book data
1158 ratings, 3.86 average rating, 118 reviews
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published
September 8th 1997
(first published 1992)
by Random House of Canada, Limited
binding
Paperback, 272 pages
isbn
067697094X
(isbn13: 9780676970944)
description
Atom Egoyan's Oscar-nominated The Sweet Hereafter is a good movie, remarkably faithful to the spirit of Russell Banks's novel of the same name,...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1417)
Read in May, 2006
This one seemed to have a lot of potential. The idea was good. The story was… good. Or it could have been.
I hated the way it was written. I didn’t like this fellows style at all. None of the characters came off as especially likeable, or real, or endearing, or brave… or anything. There was nothing stand out of the four people in the town chosen to narrate. Their story was sad, something stand out in itself. And perhaps that was meant to be the meat, that was meant to be all t...more
I hated the way it was written. I didn’t like this fellows style at all. None of the characters came off as especially likeable, or real, or endearing, or brave… or anything. There was nothing stand out of the four people in the town chosen to narrate. Their story was sad, something stand out in itself. And perhaps that was meant to be the meat, that was meant to be all t...more
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The greatest book I may never want to read again.
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Read in November, 2008
I first read Russell Banks because I found out that he wrote the books that two great movies are based on, "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Affliction." The first of these two is an exquisite movie.
In fact, and one doesn't often hear this, especially on Goodreads, but the movie is better than the book. In the movie, directed by Atom Egoyan, the story of a school bus in a upstate NY town going into the lake is dealt with in the aftermath. Most of the children of the town ar...more
In fact, and one doesn't often hear this, especially on Goodreads, but the movie is better than the book. In the movie, directed by Atom Egoyan, the story of a school bus in a upstate NY town going into the lake is dealt with in the aftermath. Most of the children of the town ar...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
those seeking catharsis
The central argument of this book is whether there is meaning to the events which involve us as persons and as communities. From attorney Mitchell Stephens rather dogmatic contention that "there are no accidents", to Nicole Burnell's statement that what happened to her was an accident, to Billy Ansel's fatalism, as all the things that gave his life meaning have been stripped away from him, to the tee shirt that Billy's sluttish escort is wearing in the epilogue, which reads "Shit ...more
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Read in May, 2002
First, I had no idea that they made this book into a movie in 1997 (I know, I'm clueless). I thought that it would make a great movie with the four different perspectives each taking the story further down the road and narrated by each person. I hope that they didn't make a Hollywood ending out of it.
The first thing I liked about the book; each chapter took the story a little further but it was told from a different person and therefore a different point of view. You were in their heads seei...more
The first thing I liked about the book; each chapter took the story a little further but it was told from a different person and therefore a different point of view. You were in their heads seei...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of the movie, and those who should be fans of the movie (by which I mean everyone)
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...more
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...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
people interested in how some deal with tragedy
I have to say I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second half. I really liked the narrative switch from the bus driver to the Billy Ansel character, the way the latter picked up the plot from roughly the same spot but from his own perspective, putting a new spin on the people of the town and the events. However, I was disappointed with subsequent narrative shifts because the latter narrators back-tracked a bit. Also, the "new spin" was lacking in those characters; th...more
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Read in July, 2007
the book was $1.00 at the thrift store, and so last saturday I bought it. I read it quickly, not in the way that you read a guilty pleasure or a mystery, but in the way that you read a story that is told in a spare and urgent style. i mentioned to someone i was reading it, and they complained they would not be able to read the book after seeing the movie.
however, i found the two to be complementary, although I think the book is far superior to the movie. By reading the characters' words, ea...more
however, i found the two to be complementary, although I think the book is far superior to the movie. By reading the characters' words, ea...more
I meant to pick up "The Reading Group" for a light change of pace after "Nickel and Dimed," but I had to take Naava to the pediatrician who often discusses literary fiction with me (he reads a lot of the same books I do, but in Hebrew translation) and I was embarrassed to come in with a fluff book. What can I tell you; we all indulge our vanity where we can. Meanwhile, after a 1.5 hour wait in the waiting room I'm too into the book to put it down now. "The Reading Grou...more
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2 comments
Russell Banks is hands down one of my favorite writers. I was inducted into the Banks obsessesion three years ago with "Rule of the Bone" and have been reverent of his work ever since. Banks is a prolific writer (he's written about twelve books) who has forged a voice and identity with desolate, cold and impoverished pockets of upstate New York (although he also frequently incorporates Jamaica, where he lived for a number of years). "The Sweet Hereafter" is him at his best, r...more
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Few others can approach the painful realism of the lower middle class like Banks. He clearly has a culture of interest and has explored the dynamics of rural New England and the effect of destitution and banality on the lives of these citizens. In "The Sweet Hereafter," Banks has created a masterpiece. He explores the age-old morals of consequences and retribution in the aftermath of unspeakable, yet unintentional tragedy. His characters struggle with these fundamentally human conc...more
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Read in July, 2008
I enjoyed this book, in the sense that I couldn't put it down, but I was surprised when I realized Banks wrote "Affliction," as well, because I remember that novel as being more skillfully written, more powerful than this one. The book is told from the points of view of four characters, and not all of them rang true for me. The way the story is told, each character's story reveals that the previous character's view of another character is inaccurate or incomplete, not as decent and who...more
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Read in June, 2008
Once I started reading this, I couldn't put it down, and it's been a while since I've been able to say that about a book. I only vaguely remember the movie, which means I either didn't see it or fell asleep during it (meaning I didn't see it), but now I'm curious to see how well it conveyed the matter-of-fact horror (oxymoron? or something else?) of the book. Except for one section (see below), I felt that Banks did a great job showing the major event and its repercussions using different points...more
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Russell Banks is amazing. He wrote this book from the perspectives of 4 narrators. He had me rooting for characters mid-way thru that I rallied against by book's end. Remarkable.
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Read in August, 2008
I was disappointed by the end. I felt like he stopped just when the story was really getting started. He had all this build up, then nothing...
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Completely and utterly spellbinding. I still remember to this day the music I listened to while reading this. Those songs evoke a sense of snowbound melancholy. A tight-knit community is literally thrown under the wheel of a school bus. Children die. How does everyone cope? How do they move forward? How does an outsider help or hinder them from smiling again? The outsider is one of the most captivating characters -- very multi-faceted - revolting in some respects and so sympathetic in others. T...more
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Read in February, 2008
Except for the one huge, glaring problem with the movie, I preferred the movie. The book was working on some great stuff--telling the story from the different points of view, with everyone's individual stories. But I felt like the voices of all the narrators were too similar. And while I expected a story about grief and blame, I felt like, at times, that story was overshadowed by the "grim life in a small town" stuff from before the accident. It almost wasn't harrowing enough for w...more
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Read in June, 2008
This was my first Russell Banks novel. I'm always being told to give him a go and this book, although good, was not earth shattering. The tale of a small town's tragedy told through four separate narrators, each with a different perspective, is patchy at best. Certain characters feel more cliched than honest in their rendition of how events have changed their lives. The last two characters' narratives are by far the best because they are the most raw and confused. Maybe I'll read more, or m...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
not really anyone!
Maybe it's the time in life when I read this. "Modern - scrunch" (the shelf I put it on) is right! Actually well written; the story advanced in a creative way: it was unfolded through four different characters and their explanations of a series of events. The problem: it was DEPRESSING! I read it for book club, and I suppose there will be things to talk about, but the conclusions are something vaguely along the lines of "man, life really bites for some people. Really a lot. ...more
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