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Reservation Road

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 1,346 ratings · 257 reviews

A cycle of violence and retribution is set in motion as two haunted men are engulfed by the emotions surrounding an unexpected and horrendous death.Ethan, a respected professor at a small New England college, is wracked by an obsession for revenge that threatens to tear his family apart. Dwight, fleeing his crime yet hoping to get caught, wrestles with overwhelming guilt a...more

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Published July 1st 2008 by Vintage Books USA (first published August 18th 1998)

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Sep 21, 2012 Debby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard to say you "really liked" a book about the death of a 10-yr-old boy from a hit and run. The book is narrated from 3 perspectives on the events of that night - Josh's father Ethan, Josh's mother Grace and Dwight the guy who hit Josh and kept on driving. Why? What will happen to each of them as time passes without a clue? How far will Ethan get when he decides to do some investigating of his own?
This is not an easy read, but a very good one. The ending left me speechless.
This would be...more

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May 31, 2011 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-fiction, domestic-and-relationship-fiction

I did a quick re-read of this book in anticipation of the sequel, Northwest Corner. My memory of my overall impressions of the story holds up in the second reading. Some great strengths and a couple of weaker aspects that do diminish the power of the book as a whole. If I focus on the things Schwartz got right, it's a four-star book. If I focus on the things he did wrong, it's three stars. I'm going with the higher rating because I do think the book is worth reading, especially if you're interes...more

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Jan 13, 2008 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who have lost a loved one

I read some of the reviews of this book and was a little surprised by a few. I think this content is for people who have actually expereinced loss. I don't mean a grandparent who has lived out their days, but someone in their immediate family. Otherwise I think it would be hard to understand the characters reactions. If you have watched and experienced what death does to a family you can relate to this novel.

I am about half way through and I can not put it down. This is an excellent novel so far...more

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Feb 01, 2009 Shirley rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story's theme is about grief and guilt. One night after coming back from a picnic, a happy family stop at a gas station. The mother takes her 8 year old daughter to the toilet and the father goes into the station to buy window wiper fluid after warning his son to stay away from the road. Of course, the boy gets hit by a car racing around the curve on Reservation Road. The driver is a messed up lawyer who was late returning his son to his ex-wife. He doesn't stop and the boy dies instantly. H...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-audio

Reservation Road, by John Burnham Schwartz, Various narrators, one for each of the three protagonists, Produced by Books on Tape, Downloaded from audible.com.

Ethan and Grace were coming home from vacation with their two children, Josh and Emma. They stopped at a deserted gas station because Emma had to go to the bathroom. Despite his father’s warning, Josh stood too close to the road and was hit by a passing car with only one headlight. He was killed. The driver did not stop. The rest of the boo...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Robin Glasser rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz for my book club. There are so many 'road' movies: Revolutionary Road, The Road to Perdition, etc. and as I got further into the book, I realized I'd seen the film, which was good, btw...Mark Ruffalo played the tortured lawyer (oxymoron?). The Learner family, Ethan and Grace and their children, Emma and Josh, stop at a gas station on their way home. Their son is standing by the road when a car comes racing along the bend. Josh is hit and killed in...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Jamie Gough rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is immediately gripping, and is written in a style that is almost poetic at times. It is told from the perspective of three narrators, each of whom is more self-aware than I think most people actually are; however, rather than making the book unbelievable, I think this introspection simply adds fascinating layers to the reader’s understanding of the actions that take place in Reservation Road.

The story focuses primarily on two fathers: one, whose son is killed in a hit-and-run car acci...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: harper simmons, Kesler woodward

I just finished reading Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz and, to say I feel stunned, would be putting it mildly. I feel like someone punched me in the chest and left a giant hole in my heart. The book is so good that I barely was able to come up for air.

The story is about a hit and run accident that takes the life of ten year old Josh Learner. He was standing too close to a country road on a dark night and an erratic and racing driver hit him and ran. Josh was killed instantly. Josh was...more I just finished reading Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz and, to say I feel stunned, would be putting it mildly. I feel like someone punched me in the chest and left a giant hole in my heart. The book is so good that I barely was able to come up for air.

The story is about a hit and run accident that takes the life of ten year old Josh Learner. He was standing too close to a country road on a dark night and an erratic and racing driver hit him and ran. Josh was killed instantly. Josh was a serious and thoughtful young boy, one who played the violin and loved music. He was close to his sister, Emma, and much loved by his parents.

The grief that comes to his family is like a boundless hole straight to hell. They become shells of themselves. Ethan, Josh's father, wants justice. He wants the police to do something and catch the killer. The police are methodically working to do that but they are intimidated by Ethan's vast swell of rage and pull back from him and also the case. Grace, Josh's mother and Ethan's wife, loses herself in her grief. She is all but a living and walking ghost of who she once was. She barely gets out of bed, no longer cares about her appearance and, for all intents and purposes, is missing in action. Dwight, the driver of the car that killed Ethan is a lawyer with a history of serious anger problems and past rage and violence issues. He can not face what he did and so he runs, little realizing that he is running from himself and the last vestiges of self-respect and humanity that have been left to him.

