Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Six Questions:

Russell Banks, author, visiting professor at UNLV

0309Banks

Leila Navidi

Author Russell Banks will be part of a panel discussion this week at UNLV that will explore how books become movies.

Russell Banks may not be the most famous novelist in America. But many consider him among the best.

Banks, 68, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and his novel “The Sweet Hereafter” was made into an Oscar-nominated film in 1997.

Martin Scorsese is working on a movie based on Banks’ novel “The Darling.”

This month the author, who lives in upstate New York, is a visiting professor at UNLV and will be part of a panel discussion on Wednesday called “Books into Film: How Novels Become Movies.”

He’s also playing a little blackjack while in town.

What are your impressions of Las Vegas?

It’s a blur of strip malls and advertisements. Everything is kind of mixed together. It’s almost as if someone scattered a mixed bag of seeds and when everything sprouts there are no rows. The corn is next to the potatoes.

You’ve supported Obama. Do you have thoughts on his first few weeks in office?

It’s good he has allowed us to think in complicated ways about our problems. Under Bush we thought of everything very simplistically. I have to give it 100 days or a year before I’ll make judgment.

Did you ever consider being reclusive like Thomas Pynchon or Don DeLillo, a couple of your contemporaries?

I don’t think it’s a matter of a policy. I’m a gregarious and sociable person. I grew up in a big family. Writing is a solitary process. I like coming out of the cave and seeing if anyone is there.

Are we ever going to see your screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”?

Not yet. I may be still saying that in another 10 years. I don’t really know what’s going on there. Francis Ford Coppola owns the rights. He has imagined the movie so long it’s never going to get to where it is in his mind.

How about the movie based on your book “The Darling”?

My screenplay is in the hands of Martin Scorsese and Cate Blanchett. I’m waiting for their feedback.

What are your thoughts on Kindle, the wireless reading device?

I think I’ll make a little money from it, similar to audio books. My wife promised me one for my birthday. Then I won’t have to carry eight books with me to Las Vegas.

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