Northwest Corner

Jun 05, 2011 Jeanette rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-fiction, domestic-and-relationship-fiction, five-star-fiction, four-star-fiction, av

I did a quick second reading of Reservation Road prior to reading Northwest Corner. While it's not strictly necessary, I do recommend doing so if you have the time and inclination. It really enhanced my enjoyment of Northwest Corner to have the characters fresh in my mind and compare the past with the present.

When we last saw Sam Arno in Reservation Road, he was a sleepy boy of ten, asking his dad if they could go sledding later. He hadn't a clue that his life would change forever on that day....more I did a quick second reading of Reservation Road prior to reading Northwest Corner. While it's not strictly necessary, I do recommend doing so if you have the time and inclination. It really enhanced my enjoyment of Northwest Corner to have the characters fresh in my mind and compare the past with the present.

When we last saw Sam Arno in Reservation Road, he was a sleepy boy of ten, asking his dad if they could go sledding later. He hadn't a clue that his life would change forever on that day.
Now Sam is a quiet, confused, surly 22-year-old UConn baseball star. His anger boils over one night in a bar, and he commits a savage act of violence. Fearing arrest, he flees to Southern California, seeking the father he hasn't seen or spoken to in twelve years. His father Dwight has made a fresh start in Santa Barbara, where no one knows about the hit-and-run death of Josh Learner all those years ago.

Sam's crisis gives us a chance to revisit some of Reservation Road's central characters and see the long-term effects of what happened twelve years ago. We get the story through the perspectives of five characters, with Dwight Arno's being the central, first-person narrative. Members of the Learner family are represented, but Northwest Corner is largely the story of what used to be the Arno family: Sam, Dwight, and his ex-wife Ruth. I found Ruth to be the most admirable character, which is quite a shift from the way I viewed her in Reservation Road. She has a lot of history to overcome, and she gives Dwight more grace than he deserves. Ruth has the additional burden of handling a serious health crisis alone, and she does so with strength and dignity.

Schwartz doesn't hit you in the face with what you're supposed to get from the book. These are damaged people doing what humans do. It's up to you to decide how well they've handled their pain, and what's possible for them in the future. If you have wounds of your own, always know where your tissues are. You may find yourself a little weepy. There are moments of clarity that will resonate with your experiences and, if you're lucky, show you a new way of seeing them.

This novel has greater complexity in both content and sentence structure than Reservation Road. The change in writing style does require some adjustment. For me, this wasn't a difficult adjustment to make, and I read Northwest Corner in about two days.[4.5 stars]

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Oct 05, 2011 Irene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, have-a-copy

After I finished Reservation Road , countless questions lingered amid disparate emotions coupled not only with the painful narrative which continued to haunt me, but also the enduring legacy foisted upon the memorable characters of Dwight, Sam, and Ruth of the Arno family pitted against Ethan, Grace, and Emma Lerner begging to be explored.

Twelve years later, Northwest Corner spiritedly revisits Dwight Arno, outwardly transformed and contrite, vaguely expectant in his new West Coast surrounding...more After I finished Reservation Road , countless questions lingered amid disparate emotions coupled not only with the painful narrative which continued to haunt me, but also the enduring legacy foisted upon the memorable characters of Dwight, Sam, and Ruth of the Arno family pitted against Ethan, Grace, and Emma Lerner begging to be explored.

Twelve years later, Northwest Corner spiritedly revisits Dwight Arno, outwardly transformed and contrite, vaguely expectant in his new West Coast surroundings, mindful of the compulsory physical and emotional distance essential to create a life anew without relentless reminders of one careless moment that shattered two families into irrevocable pieces. The pivotal tragedy alone did not thrust Dwight into these recent circumstances; rather his immediate unforgivable response mingled with excessive evasive subterfuge disqualified him from any possible future in his previously fractured existence.

Once the solitary motivation in Dwight's circumspect memories, his collegiate son Sam now stands in a similar place after his violent and physically brutal attack upon another young man as he hastily chooses an unplanned disparate course of action, an abrupt departure from his UConn dorm room, West Coast bound aboard a Greyhound bus to Santa Barbara and his father. When the sins of the father become a heavy burden to bear alone and lie befuddled upon a son's hazy conscience, the ominous consequences of inexplicable rage are quickly disowned.

