In Banshee, Samantha Baxter-wife, mother, poetry professor-learns she has breast cancer and then ruins her own life. Tumbling through a catastrophic midlife crisis, she gives herself permission to partake in behaviors she's observed in her male colleagues, including having an affair with a student her daughter's age, ranting at board meetings, and telling her poetry students what she really thinks of their work. Underneath biting, witty narration lurks a childish, confused, and unrealized adult woman hell-bent on destroying her relationships and professional life, all within the span of a few weeks. Part comedy, part tragedy, Banshee dramatizes the emotions that lie behind our inhibitions-and the consequences of unleashing them.
