Russell Banks
Harper (1996)

It’s Huckleberry Finn On Crack

by Nicholas Nocketback

With a mother who turns a blind eye to his abusive, molesting stepfather, Bone sets off on an adventure, sleeping in abandoned buses and behind grocery stores. Accompanied by a rat pack of punk, pot-head, mall-rat friends, Bone finds himself immersed in a culture of fast women, hard drugs, and violent adult figures.

Like so many kids these days, Bone is running from his pseudo-family and in search of his biological one. By befriending a Rastafarian named I-Man in one of his random flop-houses, he gets a chance to live in Jamaica. Ironically enough, the life that he left thousands of miles away turns up in the form of his biological father. The meeting of these two characters leaves the reader and the protagonist in less than satisfied. His sundry issues mirror much about America and the problems teens deal with.

If you have friends who are in abusive relationships, or who have failed classes and given up on school, or who have families that make you sick to your stomach, or who have ever loved and lost someone, then you can relate to Bone. Through his travels, he learns a lot about how to respond to adults who don’t understand him, friends who stab him in the back, and women who have no other goal in life than to humiliate the man they’re with. The turning point for all of this is when Bone accidentally comes across a marijuana crop and is bonded to tend the patch. Making a living in this most unnatural of natural environments, Bone finds his spiritual self, allowing the physical one to melt away—for a time.

This is another fast-paced book where the setting flies by at 90 miles an hour. The plot is full of twists and turns, as is the dialogue. People are two-faced, blood sucking, and users (a mirror to real life), which makes those few good characters stand out even more. This piece is an adventurous journey through the world, not just America, a reflection of the way we’ve become a global civilization. If you want a book that cuts to the bone, read Rule.