American Idol by Fred ChappellnOPINIONSn”Eldorado banal de tous les vieux gargons.”n—Charles BaudelairenRussell Banks: Continental Drift;nHarper & Row; New York.nThe last sentence in Russell Banks’snmagnificent novel is surprising innits inevitability: “Go, my book, andnhelp destroy the world as it is.” Here isna sentence to conclude a politicallynradical novel, a story of socially revolutionarynpurpose. But there is no hintnin Continental Drift about the personalnpolitics of its author; the imperativesnof this book are not political butnethical.nThis final sentence actually pointsnup the highly traditional nature ofnBanks’s novel. It is such a novel as ancontemporary Joseph Conrad mightnwrite, or a Dreiser or a Dickens. It is anbrilliantly detailed, minute but solid,nobservation of two individual destiniesnwhich inform and reflect the contrastingnmilieus in which they are lived.nBanks’s moral purposes are as evidentnand as heartfelt as Tolstoy’s, his artistrynnot much less stunning.nContinental Drift is a story of independentnbut parallel odysseys whichnfinally intersect with terrifying result.nOne protagonist is Robert Dubois, an31-year-old oil-burner repairman whonlives in New England. He is dissatisfiednwith his lot in much the same waynthat Dreiser’s Clyde Griffiths was dissatisfied.nHe gives up his dull careernand moves to Florida to take a job as anclerk in his brother’s liquor store. Butnfor Dubois Florida is not merely anplace on the map; Florida representsnfreedom, opportunity, fresh begin-nFred Chappell is a novelist andnco-winner of the J 985 BollingennPoetry Prize. His most recent hook isnI Am One of You Forever (LSU).n6/ CHRONICLES OF CULTUREnnings, the fabled golden land of light.nFlorida is for Dubois the same ineffablenEl Dorado that “America” is fornVanise Dorsinville. Vanise is a youngnHaitian mother determined to flee thencruelties and poverty of her island andnto transport her baby and young malencousin to the gleaming shores ofnMiami. The vicissitudes she enduresnin trying to do so are nightmarish butnbelievable.nnnThat is a major point about ContinentalnDrift; it is convincing. No onenwho has read Banks’s brilliant Trailerparknwill be surprised at his grasp ofnsignificant detail, his wide knowledgenof the situations of ordinary life. Hisnexpertise about mortgages, liens, automobiles,njobs, wages, and so forth willnequal that of any of the great masters ofnnaturalism about their chosen subjects.nBut allegiance to literary naturalismnis now insufficient to render anbelievable account of modern society.nThe phantasmagoric contemporarynworld is too vivid, too towering, to benfaithfully represented by accumulationnof detail or by patiently plotted trage-n