” Russell Banks, who died Sunday January 8, was loved by the French public, who saw him as a petulant critic of contemporary America’s excesses “, describe “ his friend », the author Stéphanie Janicot, in an article published in the crossand picked up by Actes Sud Editions in a press release.

very difficult childhood

Russell Banks was born in Massachusetts in 1940 and grew up in Vermont. eldest of four children his violent father leaves the house when young Russell was only 12 years old. He married at the age of 20 and worked odd jobs to help around the house. He divorces and remarries Literature studies resumed and father of three more daughters. He will live in Jamaica for a while and likes to travel to Cuba, where he meets a certain Fidel Castro.

His first writings, which brought him international recognition, appeared in the mid-1970s Drifting continentspublished 1985, first translated into French under the name Florida terminal.will follow Beautiful mornings (trans. Christine Le Boeuf), novel about pain and guilt, filmed by Atom Egoyan. The movie gets the top prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Another important text infirmity this time also adapted by Paul Schrader in 1997.

Translated into more than twenty languageswe can also quote his main works, Under the rule of Bonepublished in 1995, American darling 2004 or Distant memory of the skinpublished in 2012. More recently he published the collection of short stories, a permanent family member,published 2015, stories,Travelin 2017.

Primarily anti-racist

Actes Sud talks about his latest book, Oh Canadaprinted in France in September, as “his testament novel“. The text shows a Canadian director suffering from terminal cancer. A few weeks later he contracted leukemia and throat cancer.

For more than 40 years he turned to deep America and its troubles while murdering racism Everyday life, growing up in extremely modest circumstances, consumed by alcoholism and poverty. Almost all of his works have been translated into French by Pierre Furlan for Actes Sud.

French writer Stéphanie Janicot adds:Although he willingly indulged in the game of French journalists, who loved him to criticize American politics, especially during the Bush or Trump years, Russell Banks was never fooled by the role we were given him in the French media tried. Privately he admitted to worshiping his country, him whose life had been so brilliantly American.»

writing teacher,Creative writing, at the prestigious Princeton University, he was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and President of the International Parliament of Writers, which is responsible for the defense of persecuted authors. “None of us three, poor, black, female, could have followed such studies‘ he explained, not without humor, referring to his position at the major American university and his colleagues Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison.

It will be done in 2014 Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture before receiving the special mention of the jury of the prize for the best foreign book for his entire work in 2022.

Photo credit: Actes Sud Editions (YouTube)