Succinctly, yet sparingly the author reveals the parsimonious remnants of each affected character's life. He unconsciously captures you with his eloquent words and deftly draws you into vicariously endure those profusely diverse emotions deftly woven within the gritty details that accompany life's most unexpected torturous moments accompanied by their insurmountable losses.

If John Burnham Schwartz's intent is to unceremoniously immerse the reader into each distinctively disquieting character's churning vortex of inner thoughts and feelings, he is successful beyond all expectations. Every single page is a pithy volume of overwhelmingly unforgettable words that linger long after it is read. Minute corners of the mind and heart are brutally bared until mercy finally prevails. Ultimately, love empowers and redemption triumphs.

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Jul 28, 2012 cupcake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Are we destined to repeat our parents' mistakes?

That is a central question, if not THE central question, in Northwest Corner. The sequel to Reservation Road (which I had not read, nor did I even realize that this was a sequel until I read the interview with John Burnham Schwartz at the end of the book), Northwest Corner picks up twelve years after Dwight Arno went to prison for accidentally killing a young boy. In Dwight's case, it was the old refrain: it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. He s...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am having a hard time figuring out why I finished this book, given how frustrated I was with it, but there must have been something compelling, because I kept reading. I think despite its flaws, the story and characters were interesting, even if the story wasn't told well and the characters didn't often make sense. There were a few main things I did not like: 1)the short chapters and constant changes in point of view completely interrupted the flow of the story (the only saving grace was that...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Gaby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

You don't need to have read or watched Reservation Road to appreciate the characters, their dilemmas or the writing in Northwest Corner. Schwartz captures the complexity, heaviness, and hopelessness so well.

* Dwight Arno at fifty. He's been released from prison and built a new life on the other side of the country, surrounded by people that don't know his past. Only his employer knows about his record and it has never been an issue at the sporting goods store where he works. His old life as a c...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Lori L (She Treads Softly) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwartz continues the story from his novel Reservation Road. Dwight Arno is now fifty years old and out of prison. He is now living in California and is the manager of a sporting goods store. Dwight is surprised by an unexpected visitor, his estranged son, Sam. Sam has left college in Connecticut and is running from something he has done. Northwest Corner examines the lives of ordinary men and woman who are all damaged in some way and are all searching for meani...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Holly Weiss rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-release, to-review, american-historical-fiction

In this powerful sequel to Reservation Road, John Burnham Schwartz revisits the Arno and Learner families in another psychological study of the effects of grief, guilt, anger and disconnection on the human spirit.

Dwight Arno has made a fresh start in Santa Barbara, California as a fifty-year old sporting goods store manager. No one in his present knows about the hit-and-run death of Josh Leaner twelve years ago, which shattered his family. His son, Sam, now a twenty-two-year old baseball star,...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Kasa Cotugno rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: vine

Twelve years ago the lives of two families were shattered by a horrifying accident, recounted beautifully in an earlier novel, titled "Reservation Road." That book was told primarily in two first person voices by Etahn and Dwight, the fathers in those families. Presenting that devastating event and its immediate consequences"Reservation Road" was multilayered, complex, like its characters.

"Northwest Corner" takes up with the characters 12 years later, presenting the continued aftermath of that n...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Eileen Granfors rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: families, grief, highly-unusual, psychological-thriller, men, women, marriage, divorce

WARNING: If you haven't read "Reservation Road," then do not read this review of its sequel because it might spoil your experience with the former.

I have long admired the work of John Burnham Schwartz, having and been blown away by "Reservation Road." I then went back and read his first book, "Bicycle Days" and followed with "Claire Marvel" and The Commoner. But I couldn't quit thinking about the terrible grief in "Reservation Road." When that title was made into a film, I thought perhaps the wh...more WARNING: If you haven't read "Reservation Road," then do not read this review of its sequel because it might spoil your experience with the former.

I have long admired the work of John Burnham Schwartz, having and been blown away by "Reservation Road." I then went back and read his first book, "Bicycle Days" and followed with "Claire Marvel" and The Commoner. But I couldn't quit thinking about the terrible grief in "Reservation Road." When that title was made into a film, I thought perhaps the whole reading world world would get on the Schwartz bandwagon.

