''Continental Drift'' is a 1985 novel by

Russell Banks Russell Earl Banks (March 28, 1940 – January 8, 2023) was an American writer of fiction and poetry. His novels are known for "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". He drew from ...

. Set in the early 1980s, it follows two plots, through which Banks explores the relationship between apparently distant people drawn together in the world under

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

, which Banks compares to the geologic phenomenon of

continental drift Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and inc ...

. The first plot features Bob DuBois, a working class

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

er who heads to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in the hopes of striking it rich; the second plot traces the journey of Vanise Dorsinville from

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

to Florida. It is an avowedly political work, whose stated aim is to "destroy the world as it is." It was published at the same time as

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

cracked down on

Haitian immigration The Haitian diaspora consists of Haitian people and their descendants living outside of Haiti. Countries with significant numbers of Haitians include the Dominican Republic, the United States, Cuba, Chile, Canada, Brazil, the Bahamas, and France (i ...

to the United States. Despite its scope, it is according to critic

Michiko Kakutani is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life and family Kakutani, a Japanese Americ ...

, "somehow, acutely personal." The book sold well (15,000 copies in hard cover, 100,000 in paperback) and was highly acclaimed by critics. After publishing ''Continental Drift'', Banks won the Dos Passos Prize for Literature.

References

1985 American novels Novels set in Florida Harper & Row books Novels by Russell Banks {{1980s-novel-stub