BOOKS: FLOAT TRIP

ADRIFT IN MALL LIMBO WITH RUSSELL BANKS' LATEST HERO

Look, I never said I was Huck Finn in the first place, which is a not very bright idea thought up by some blurb writer at the publishing house and maybe some reviewers who weren't into original thought, and second, it was a lot easier to be an American archetype back when Huck and Jim floated down the Mississippi because they had a whole big river, which is a ready-made metaphor right there, and all I had was this crummy shopping mall in upstate New York. You can sort of float in a mall, but not too far, just around in...

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