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Loading... The Sweet Hereafter (1991)by Russell Banks
None.  LDVoorberg | Apr 7, 2013 |  The Sweet Hereafter is the story of a school bus accident which tears a small town apart. Told from the perspective of four different characters, the plot is interesting and the method Banks uses to propel the story is very effective. I struggled with the voices of the characters too much, however. The bus driver, the New York City lawyer, the owner of the service station, and the fourteen year-old victim--their stories are all told in a similar voice, a very professional one. And, as such, I didn't find them believable. Based on this story, Banks has a decent grasp on the art of fiction, but the whole thing falls apart when he tries to get into his character's voices. Unfortunately, this causes the whole work to unravel. (  ) chrisblocker | Mar 30, 2013 | Wonderful quick read told in the voice of 4 of the characters each giving their unique perspective how a school bus accident changed their lives. This is a 1991 book but may well be worth checking out other works by this author. March 2013 ( ) eembooks | Mar 18, 2013 | Whenever I read this book, I find myself wishing I'd read it before seeing the movie. No matter how hard I try, I find that I just can't shake those visuals, and I'd like to try to read the book on its own terms. Having said that, I love both the book and the movie, for reasons I'm not sure I can explain. The movie was actually one of the first DVDs I ever bought, at a time when DVDs were still kind of magical, and I watched it backwards and forwards. I listened to the commentary tracks; I watched the documentaries. Nowadays, who has time for that kind of investment in a flimsy plastic disc? But the book. Four different narrators, each distinct and fully realized. The back of the book describes it as a "morality play," but the book lacks the obviousness suggested by such a label. Morality, of course, is an issue in the book, but it's not presented in stark right-or-wrong terms. My judgements of each of the characters changes with each read. Is Mitchell Stephens a crusader or a lawyer? Is Nicholl courageous or naive? Is Billy capable of seeing the world clearly, or are his decisions invalidated by the grief which has destroyed him? All in all, it's a lovely book, translated into an equally lovely movie. I can't recommend either highly enough, and I wish I could find the eloquence to explain why. (  )1  jawalter | Nov 18, 2012 | I think I'd like to see the movie, since several have good things to say about it. The author has a good feel for voices....all the narrators are distinctly different. The tales they tell are packed into a fairly small "space" without taking a breath. I think it might have benefited from a little more space between thoughts and paragraphs. Still, a good story, fairly well told. This is an early book....I'm going to try something more recent. (  ) PermaSwooned | Sep 2, 2012 | no reviews | add a review
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Wikipedia in English
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But the content, the aftermath of a school bus accident that kills so many young children, is an interesting topic that is not used in many novels. If you have young children or recently lost a loved one to an auto accident, you may not be interested in this book, however. (