The Magic Kingdom

Book Review of The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks. Available in Kindle and Hardcover on November 8th 2022. Find it here on our Bookshop or here on Amazon.

Publisher’s Summary + Buzz:

From one of America’s most beloved storytellers–a profound novel about belief, betrayal, and the transformation of one corner of the country.

“Russell Banks’s new novel is eerily timely. Can what’s gone wrong in the past offer keys to the future? The Magic Kingdom confronts our longings for Paradise; also the inner serpents that are to be found in all such enchanted gardens.” —Margaret Atwood

In 1971, a property speculator named Harley Mann begins recording his life story onto a reel-to-reel machine. Reflecting on his childhood in the early twentieth century, Harley recounts that after his father’s sudden death, his family migrated down to Florida’s swamplands–mere miles away from what would become Disney World–to join a community of Shakers. Led by Elder John, a generous man with a mysterious past, the colony devoted itself to labor, faith, and charity, rejecting all temptations that lay beyond the property.

Though this way of life initially saved Harley and his family from complete ruin, when Harley began falling in love with Sadie Pratt, a consumptive patient living on the grounds, his loyalty to the Shakers and their conservative worldview grew strained and, ultimately, broke. As Harley dictates his story across more than half a century–meditating on youth, Florida’s everchanging landscape, and the search for an American utopia–the truth about Sadie, Elder John, and the Shakers comes to light, clarifying the past and present alike.

A dazzling tapestry of love and faith, memory and imagination, The Magic Kingdom questions what it means to look back and accept one’s place in history. With an expert eye and stunning vision, Russell Banks delivers a wholly captivating portrait of a man navigating Americana and the passage of time.

Karissa’s Reflection:

This is my first Russell Banks book and I can assure you it won’t be the last. I am now desperate and excited to dive in to more of his work.

In The Magic Kingdom, Russell Banks demonstrates his skills as a truly masterful storyteller and plot weaver. He is able to blur the line between fiction and reality in a unique way.

This novel carries a great deal of duality and conflict. It manages to be naive yet challenging, imaginative yet realistic, honest yet hopeful, heartbreaking yet romantic.

Banks’ cast of characters are well developed and complex. Through them we are able to gain an intimate look into a lifestyle we would never otherwise experience.

Highly recommend! The Magic Kingdom has a wide appeal, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fiction or memoirs.

*I am so grateful to have received an advance copy of The Magic Kingdom. I am under no obligation to provide a review. All opinions are honest and my own.
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