Affliction

Wade Whitehouse is a well digger and policeman in a bleak New Hampshire town - a former high school star gone to beer fat, a loner with a mean streak. Through Russell Banks's artistry Wade emerges as a blue-collar American Everyman afflicted by the dark secret of the macho tradition. Told by his articulate, equally scarred younger brother, Wade's story becomes as spellbinding and inexorable as a fuse burning its way to the dynamite.