Rule of the Bone

by Russell Banks

Book Overview

In the tradition Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye, Russell Banks's quintessential novel of a disaffected homeless youth living on the edge of society "redefines the young modern anti-hero.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394281659
• ISBN13: 9780394281650
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: Vintage Books Canada
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Rule of the Bone is Fantastic

I found this book in my school library missorted and looking a little battered. I checked it out and since the first page I couldn't put it down! It starts off well and doesn't lose momentum. Filled with a sad story of a runaway teen eventually finding his way to Jamaica to see his biological father after being kicked out of his home by his moms new boyfriend. He gets caught up in drugs, stealing and everything imaginable! It's a book you wont be able to put down, so buy it and create some spare time. It wont let you down!

The Bone

The Rule of The Bone was a very good exciting book. The books language isof the common teenager and the behavior of the main character is real. In the first half of the book many can relate or feel for what he is going on in the characters life. The atmosphere is fimiliar and the people are as well. The main character goes on many crazy adventures and experiences alot of crazy things. The second half of the book is a bit random. When the main character ends up in a foreign country it is hard to understand why the writer chose to go this way. This part of the book is weird and does not feeel as familiar as the first part mainly because of the setting being in another country. The ending could have been better and the the reason for him going to another country could have been explained more It is a bit unrealistic. Overall it is a pretty good book for the fact that you don not know whats going to happen next, everytime you read a page you wonder what the next will reveal.

Not your traditional novel

Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks was very unpredictable and thus made it very enjoyable to read. The style of writing and storytelling made me feel I was in the journey through life with the main character Bone. Banks' verbose style and lack of punctuation constucted Bone in a very accurate manner. Many young people can relate especially if they are in the same situation as Bone. Also, the slim chances of unusual events taking place became normal in the novel and later in the story it turned out to be imminent. The traditional story-line was broken in many different ways. Don't try to guess what will happen. Read the book. You will be surprised how many plot-twisting occurances happen.

For those who don't usually read this one will catch your eye!!!

There are many people such as myself who aren't into reading as much as others. As for me I have never been much of a person who will open up a book just because i want to and when i was asked to read Rule of the Bone as an assignment I felt overwhelmed with the thought of having to read a book. In many matters, this book will capture anyones attention right from the start. It is true that Russell Banks doesn't show great punctuation throughout the book, but if you really understand a teenager you would know that this is truly how a teen speaks and writes. As a teenager growing up I was faced with the temptation of smoking out because of my peers and Banks was only letting the world know a little more on how nowadays the pressure of dealing with drugs is a lot greater and in our everyday life. Most can say that this book will catch anyones attention right from the start because what we see and hear today is the basic reality that Banks created in his book. I would recommend any one mostly guys to read this book. I know some people are like me that won't be caught with a book but trust me you'll enjoy this one. You'll enjoy it greatly because it is very lucid and for parents who want to understand the mind of a troubled teen or any teen you should definitely read this book. Thanks Mr.Overfield for making us read this because I think this is the only book I've actually gone all the way to the end before putting it down and getting bored with it after the first couple of pages.

A GREAT COMING OF AGE NOVEL

I teach high school English, mostly American lit, and without having read this book myself I recommended it to one of my sophomore students for a free-reading unit we were doing. He read it in three days and loved it. I quickly finished the book I had chosen (A STAR CALLED HENRY) and picked up his copy of RULE. I had never read Banks, except for a few short stories here and there, but now I am a complete convert (so much so, in fact, that I'm reading CLOUDSPLITTER now, which makes RULE seem like an even better book than i first thought). i noticed that one reviewer wrote that Banks had gotten the voice of the narrator all wrong. That reader apparently does not spend the majority of his waking hours with teenagers. I do. And let me say that the narration is dead on in every respect. So often critics claim to have discovered the next CATCHER IN THE RYE or the heir to HUCKLEBERRY FINN and never before have I agreed until now. RULE OF THE BONE is a beautiful novel with something real at stake, perhaps something more real than Holden Caufield's three-day ramble (and certainly more engaging). Bone's journey to himself (his "I-self") is visceral and funny and sad and moving. I plan to teach it next year in my modern novel course.