He is a fine writer, albeit no zombies or vampires for the obsessed (I am thankful for this feature by the way).

His new title," Northwest Corner" picks up ten years after "Reservation Road." Sam, the little boy in Reservation Road is all grown up, a college baseball star. He is ready to graduate and take on the world. Except. . . he is troubled deeply by the childhood he lived, and because of this he commits a horrifying crime.

We are then led to the lives of his now-divorced parents, Ruth and Dwight. Dwight has done his time, "repaid" his debt to society for the hit-and-run in "Reservation Road." (possible spoiler if you do not know this title) And although that is true, he is still wounded, scarred, and nearly mute in the presence of love for his son and the lives he ruined that night.

Ruth has had a bout with cancer. She can barely plod through her days, and now she is confronted with her son's lapse.

We also catch up with Emma, the sister who lost her brother in the hit-and-run. Her family too has been torn apart by an instant on a dark road.

Schwartz handles the voices of all these characters in smooth and distinctive styles. He allows the chapters to be short, simple scenes of deep emotions when called for.

This story of the muteness in families when pure honesty and clear words could silence the suffering is touching and painful and carries human truth.

Though "Northwest Corner" is neither funny nor light nor au courant in terms of the fascination with zombies and dystopia, Schwartz once again reveals that there is drama, tragedy, in daily life. (less)

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May 22, 2011 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2011

Over 12 years ago, John Burnham Schwartz introduced us to two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis – the inadvertent death of a young boy, Josh Lerner, by a hit-and-run driver, a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno. The book was Reservation Road, a wrenching psychological study about how a single moment in time can shatter an orderly world into tiny little shards.

Now, in a poignantly written sequel, Mr. Schwartz revisits the two families – the Arnos and the Lerners – years later, at...more Over 12 years ago, John Burnham Schwartz introduced us to two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis – the inadvertent death of a young boy, Josh Lerner, by a hit-and-run driver, a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno. The book was Reservation Road, a wrenching psychological study about how a single moment in time can shatter an orderly world into tiny little shards.

Now, in a poignantly written sequel, Mr. Schwartz revisits the two families – the Arnos and the Lerners – years later, at the cusp of yet another crisis. But this time, Dwight Arno has served his time, moved from Connecticut to Santa Barbara in an attempt to redefine his life until his estranged son, Sam, shows up. And this time, it is Sam who is in trouble and struggling to come to grips with his anger and his pain.

I’m glad to report that Northwest Corner is every bit as good as Reservation Road, if not better. It sings with love and pain and pathos and the beat of the human heart as it strives for connection. Told in multiple viewpoints from both male and female perspectives – including a first-person rendition by Dwight – this book is as powerful as it is moving.

In clear, detailed images, John Burnham Schwartz defines the emotional state of his characters in just a few taut sentences. Take Dwight’s musings, for example: “We think we are solid and durable, only to find that, placed under a cruel and unexpected light, we are the opposite: only our thin, permeable skin holds us intact. Hemophiliacs walking through a forest of thorns.” Is that perfect or what?

Early on in the book, Dwight and Sam come together for the first time in many years, Dwight is working for an ambitious “family man” in a sports shop. Sam is on the run from college after an impulsive deed that threatens to uproot his life. He has been living with his mother, Ruth, who remains in Connecticut, at a crossroads in her own life. And the other family? The Lerners are fragmented, searching, still unable to break away from the emptiness and reach out to each other for healing. The unbearable pain has been replaced by a type of functionality in each of them. But the hole in the center of their lives remain.

The plot is woven slowly and deliberately, with just enough suspense to keep the reader turning pages but make no mistake: this is, at its core, a psychological novel and the “action” is mostly internal. The growth – the so-called “arc” – is an interior one, more than an external one. And therein lies the beauty of Northwest Corner.

Is there a shot at redemption? As Dwight Arno reflects, “Wait too long to speak up and you might just miss your shot. You may do your time, but you will never really get out.” Redemption, the author suggests, is difficult and elusive, but possible with enough effort.

