|
Loading... The Sweet Hereafterby Russell Banks
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Well-written, but lifeless. The novel creates sweeping depictions of a rural, impoverished and largely isolated town in the New Hampshire mountains. Four characters narrate versions of a school bus crash and its aftermath and their stories overlay and intersect with one another. Although each character has a very different voice, the book just oozes gloominess no matter who is speaking. Given the subject matter of the book, that's not entirely suprising; still, it's just dark on top of dark on top of darker. Also, many if not all of the characters are very difficult to like even once we understand them. I liked the movie better; it has feeling that the book lacks. ( )Graet writing and story of lives of a people in a small town wose lives are devastated by a school bus crash which kills their children except for one survivor. Small town tragedy; the movie by Canadian Atom Egoyan is wonderful; structure of story is like a bus route. not his best. Etats-Unis, littérature, roman no reviews | add a review
References to this work on external resources.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book description |
|
We experience the story from inside the heads of the four characters in turn--each knowing things the others don't, each misunderstanding the facts in his or her own way. The method resembles Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Gilbert Sorrentino's stunning Aberration of Starlight, but Banks's achievement is most comparable to John Updike's tales of ordinary small-towners preternaturally gifted with slangy eloquence, psychological insights, and alertness to life's tiniest details.
Egoyan's film is haunting but vague--it leaves viewers in the dark regarding several critical plot points. Banks's book is more haunting still, and precise, making every revelation count, with a finale far superior to that of the film. It's also wittier than the too-sober flick: the lawyer dismisses the dome-dwelling hippie parents of one of the crash victims as being "lost in their Zen Little Indians fantasy," which casts a sharp light on them and him, too. He's lost in his calculations of how each parent will fit into the legal system, and the ways in which he fits into the tragedy are lost on him. If only he and the Vietnam-vet dad could read each other's account of their tense first encounter, both of them might get what the other is missing.
Banks's wit is pitiless--it's painful when we discover that the bus driver, who prides herself on interpreting for her stroke-impaired husband, is translating his wise but garbled observations all wrong. The crash turns out not to be the ultimate tragedy: in the cold northern light of its aftermath, we discover that we're all in this alone.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400)
The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.
Quick Links |