The Angel on the Roof

The Angel on the Roof

First edition (publ. HarperCollins)
Author	Russell Banks
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	June 4, 2000
ISBN	0-06-017396-3

The Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks (2000) is a collection of short stories by Russell Banks.^[1][2][3] It consists of a total of thirty-one previously published stories, including twenty-two stories that appeared in earlier short story collections, along with nine that were previously uncollected.

Twenty-two of the thirty-one stories that Banks selected for this volume were published in four earlier collections, although Banks writes that many of the stories "have been revised for this edition".^[4] The previously collected stories were originally published in the following volumes by Banks: Searching for Survivors (New York: Fiction Collective/ Braziller, 1975); Trailerpark (New York: HarperCollins, 1981); Success Stories (New York: HarperCollins, 1986).

In his "Note" appended at the end of this volume, Russell Banks writes the following:

As this book is published, I am turning sixty, and these stories represent the best work I have done in the form over the thirty-seven years since I began trying to write in prose — at least that’s my hope.^[4]

The following is a list of the previously collected stories republished in The Angel on the Roof, under the titles of the collections in which they originally appeared:

• “Searching for Survivors”
• “With Ché in New Hampshire”
• “Theory of Flight” (originally “With Ché at Kitty Hawk”)
• “The Neighbor”
• “The Lie”
• “Defenseman”

• “The Rise of the Middle Class”
• “Indisposed”
• “The Caul”

• “The Guinea Pig Lady”
• “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat”
• “Dis Bwoy, Him Gwan”
• “Comfort”
• “The Burden”
• “Child Screams and Looks Back at You”
• “The Fisherman”

• “Queen for a Day”
• “The Fish”
• “Success Story”
• “Mistake”
• “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story”
• “Firewood”

The previously uncollected stories in The Angel on the Roof are as follows (with the original publication/periodical in parentheses):

• “Plains of Abraham” (Esquire)
• “Djinn” (Esquire)
• “Lobster Night” (Esquire)
• “The Visit” (The Village Voice Literary Supplement)
• “Xmas” (The Boston Globe Magazine)
• “The Moor” (Conjunctions)
• “Cow-Cow” (GQ)
• “Quality Time” (Ploughshares)
• “Assisted Living” (?)

• 2000 in literature

• Russell Banks, The Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks, 2000. ISBN 0-06-093125-6 (paperback); ISBN 9780062123206 (e-pub edition, July 2011)