And the title reinforces this fact. These families have traveled beyond the road where an accident cruelly transformed their lives (Reservation Road) to a wider territory with others (Northwest Territory). They may not have taken their places in the world quite yet, but they’re moving forward. In the end, this is a story of the emotional journeys that these families – and indeed, most of us -- must eventually take to reach a point of self-salvation and completion. It helps to read Reservation Road first, but this book stands proudly on its own.

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Aug 19, 2011 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If life could be divided into "before and after," this sequel to the dramatic Reservation Road could be classified as After. Twelve years after the devastating events that took the life of the young Learner boy and shattered two families, Dwight Arno has started over. After prison. After losing everything about the life he once had.

We see him again in Santa Barbara, CA, working in a sporting goods store, living in a rented home, and walking through his days as if he is an automaton. There seems...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Larry Hoffer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In his magnificent book, Reservation Road, John Burnham Schwartz traced the lives of two families, the Arnos and the Learners, affected by tragedy and a subsequent cover-up. It has been 13 years since that book was published, and 12 years have passed in the lives of the Arnos and the Learners.

Dwight Arno has rebuilt his life after a stint in prison, and settled in California, far from the Connecticut neighborhood where he lived when he was married. His existence is rather austere—a job managing...more In his magnificent book, Reservation Road, John Burnham Schwartz traced the lives of two families, the Arnos and the Learners, affected by tragedy and a subsequent cover-up. It has been 13 years since that book was published, and 12 years have passed in the lives of the Arnos and the Learners.

Dwight Arno has rebuilt his life after a stint in prison, and settled in California, far from the Connecticut neighborhood where he lived when he was married. His existence is rather austere—a job managing a sporting goods store, occasional dating, weekend softball games—but he feels this is the life he deserves to live. Into this placidity drops his son, Sam, whom he hasn't seen in 12 years. Sam, an angry college baseball player, flees to California after an incident that leaves him wondering if the sins of the father are truly visited upon the son. And Sam is searching for something else, from his life and from his father, but he has no clue what those things are. The ripples of Sam's reconnection with Dwight, and Dwight's return to Connecticut, touch Ruth, Sam's mother and Dwight's ex-wife, and others.

I still count Reservation Road among one of my favorite books, so I was somewhat concerned about whether a follow-up novel would be on par, and I hoped that the characters wouldn't have changed too drastically. I'm happy to say that Schwartz did an exceptional job revisiting this story, and while this second book lacks a little of the suspenseful nature of the first, it again inhabits the same type of tension-filled environment. All of the characters are flawed in their own way, and you realize how the damages they suffered years ago have shaped them. If I have any criticism, it's that I felt Sam was just so angry and so resentful that it was difficult to engender a great deal of empathy for him until fairly well into the book. In the end, however, it was terrific to have a new book by John Burnham Schwartz, and even better to be able to revisit a story I loved and feel it was worthy. Read this.(less)

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Apr 27, 2012 Lindsay (Little Reader Library) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

Northwest Corner revisits the characters from John Burnham Schwartz's earlier novel, Reservation Road, twelve years on. Whilst this offers readers of that book a chance to find out what has changed and developed for the characters, equally I don't think it's necessary to have read that book to enjoy and get a lot out of this one. However, if you are intending to read Reservation Road first, the review below may 'spoil' it, so please bear this in mind.

It's 2006, and Dwight Arno is working as a ma...more Northwest Corner revisits the characters from John Burnham Schwartz's earlier novel, Reservation Road, twelve years on. Whilst this offers readers of that book a chance to find out what has changed and developed for the characters, equally I don't think it's necessary to have read that book to enjoy and get a lot out of this one. However, if you are intending to read Reservation Road first, the review below may 'spoil' it, so please bear this in mind.

It's 2006, and Dwight Arno is working as a manager in a sporting goods store in Arenas, California, living alone and reflecting on his life. Now 50, he was involved in a tragic accident twelve years earlier, and went to prison. He is dating Penny, who he hasn't told about his troubled past. His son Sam is feeling very negative about himself, and troubled. He is at University in Connecticut, but after an incident in a baseball game, he heads to a bar, and gets into a serious fight; 'something inside him has ruptured; something hideous has come out of hiding,' and then he flees far away to California, to his father. Sam's unexpected appearance is a complete shock for Dwight, who hasn't seen his son since the accident all those years before, and his arrival means that Dwight's steady existence is shaken up, his hidden past has suddenly caught up with his present, and the guilt resurfaces.

