Though Kingdom doesn’t have the harrowing force of Banks’ finest novels...it’s an engrossing morality tale ... The mess that ensues is more complex than a matter of forbidden love. Indeed, the kind of plot mechanics that might make this a romance are largely absent ... Banks is more interested in the philosophical questions sparked by Harley and Sadie’s connection. Can any ideology survive under the weight of our clumsy humanity? ... Though Banks is dealing with big-picture, allegorical stuff...the novel isn’t airless. Dramatic, almost biblical events abound ... Banks is writing with an eye to the present, as ideological clashes consume the current discourse.
... a novel that movingly dramatizes the conflicts between religious utopianism and worldly desires ... Mr. Banks, now 82, has reached the elegiac period of his long and distinguished writing career ... however melancholic, is wistful and tender ... The commune’s precarious existence on the Florida swamplands is depicted with pleasing fullness. And though Harley’s tale is riven by passion and betrayal, it has no obvious villains. Mr. Banks has created a quietly beautiful memorial to a transitory way of life that would soon disappear behind the theme-park attractions of contemporary America.
... by setting his story among these outwardly peaceful, inwardly passionate believers, Banks has created another fascinating volume in his exploration of the American experience ... Impatient readers will be tempted to regard this foreword as a bit of extraneous throat-clearing, but, like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s introduction to The Scarlet Letter, these opening pages establish the haunting relevance of the story we’re about to read. While making a show of establishing the provenance of these abandoned tapes, Banks sets the tone for a tragedy the narrator has been stewing over for more than 60 years. In other words, The Magic Kingdom is not the experience as it happened but as it’s been distilled for decades in the crucible of a guilty conscience ... dramatically backloaded, as though, having committed to a full confession, he remains reluctant to reveal what happened, even more than 60 years later...Harley asks as his tape recorder spins. He spends a long time setting down the social, theological and legal forces that will eventually collide, but that investment — by author and reader — is amply rewarded by this masterfully crafted story ... Our literature is thick with skepticism, condescension and downright derision directed at anyone who takes their faith more seriously than an Instagram poem. But Banks has something more complex in mind than the hypocrisy of a religious leader or the predictable impurities of a pious community. He’s interested in the way grand schemes intended to perfect human nature produce instead a combination of secrecy and shame that can spark wildly unpredictable results.
Banks’ prose is languid and melodic, the work of a seasoned raconteur. The characters are nuanced and three-dimensional, simultaneously full of pride and doubt. The story is loosely based on actual events, with the narrative conceit that Banks salvaged Harley’s audio recordings from a flooded library basement. An elegiac and introspective portrait of a young man and how his fear of loneliness manifests that of which he is most afraid.
The narrative moves slowly, but copious detail of Shaker life and the philosophy of utopian communities that have largely disappeared from the American landscape, are well depicted. Well-researched historical fiction from a skilled novelist.
... beautifully crafted ... sounds ponderous, but for master storyteller Banks, it’s simply another outing for one of his quirky, damaged Florida protagonists ... There’s an inevitability to the fall of the allegorically named Mann, as well as New Bethany’s demise, but Banks leavens the tragedy with regular returns to the older Mann’s asides as he switches tapes and comments on contemporaneous details, like the sinkhole in his driveway. He’s a compelling narrator, grown philosophical with age ... Such a strong voice makes up for the fact that his obsession, Sadie, isn’t a fully fleshed character...In fact, Sadie’s true feelings are never known, an opacity that is central to the book’s crisis and allows her to serve as a vehicle to showcase Harley’s conflicts.
Heartbreaking ... Though Harley’s tale is deeply personal, Banks artfully presents it on a larger scale, showing how it fits in a centuries-long pattern of settlers who came to Florida seeking a better life ... Banks’s penetrating dissection of the American dream and its frequently unfulfilled promises is consistently profound. This is his best work in some time.
Several themes at work here, but the core is the emotional mirror of memory, a construct of events and their recall, or, for a writer wondering how he will be remembered, a construct of his books and readers, for whom Banks may well be a prized piece of gray matter ... A multilayered tale of innocence and guilt from a gifted storyteller.
