Russell Banks resists categories; yet as one looks at the American short fiction written in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the temptation is to group Banks with Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Andre Dubus, and perhaps Richard Bausch and call the movement "Trailer-Park Fiction." These and some other serious short-story writers have examined American working-class people living their lives one step up from the lowest rung on the socioeconomic ladder and doing battle every day with the despair that comes from violence, alcohol, and self-destructive relationships. Banks is singular, however, as are the other writers, and any such grouping would hide much that is vital to appreciation and understanding. Banks has been very successful with his novels Continental Drift (1985), Affliction (1989), and The Sweet Hereafter (1991), but his short fiction, published in a steady stream since 1975, has been the testing ground of his most innovative ideas and techniques.

Russell...