Mountains of California. His reminiscences are triggered by the reception of an invitation from a Miss Mayo, assistant to Oswald Garrison Villard, then researching his book John Brown: A Biography Fifty Years After.

Major themes

Banks raises a number of thematic questions during the lengthy portrayal of his subject matter. Notable among them are:
The narrative style employed by Banks is introspective and apologetic where each character's moral compass is seen as through the microscope of Owen Brown's telling; detailed and larger than life. Bank's prose uses language that registers on the psyche: evoking the conviction that redemption can be gained by an Augustinian confession. And yet the reader is goaded into sympathy with these characters by their sheer persistence in the face of seemingly insurmountable daily travails - evoking the innocence of a new-born country.

Literary license

Banks takes great license with some of the historical figures in his narrative and very clearly states in his preface that his book is a work of fiction and not to be substituted for a work of biography or history. Perhaps most significant is the later life of Owen Brown; the historical Owen Brown died in 1889 at the age of 64 while his literary counterpart lives for decades longer.

Reception

The novel was reviewed positively in a number of places:
In 2011, The Guardian's Tom Cox selected Cloudsplitter as one of his "overlooked classics of American literature".

Awards and nominations

In 2002, it was reported that Martin Scorsese was to produce a film adaptation of Cloudsplitter, to be directed by Raoul Peck, for the film production company HBO.