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Reservation Road (Vintage Contemporaries) (Vintage Contemporaries)
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - Compelling and Emotional
I read this book in one day. I was so engrossed in the story about two men going through their own particular losses and challenges. Mr. Schwartz has a real talent for keeping the reader hooked. I anxiously await his next novel.
Rating: - "I want to tell this right.....the car came from nowhere"
At the heart of this book, are two families, their children, their specific situation. For me, however, the part that held the deepest impact featured the two flawed fathers and their sons. Each father carries a load of guilt and shame, for varying reasons.
Their lives intersect one night, the night the car comes out of nowhere and something happens that no one expects. I KNOW this all sounds vague but I don't want to give much away about the plot but I DO want to say that the characters are so very, very believable that you simply have to know what happens next in the wake of tragedy, how their lives will be affected and what choices they make.
It will be interesting to see what they do with the movie version of this book (reputed to star Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning's siter) because the subject matter is often dark and painful. It is, of course, in the deep, tragic and unexpected challenges and losses in life where we are forced to question everything we believed we knew about the world - and what to expect.
At the heart of the book is the loss of a child and mostly how his father deals with that fact (he is divorced). Each character in this book has flaws but also heart, soul and substance (at least, I saw them this way).
If you want a cheerful, light read, you won't want pick up this book. If you are a parent (as I am) you may find it painful to get through. But I loved Blue Water (see link below), a book with a similar theme, and each book centers on issues of pain and forgiveness (or lack of it). It cuts to the core. If you are a parent or have lost a child and wonder about the nuances of grief and anger, redemption, forgiveness, etc...then this is a must read!
Also see:
Blue Water: A Novel
Rating:  - At the heart of this heartbreaking story lies one of the finest character studies I've read...
When reading John Burnham Schwartz' novel `Reservation Road' I am brought to tears, to fears and to stark realizations about the lives we lead and the effect we have on the ones closest to us. Here Schwartz examines the aftereffects of a horrific accident and the subtle tears in the fabric of the lives involved. When Dwight Arno came speeding around a sharp turn on Reservation Road, all in an attempt to get his son back to his ex-wives house before she sent to police after him, he never could have imagined what lie in store for him. With a sudden scream emulating from the lungs of a father, much like himself, Dwight slammed into Josh Learner, a young boy of only ten. Panic stricken, Dwight leaves the scene.
From this point on (these are the first harrowing scenes in this novel) Schwartz takes us on a heartbreaking journey through the lives of the two families involved. The Learner household, husband Ethan, wife Grace and daughter Emma all deal with the death of Josh similarly, each of them blaming themselves and then each other as a way of coping. But cope is not something they may ever embrace. Dwight battles his conscience almost as much as he battles his ex-wife Ruth and her husband Norris, the two people who control his son and refuse to let go of a scarring incident, yet another accident, that rattled their lives in years past.
As the days, weeks and even months slip away the Learner family must come to grips with the idea that maybe they will never know the man responsible for the murder of their son, but as Dwight's world continues to unravel and his deep-rooted desire to be outed, to be punished builds stronger and stronger, almost uncontrollable, the end is inevitable and the reader is well aware that in moments everything is going to come crumbling to the ground.
What makes this a powerful and moving piece of literature is the fact that with each character, with each narrative, Schwartz delves into the mind and soul of these people, into their hearts and their motives and their being and creates characters that we can all relate to and pity. As the death of a son destroys a family, a marriage and a life no less ordinary than our own we can put ourselves in their shoes and understand their anger, frustration and dire straights. As the guilt of mistake after mistake haunt a man responsible for others pain we can understand why he's running, why he's afraid of losing everything he feels he's still working so hard to regain.
Ethan Learner, Dwight Arno & Grace Learner are just like you and me, and that is a feat in itself for the author to flesh out characters that feel so real. In fact, the only character I constantly felt distant from and detached was that of Ruth Wheldon, Dwight's ex. She appeared heartless and domineering when; to me at least, her husband's troubles are a direct result of her actions. My heart crushed for Dwight, as much as what he had done was a terrible crime and a travesty at that. That is why this is a mush read. It makes you think and the ending, as nerve racking and bone chilling as its anticipation becomes, will leave you breathless.
Rating:  - Worst book I have read in a year
I read this book because they were shooting the movie version across the street from my work in Stamford CT...After reading the book,I cannot believe they are making a movie. Basically, the parents of the boy who were killed let their kid stand in the street at night and a guy coming around the bend ran him over...the parents blame everyone except themselves for their kids death...If you get this book check it out at the library DO NOT WASTE your cash.
Rating: - How does one get through it, survive?
John Burnham Schwartz's amazing novel "Reservation Road" is about survival. But, above all, it is about being alive when you really don't know the reason to keep up. His trio of main characters set adrift through the book's pages wondering why they are not dead when they can't find any good reason to be alive.
To go deep in really important issues, the writer blends a regular drama with a regular page-turner. The result is a devastating story about lost souls. And the fact that the book never fits the regular genre, makes the reading experience even more rewarding. Schwartz works with three different narrators (two of them are characters). The best quality of his prose is that each narrator has his own voice. Readers are able to find two fathers speaking for themselves - and that is convincing.
These two men are fathers who will be linked forever. Dwight killed Ethan's son in a hit and run accident. But, since he is so filled with self loath he isn't capable of turning in. On the other side we have the other father whose child is lost forever and he wants to know, at least who killed the boy. Revenge is not the point - nor is justice, as a matter of fact.
What "Reservation Road" does is to investigate the soul of these men and the women who are around them - specially Grace, Ethans's wife. For that, the writer avoids heavy metaphors and big literary tools. For him, less is more. For us it is more than a question of survival. As one character once asks herself, `How does one get through it, survive?'
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