Ruth, Sam's mother, is fighting a private battle of her own, when she learns of Sam's disappearance. Penny wonders whether Dwight will open up to her. Emma, the sister of Josh Learner, the boy killed by Dwight in the hit and run accident twelve years' previously, has a complex relationship with Sam.

This novel is written in short chapters, with the narrative moving from character to character. Dwight's point of view is given in the first person, the others - Sam, Ruth, Penny and Emma - are all in the third person, so to me Dwight felt like the anchor at the centre of the story, whose life and actions impacted on all the others.

This is a fairly slow-moving novel, a contemplative look at people's lives, their relationships, the everyday struggles that people face. I felt that the characters all seemed to have a lot of issues, to dislike themselves at times. They are looking back on their pasts, the mistakes and the missed opportunities., and trying to work out the way to move forward, because that's all they can do. The way the author tackles these relationships, where family haven't seen each other or spoken for years, but how the bonds are never broken no matter how far apart you are physically and emotionally is very convincing. The tension is palpable as Dwight tries to reconnect with Sam but finds it incredibly difficult; 'my son beside me yet miles distant...to build a solid, lasting bridge between two people, let alone a father and son with a history like ours, is a mighty human endeavor...' Dwight observes his son, 'a muscle twitching in his jaw, biting down furiously on all the words he'll never say,' and for me, this is at the heart of the novel, and the characters; I found myself thinking, are any of them going to say what they actually feel towards each other?

This is not to say that the story is told without humour. I loved this bittersweet passage about Ruth and Sam, which sums up the gulf between the idyll and the reality:

'She makes her mother's meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and thin coaster-size disks of grilled eggplant with extra-virgin olive oil, and they sit down to Sunday supper as if it's old family times. The only missing ingredients are: (a) conversation, (b) appetites, (c) a bottle of good red wine, and (d) old family times.'

The quintessentially American love of baseball provides a lovely metaphor of how Dwight wishes things could be between him and his son, as he had imagined it when he was younger and Sam was little:

'My sense of things then was of an extended warm-up between two teammates old and young, the sweet early innings of what would eventually become a long, meaningful game stretching through the afternoon hours and into the starlit evening of our lives...Of course, for many reasons, things did not turn out that way.'

I really like this sort of novel, which gets to the heart of difficult, mixed-up lives and relationships, and I would recommend it.(less)

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Oct 03, 2011 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, contemporary-fiction

This book, a follow-on to the amazing Reservation Road, wasn’t nearly as compelling as its predecessor. It has the same stellar writing but lacks the fast-paced, oh-my-gosh-what’s-going-to-happen-next quality. In many ways, despite the extremely climactic opening, this book really isn’t about much.

As with before, the author does a great job shifting narratives, but some people I just didn’t need to hear from (e.g. Dwight’s girlfriend). This book does contain interesting commentary on the inheri...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Dolly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of popular fiction

Shelves: first-reads, 2011, education-school, fitness-sports, gardens-flowers, new-england, other-usa, relationships

I won a copy of this book on Goodreads Giveaways and I'm so very glad that I did. I have not read Reservation Road, but it will be added to my to-read list. This was a dramatic story, but I loved the roles that the mothers played in this book. It has some very troubled characters, but I feel that none of them are all that far away from any of us in many ways. The raw emotion displayed in this book is often tough to take, but I felt like it was a story that needed to be told.

interesting quotes:...more I won a copy of this book on Goodreads Giveaways and I'm so very glad that I did. I have not read Reservation Road, but it will be added to my to-read list. This was a dramatic story, but I loved the roles that the mothers played in this book. It has some very troubled characters, but I feel that none of them are all that far away from any of us in many ways. The raw emotion displayed in this book is often tough to take, but I felt like it was a story that needed to be told.

interesting quotes:

"There's a kind of ironic innocence involved, and it stems from genuine hope. The hope being that when judgment finally comes, if it does (and I'm not talking about law here -- that already happened -- or about God, either), good intentions might actually count for something concrete, or at least there might be an understanding by someone who matters that bad intentions were not originally present, but rather appeared unexpectedly at some horrible juncture, and somehow took root, and only then ruined everything." pp. 82-3

"...she has recently vowed to herself to give up the word always, because it is fraudulent. There is only now; there is only this." p. 113

"You can do all the planning you want, or you can do none; once their bags are packed, people leave."

