 Softcover edition | |
| Author | Russell Banks |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 400 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | 978-0060197353 |
The Darling is a historical novel written by Russell Banks, and published on October 12, 2004, by HarperCollins.
The novel is narrated by Hannah Musgrave, a woman in her fifties reflecting back on her life as a politically radical student who later became a member of the Weathermen and changes her name to Dawn Carrington. After a series of failed relationships with men, Dawn takes on a young mother named Carol as her lover and lives with her and her daughter Bettina while carrying on secret activities for the weathermen. After Zack, another member of her cell, erroneously tells her that they are both wanted by drug dealers, she flees with him to Ghana before moving on to the city of Monrovia in Liberia in 1975. There she meets and eventually marries the Minister of Public Health, Woodrow Sundiata, who is aware of her political past but is willing to overlook it because of the status that a white American woman brings to his family.
Their marriage is one of convenience on both sides and during the time they are together Hannah gives birth to three sons: Dillon, a math prodigy, and twin boys William and Paul. Motherhood does not come naturally to Hannah and she feels cold and distant with her children while at the same time feeling warm and loving to the chimpanzees she works with as part of her job.
In 1980 William R. Tolbert, Jr., the president of Liberia and a friend of Woodrow's, is murdered during a coup d'état. He is replaced by Samuel Doe. Hannah's life remains relatively comfortable throughout the political upheaval and she remains ignorant of the political situation in Liberia until three years later, in 1983, when she is 40 years old, when Woodrow is taken away from home in the middle of the night on accusations that he and Charles Taylor have embezzled aid relief for their own personal use. Woodrow is eventually able to successfully free himself but as a condition of his release Hannah is forced to return to America without her sons. Hannah is secretly relieved at the idea of abandoning her children and husband, though she mourns her separation from her chimpanzees.
In America Hannah decides to visit her parents for the first time in 15 years. After surprising her mother she learns that her father suffered a cerebral hemorrhage a few weeks before her return. Though her mother is optimistic about his recovery Hannah quickly realizes that he is completely brain-dead. She is able to visit her father once in the hospital before he dies. Shaken by the death of her father, Hannah steals her mothers car and goes to find Carol. She finds Zack living there and he tells her of his brief incarceration in a low-security prison where he met Charles Taylor. Hannah goes to meet Charles Taylor in jail and after he tells her that, once free, he will assassinate Samuel Doe and allow Hannah to return home, she agrees to help him escape from jail.
After helping Charles Taylor to flee America, Hannah begins to correspond with her husband Woodrow. She learns that Samuel Doe has lifted his imposed ban on her and she is free to return to Liberia.
Once in Liberia Hannah decides to open a rescue sanctuary for her beloved chimpanzees while she waits patiently for Charles Taylor to return and overthrow Samuel Doe. Eventually Charles Taylor and a small guerrilla group begin to invade Liberia, triggering the beginning of the First Liberian Civil War. Since Hannah and her family live in the country's capital, Monrovia they are able to stay protected for some time. Eventually, Samuel Doe, fearful that he is losing power, sends a group of assassins to murder Woodrow. Hannah and her children witness the murder and her sons run off shortly thereafter to join any of the rebel armies against Samuel Doe.
Hannah spends the rest of her time in Liberia fruitlessly searching for her sons despite the urging of Sam Clement, the American ambassador, to leave for America. He at last provides a video tape showing that her children are now child soldiers working for Prince Johnson who have murdered Samuel Doe. He also reveals that the Americans were behind Charles Taylor's escape from prison and rise to power and that they have known Hannah's true identity and movements for decades. Hannah, dispirited that all along she was working on behalf of the interests of the CIA finally leaves Liberia.
The novel received positive reviews upon its publication. The Guardian called it "an urgent, passionate, compelling panorama" while noting that it "deserves to stand beside Conrad and Greene." [1] The Village Voice praised Hannah as "The Darling's only full-bodied character, a monstrously magnetic woman" but criticized Bank's "inability or unwillingness to bring Hannah's African family to life" calling it a "major failure on Banks's part, in a book otherwise reverberating with ideas and startling prose." [2]
A film adaptation of The Darling starring Cate Blanchett and directed by Martin Scorsese was planned and later scrapped. In 2011 Jessica Chastain was rumoured to be attached to the role of Hannah with Denis Villeneuve directing. [3]
Liberia is a country in West Africa founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of African Americans, both free and recently emancipated, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS). The mortality rate of these settlers was the highest among settlements reported with modern recordkeeping. Of the 4,571 emigrants who arrived in Liberia between 1820 and 1843, only 1,819 survived (39.8%).
The Politics of Liberia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic modeled on the government of the United States, whereby the President is the head of state and head of government; unlike the United States, however, Liberia is a unitary state as opposed to a federation and has a pluriform multi-party system rather than the two-party system that characterizes US politics. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the legislature.
Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor is a Liberian former politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 22nd president of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003 as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War and growing international pressure.
Samuel Kanyon Doe was a Liberian politician who served as the 21st president of Liberia from 1986 to 1990. He ruled Liberia as Chairman of the People's Redemption Council (PRC) from 1980 to 1986 and then as president from 1986 to 1990.
Prince Yormie Johnson is a Liberian politician and the current Senior Senator from Nimba County. A former rebel leader, Johnson played a prominent role in the First Liberian Civil War. Serving as leader of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia, he captured, tortured and executed President Samuel Doe, who had himself overthrown and murdered the previous president William R. Tolbert Jr.
The president of the Republic of Liberia is the head of state and government of Liberia. The president serves as the leader of the executive branch and as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia.
The First Liberian Civil War was the first in a series of two civil wars within the West African nation of Liberia. It lasted from 1989 to 1997. President Samuel Doe had established a regime in 1980 but totalitarianism and corruption led to unpopularity and the withdrawal of support from the United States by the late 1980s. The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast to overthrow Doe in December 1989 and gained control over most of the country within a year. Doe was captured and executed by the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), a splinter faction of the NPFL led by Prince Johnson, in September 1990. The NPFL and INPFL fought each other for control of the capital city, Monrovia and against the Armed Forces of Liberia and pro-Doe United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy. Peace negotiations and foreign involvement led to a ceasefire in 1995 but fighting continued until a peace agreement between the main factions occurred in August 1996. Taylor was elected President of Liberia following the 1997 Liberian general election and entered office in August of the same year.
The Grand Lodge of the Republic of Liberia is a fraternal organization based on the principles of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Prior to 1980, its membership tended to consist of Americo-Liberians and it was influential within the ruling True Whig party from its founding until the coup of Samuel Doe in 1980, when much of its senior leadership was killed and the new military regime banned masonic activities in the country.
Ruth Sando Fahnbulleh Perry was a Liberian politician. She served as the interim Chairman of the Council of State of Liberia from 3 September 1996 until 2 August 1997, following the First Liberian Civil War. After eleven international peace attempts between 1990 and 1995 to end the civil war in Liberia, the attempts appeared to succeed. The interim Council of State consisted of a civilian chairman, as well as members of warring factions: Charles Taylor, United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy-K leader Alhaji Kromah, Liberia Peace Council leader George Boley, and two other civilians.
The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003.
The National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was a Liberian rebel group that initiated and participated in the First Liberian Civil War from 24 December 1989 – 2 August 1997. The NPFL emerged out of rising ethnic tensions and civil unrest due to the Liberian government that was characterized by totalitarianism, corruption, and favoritism towards ethnic Krahns. The NPFL invaded Liberia through Ivory Coast’s border with Nimba County in Liberia under the direction of Charles Taylor, a former Liberian politician and guerrilla leader who served as the 22nd president of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003.
Sekou Damate Conneh, Jr. is a Liberian politician and former rebel leader.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Wilton Gbakolo Sengbe Sankawulo, Sr. was a Liberian politician and author.
Henry Boimah Fahnbulleh, Jr. is a Liberian politician and diplomat. He most recently served in the Liberian Government as National Security Advisor in the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration. Immediately previous to his appointment as National Security Advisor, he served as Advisor on International Affairs in the same government. He served as Foreign Minister from 1981 to 1983 under President Samuel Doe.
Liberia – Sierra Leone relations refers to the historical and current relationship between Liberia and Sierra Leone. The two countries signed a non-aggression pact in 2007 when Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma took office. In January 2011, an African diplomat described relations as "cordial".
Benoni Wilfred Urey is an Americo-Liberian businessman and politician, who was formerly the Liberian Commissioner of Maritime Affairs. In 2014 The Economist reported that Urey was Liberia's wealthiest man.
The 1980 Liberian coup d'état happened on April 12, 1980, when President William Tolbert was overthrown and murdered in a violent coup. The coup was staged by an indigenous Liberian faction of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) under the command of Master Sergeant Samuel Doe. Following a period of transition, Doe ruled Liberia throughout the 1980s until his murder in 1990 during the First Liberian Civil War.
Liberia–Libya relations have historically revolved around the respective policies of Libya and the Republic of Liberia toward external influence in Africa. This history is in large part founded in Liberia's commitments to its original sponsor, the United States, and the pan-African unity ambitions of Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi initially welcomed the overthrow of the longstanding Americo-Liberian regime by Samuel Doe but then also supported Charles Taylor in launching a civil war against Doe. Each country maintains an embassy in the other's capital.
Nancy Bohn Doe is a former First Lady of Liberia.
