I think I've found a new favorite author. The latest book I read Cloudsplitter is by Russell Banks. He's written a lot of books, but I've never heard of him until now. Incredibly talented writer. This book was almost 800 pages long, and yet, I had a hard time putting it down. You wouldn't think a story about John Brown would be so interesting, but it was. I mean John Brown the abolitionist. It's told from the point of view of his son Owen, who I think was the only one who made a break from the fateful Harper's Ferry debacle. I didn't know much about John Brown except for what was told in history books at school. He kept everyone in thrall to him and his religious preachings. This book is a portrait of a driven man who expected everyone around him to follow him and his dream. His dream was to free all the slaves in the Union. He thought they would all follow him( there were over 4 million slaves at the time!) He was fervent in his desire to free these slaves and did so on a continuing basis. This story gets brutal, extremely brutal, at times unbelievably so but it couldn't be put down. It's a compelling story and should be read by all who care about what is going on in our country today. There are a lot of parallels.
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