"You cannot reach fifty years of age and still think that nothing is better than something, unless you are a fool as well as an asshole. Despite what the mathematicians assure us, zero is not a meaningful number in real life." p. 157

"When in a position of doubt or anxiety...it behooves you to speak politely and firmly, as though from a podium of formidable rectitude and calm wisdom." p. 167

regarding cancer:"...if they find nothing, you will live to come again. And if the constellations return, dark as dark matter, soon enough they will stop looking. And that will be the end.
To live, then, means continually opening her most hidden self up to clinical scrutiny. No other way to do it..." p.269

"We think we are solid and durable, only to find that, placed under a cruel and unexpected light, we are the opposite: only our thin, permeable skin holds us intact.
Hemophiliacs walking through a forest of thorns." p. 282

new words: pedantry, probity, fabulist, interstice(less)

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Jun 07, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-books-i-have-reviewed, favorites

This novel is a literary blessing for fans of Reservation Road who felt that Schwartz wasn't "finished" with the Arno family, that he had more to say and a penetrating way of saying it. This is a follow-up to the Arno and Learner families, twelve years after a hit-and-run tragedy that shredded two families to fractious pieces. At the time of the incident, Dwight and Ruth Arno (the centerpiece family) were already divorced, and this just annihilated any redemptive force from taking shape between...more This novel is a literary blessing for fans of Reservation Road who felt that Schwartz wasn't "finished" with the Arno family, that he had more to say and a penetrating way of saying it. This is a follow-up to the Arno and Learner families, twelve years after a hit-and-run tragedy that shredded two families to fractious pieces. At the time of the incident, Dwight and Ruth Arno (the centerpiece family) were already divorced, and this just annihilated any redemptive force from taking shape between them. Their son, Sam, was only nine, and already packing some rage from the tragedy.

The review is circumspect so as not to give spoilers on either novel. In this case, it is highly recommended that Reservation Road be read first, to have a more thorough understanding of the situation and characters.

As in Reservation Road, Schwartz writes with a powerful poetic and impressionistic style. Whereas some authors' stylistic devices get in the way and distract the reader, Schwartz's form of narrative deepens the experience, gives a potent and intoxicating weight to the characters and their circumstances. This novel is more breathtaking than its predecessor.

Schwartz delivers with brief (sometimes less than a page) chapters headed by character names, and only Dwight's is written in the first person perspective. Most final sentences (of the chapters) are gorgeously, painfully beautiful, a smooth stone of a line that lodges in the reader's throat, down to the intestines, and sometimes to the groin. He is elliptical without being pretentiously showy.

Sam is now 21, a baseball star at UConn, and feels lousy after the last game of the season. His rage and self-hatred has slid to danger zones, and he is headed toward phenomenal adult problems at the start of the story. He gets on a bus to see his father after courting trouble. He hasn't seen Dwight in twelve years, but he isn't even sure of his motives. Dwight is trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life near Santa Barbara, and Ruth is coming apart at the seams in her casually comfortable Connecticut home.

The Learner family is already on robotic mode, especially Grace, the mother, and the dad, who is primarily off stage. Emma, who is close to Sam's age, is home from Yale for the summer and on a precipice, headed either toward a fog or crucial clarity.

Schwartz's prose sets off emotional landmines without melodramatic or over-dramatic story progression. He keeps it simple, yet rarefied. And you don't have to like baseball to embrace the imagery, so subtle is he in weaving baseball concepts and terms into base-stealing metaphors and aphorisms. You don't even have to understand the game, so fertile is Schwartz's imagination and visual concepts. He doesn't press it, either. His imagery is expansive, and includes the elegance of nature--flora, fauna, and the deep green grass and brown earth and endless sky.

