THE MAGIC KINGDOM (2022)
By Russell Banks
Alfred A. Knopf, 391 pages.
★★★★
Unless an undiscovered work appears, The Magic Kingdom is the final novel from Russell Banks, who died in January. It’s a fitting finale for a talented author who seldom shied away from difficult subjects. The title sounds as if this is an exposé about Disney. Actually, it deals mostly with a Shaker community that once stood on the grounds. It’s also the tale of Mann family, utopian dreams, and all-too-earthly temptations.
We meet the Manns at a Ruskinite community in Graylag, Indiana as they are about to depart for Waycross Colony inn Georgia, for another utopian experiment. Constance and her husband welcome the idea of living in a biracial community in the Deep South, but they end up on the Rosewell Planation where white and black alike are enslaved in all but name. Their salvation comes in the form of Elder John Bennett, who tells them about Mother Ann Lee, the Shaker way of life, and their community near Narcoossee, Florida. Upon the death of her husband, Constance packs up her brood–Harley, his town brother Pence, Royal, Raymond, and Rachel–and make their way to the New Bethany Shakers. Think of it as journey from socialism to authoritarianism to religious idealism.
The tale is told as a reminiscence by Harley and covers the years 1902-72. A lot of the book is a lightly fictionalized version of actual people and events and focuses on the years 1902, when the Manns arrive at New Bethany, through 1915 when the community dissolves. Banks wrote a deeply moving and personal narrative as well as a historical novel. Names are changed, dialogue is invented, and some situations are imagined but you could read The Magic Kingdom and come away with a good base for reconstructing the past.
Twelve-year-old Harley takes to Elder John with such enthusiasm that he apes his words and mannerisms and takes intellectual interest in Shaker doctrine and principles. He even contemplates joining the community. If only he hadn’t met 19-year-old Sadie Pratt, who spends time with the Shakers when she’s well enough to visit from a nearby TB sanitarium. Though he is younger, Sadie is Harley’s forbidden fruit in a celibate community. Sadie likes Harley, but not the way he’d like–at least until he’s older.
Shakers were celibate, but they did not withdraw from the world like the Amish. Worldly temptations intrude upon Shakers, including the idiosyncratic beliefs of another community and World War I, but the real danger lies within. A decade later, Harley’s obsession with Sadie supplants his piety. As he and Sadie move closer together than John or Eldress Mary Glynn think (for good reasons) is appropriate, jealousy, imagination, and tragedy upset the delicate balance among the Shakers and allied outsiders who live and/or work there.
Banks gives us a vivid view of Shaker routines, as well thrilling external threats provided by drought, a Florida freeze, fire, and the dueling stratagem between Elder John and Cyrus Teed of the Koreshan community. Things are fragile with the Manns as well, with Pence leaving New Bethany, Constance and several of the children opting to join the Shakers, and Harley lost in his lust.
As an old man living alone in a modest shotgun house with a model of New Bethany he built, Harley imagines himself responsible for New Bethany’s fall. He’s not entirely wrong. It might have failed on its own, but he played a major part in dramatic events involving accusation, homicide investigations, testimonies, recantations, allegations of financial malfeasance, heartbreak, and other unfortunate occurrences. Though ostracized, in many ways he’s the last New Bethany Shaker, albeit a repentant one. Ironically, as the head of Shaker Real Estate he witnessed the Shaker community crumble into scale and disposed of much of the land. A third party buys the bulk of it on behalf of an unknown client, but we know who that is! Harley observes, “I had seen with startling clarity … the fall of New Bethany and the rise of Disney’s Magic Kingdom.”
Is there anything more tragic than regret? The Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts” contains the lines: 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free/'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be/And when we find ourselves in the place just right/'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. The only thing missing is the insight to recognize such things when they are at hand.
Rob Weir
For more on the real Florida community see: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2699&context=fhq
Wikipedia gives a decent overview of the Shakers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers
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