Each page offers a nugget or morsel of ferocious insight or incisiveness. Your emotions will slide around and feel messy, and click into nooks and crannies that are frequently uncomfortable. Schwartz illuminates shame with fierce precision, and he portrays love with electrified pathos. He'll go a step beyond what you would expect. He's the canary in the coalmine that delivers. He is a sexy writer, a sharp, clear-eyed poet. It is a quick read but a slow burn.
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Feb 28, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Northwest Corner by Jonathon Burnham Schwartz flows like a river. It has deep eddies, grade four rapids and places where the water is so clear that it's like looking in a mirror; places were a reader can rest and catch their breath. It reads as langorously as a William Stafford poem and there is even a nod to Stafford in the book.

Northwest Corner is a sequel to Reservation Road, taking place twelve years after Reservation Road ends. Dwight is working in a sporting goods store in Santa Barbara an...more Northwest Corner by Jonathon Burnham Schwartz flows like a river. It has deep eddies, grade four rapids and places where the water is so clear that it's like looking in a mirror; places were a reader can rest and catch their breath. It reads as langorously as a William Stafford poem and there is even a nod to Stafford in the book.

Northwest Corner is a sequel to Reservation Road, taking place twelve years after Reservation Road ends. Dwight is working in a sporting goods store in Santa Barbara and has been seeing a woman, Penny, who knows nothing of his past. His son, Sam, has just been involved in a serious bar fight where he beat someone up with his baseball bat so badly that the other young man may not live. Sam leaves Connecticut and takes the bus to Santa Barbara, appearing on Dwight's doorstep. They have not seen each other in twelve years and the meeting is more than awkward. Sam sees his father's rage inside himself and so he heads there, to be with someone like himself.

Meanwhile, Ruth is struggling with the aftermath of breast cancer treatment. The Lerner household is in disarray. The parents have separated and Emma is in her senior year of college waiting to start at Yale. She and Sam Arno get together and it's like a magical life raft for both of them for each of them understands the trauma and pain of the other's family.

Emma feels like the chosen child is the one who has died and that she is left, the shadow child. Her mother has turned cold and hard. Her father is inaccessible as he studies the Talmud and leaves their home for Chicago to immerse himself in his studies.

We watch as Sam tries to find himself and Emma straddles a line between learning what life is about and becoming part of it herself. Sam wonders if he can ever be anything other than his mistake, if all his life will be this one episode of violence, reliving his father's past.

The book's prose sings. It is like reading an epic poem. The writing is so clear and beautiful that I hated to turn a page. It is by far one of the best books I have ever read, and I have read a lot of books. It is certainly on my top ten of the year.

I didn't think a sequel could ever top the original, but this one does. Its fluidity, beauty and maturity are sublime. It's a book not to miss. I do recommend reading Reservation Road first to familiarize oneself with the characters, but be sure not to stop there. This book calls out to be read.
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Oct 12, 2011 J.M. Cornwell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dwight is a manger of a sporting goods store in California, far from the scene of a fatal accident. After twelve years of prison and losing his family and position, he is still running, living a half-life that is respectable but nothing compared to what he had before the accident that changed his life.

His son Sam is in college and is running from his own mistake. Sam runs to his father in California in hopes he can outdistance the trouble and that Dwight will help him out. Things are about to ge...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Staci rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Staci by: TLC Book Tours

Shelves: tlc-tour-2011, 2011-reads

First Thoughts after finishing this book: "I'm keeping this book...I want to read it again!"

Writing that really touched my core because sometimes I feel this way about my oldest son:

He looks up at me. "Do you hate yourself?"
My mouth is dry. Carefully, I sit on the edge of his bed.
"Some days. Other days are better."
He nods as if he understands, which makes me sadder than anything he could have said.
He is my son. He's within reach now. Soon, I think, I will try to touch him, but not just yet....more

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Jan 16, 2012 Marcia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Her memory not so much the proverbial sieve as an increasingly rusty grater, shredding little shards and slivers from the original whole. Sometimes you can tell where a piece came from, but often not....

Talking about her ex. husband- "He isn't a prospective anything but the opposite-an island she's already visited, lived on, explored, and forcibly quit. She knows every inch of that terrain and wouldn't believe in it's reinvention as a luxury resort if the Four Seasons itself vouchsafed it. "

I...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

A continuation of the story told in Reservation Road, Northwest Corner is a spare and minimalist novel that packs a huge punch. We return to the story of Dwight Arno whose horrible mistake cost him just about everything, including contact with his son, Sam. When Sam turns up on his doorstep, a college senior and varsity superstar, who badly injured another boy in a bar fight. He's been expelled from school and criminal charges are imminent. His only real relationship is with the sister of the th...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Maureen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I came into this book without having read the lead-in Reservation Road. You get enough reference to that story of a hit and run where a child is killed that , seriously, I don't need to go visit that heartbreak. Instead, I really enjoyed meeting these characters ten years after tragedy tore up their worlds. Different people survive, cope, and adapt in different ways - but nobody ever loses that kind of reference point for their whole lives. Told mostly from the point of view of the family of the...more

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Sep 30, 2011 Reid Nichols rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't read Reservation Road... so it is possible I am missing out on some major character depth. Northwest Corner is supposed to stand on it own, but it clearly does not. Too little occurs for the book to have any meaning. There are a few good things about the book- characters, writing, premise. But overall I believe the story was not thought out enough. Chapters can be no longer than a paragraph. This book reads more like a clean wrapping up of Reservation Road. 'The trip back' is a yawn and...more

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May 14, 2011 Terri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

"Northwest Corner" by John Burnham Schwartz is a novel that picks up more than ten years after "Reservation Road" ends. This time, Sam Arno and Emma Learner are all grown up and still dealing with the turmoil that their parents lived through since the death of Emma's brother Josh. Dwight is now in California, trying to make a life for himself. Ruth is battling cancer, Grace is trying to get her business back together, and the children are attending college. It is only after a seemingly random ba...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Tom Hancock rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I received this book for Christmas and read it without any background. It wasn't until I finished that I realized that is was book 2 in the lives of these characters. Interestingly, I found that slowing uncovering past events over the course of the book was one of the highlights that would be missed by people who had read the first book.

I did like Northwest Corner but didn't love it. It was astonishingly linear. I felt as though nothing was a surprise, even the ending. Though the plot seemed pre...more

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Sep 27, 2011 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this before "Reservation Road." I had, however, seen the film (I'm a sucker for all things Mark Ruffalo) so I was familiar with the characters. In no way whatsoever do I feel like it was necessary for the reader to have read "Reservation Road" before starting on "Northwest Corner." That is a testament to the storytelling of John Burnham Schwartz. After just a few pages I found it nearly impossible to put down. The story slows a bit a little over halfway through and there are some relation...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Cathy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book had caught my eye, and then I was lucky enough to win a Giveaways copy. I had no idea this was a follow-up (or even written by the same author)to Reservation Road until halfway through the book. No matter though, the book can definitely stand alone. I had enjoyed the movie previously. But truly, John Burnham Schwartz has a new fan and I will definitely be reading more of his books. I thought his writing was amazing, the story compelling and the core human emotions and motivations of ea...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Alecia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was a big fan of Reservation Road. This is a sequel to that book, set about 12 years after the tragedy that was the previous novel's centerpiece. I loved Reservation Road, and thought that the back and forth chapters worked well and served the tense, unutterably sad story line very well. The author uses that same techique in this book, but to less success. Although I still admire John Burnham Schwartz's writing, the story in Northwest Corner is much less compelling than Reservation Road. There...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Tracy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Strong follow up to Reservation Road, this novel catches up with Dwight and Sam Arno 12 years after Dwight killed 10 year old Josh Learner. He hasn't seen his son in those 12 years, but he did serve time in prison. Sam seeks him out after his own transgression and we get to watch the Arno family along with Emma and Grace Learner over the course of a few weeks. Puzzlingly, the narrative is also told in the voice of Dwight's girlfriend of what seems like a few weeks or months. While distracting, h...more

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May 06, 2011 Wendy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I won an advanced reading copy of this book through Good Reads. The book arrived early this morning in the mail and I started reading it. Initially I was somewhat confused as it starts out with several different people telling their own stories - but I quickly grabbed on to the writing style and I literally could not put the book down until I read the last page.

This is an amazing story told through so many different eyes of how a single event affected so many different people in so many differe...more

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