The story is told from three vantage points: Grace's, Ethan's and Dwight's. Grace has a history of trauma and loss. When she was a little girl, she watched her father keel over and die when he was a young man. She expects the worst to happen and is always ready for it, fearful of living with too much hope for the good in life. Grace is a garden landscape designer and lets all her professional life go down the drain after Josh's death. Ethan is a professor of literature in a small New England college and no longer can find solace in his work or in his studies. He can barely teach his classes. Emma, Josh's sister, is in a chaotic turmoil. She clutches on to her stuffed giraffe and her dog, Nellie, for dear life. She is angry at Josh for leaving and mourns him tremendously at the same time. She does not know how to channel her emotions. Dwight is an attorney who has let his practice slip. He is divorced and gets to see his son, Sam, only on Sundays. These Sundays are difficult for him as he finds it harder and harder to connect with Sam. When Sam was younger, in a fit of rage directed at Sam's mother, Dwight's ex-wife, he accidentally punches Sam in the face, breaking his jaw. After the hit and run, Dwight does not turn himself in. Rather, he turns himself inside out. He lets his business go downhill, his one relationship with a woman die, and takes to drinking more than he should. Neither Dwight nor Ethan can sleep at night and they are drawn and desperate.

Because the police are uncooperative, along with telling Ethan that if Dwight is caught, he'd be lucky to serve one year in jail, Ethan tries to find the perpetrator of this crime on his own. He ends up figuring out who committed the hit and run through innocuous conversations about Dwight's son Sam, along with conversations with Sam.

The horror of the situation for all the adults is vividly explored and profoundly narrated. I felt like I was inside their skin, suffering with them in all their grief, rage, and desperation. I understood Ethan's anger with the police and grasped his horror at their cold and uncaring response to his pleas.

This is a novel that has no lightness. It is heavy and intense, its weight the weight of the world of loss. The characterizations are right on, so true to life and so vividly portrayed that it is heart-wrenching and, at times, heart stopping. It is a beautiful and painful book to read but one that I shall never forget. I feel privileged to have read it and look forward to reading John Burnham Schwartz's new book, Northwest Corner: A Novel, which is a sequel to Reservation Road.
(less)

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Oct 17, 2011 Mmtimes4 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A cycle of violence and retribution is set in motion as two haunted men are engulfed by the emotions surrounding an unexpected and horrendous death.
Ethan, a respected professor at a small New England college, is wracked by an obsession for revenge that threatens to tear his family apart. Dwight, fleeing his crime yet hoping to get caught, wrestles with overwhelming guilt and his sense of obligation to his son. As these two men's lives unravel, Reservation Road moves to its startling conclusion.

W...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks

Reservation Road is a tragic novel about the death of a ten-year old child. As the story begins The Learner family is returning home from a concert, driving along a darkened road, Reservation Road, in North Canaan, Connecticut when the youngest child, Emma needs announces her need to use a restroom. The father finds a dimly lit gas station/auto body shop along the road and pulls into the parking lot. While the mother Grace, and daughter head for the restroom, the father, Ethan, runs inside to ma...more Reservation Road is a tragic novel about the death of a ten-year old child. As the story begins The Learner family is returning home from a concert, driving along a darkened road, Reservation Road, in North Canaan, Connecticut when the youngest child, Emma needs announces her need to use a restroom. The father finds a dimly lit gas station/auto body shop along the road and pulls into the parking lot. While the mother Grace, and daughter head for the restroom, the father, Ethan, runs inside to make a purchase, while son Josh waits outside. Josh wanders too close to the side of the curving road, it's dark outside and he is wearing dark clothing. Along comes a vehicle driven by another father, a single dad, Dwight Arno, with his young son Sam asleep in the car. After the Boston Red Sox game they attended went into overtime, he is late bringing his son home, and knows his ex is going to be furious. Driving too fast along the winding Reservation Road, with a headlight out, he sees something dark at the edge of the road, swerves his car, but hits Josh in the process. The impact wakes his son Sam who was asleep in the car, and the boy bangs his face on the window, giving him a black eye in the process. When Sam asks what happened, Dwight tells him that they hit a "black dog", but that he was sure the dog was had died, so he continues to speed, to return Sam home to his ex-wife in the hopes he has not jeopardized his visitation rights.

What follows is a compelling story of two fathers, and a family forever changed by the death of a child. The story is told from the alternating points of view of the two fathers. As the reader, I couldn't help but feel badly for both men. Ethan, who lost his son and Dwight, the hit and run driver who struggled to build a relationship with his own son who was about the same age as Josh. Dwight had limited visitation with his son because his former wife lied to the courts about him being abusive, having a reputation as a hot-head. Although Grace, grieves for her lost son as well, she does so at the expense of little Emma, and because of that, she was my least favorite character.

As Ethan and Dwight tell their stories, revealing significant events about their marriages and fatherhood, it soon becomes clear to the reader that their lives will intersect before the story ends. What follows is a compelling, page turner written in a way that will make you think about how your life can change in a split second. It's about tragedy, guilt -- for what was done and what could have been done. The story was packed with emotion and one book that will be hard to forget.

John Burnham Schwartz just had a sequel to this novel released. His new novel, Northwest Corner, is one book that I am anxious to read.

4.5/5 stars(less)

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Apr 16, 2011 Rebekkila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the third book I have read about greiving in the past 6 months, oddly enough I have enjoyed them all. A boy is killed in a hit and run accident in front of his father's eyes. The story is told from the points of view of the parents of the child and the dirver of the car.
The parents try to keep life normal for their eight year old daughter but are slowly being drivewn apart. The father is in such a rage that he alienates the police officer working on the case. The mother is practically c...more

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Mar 04, 2010 marg rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While this was readable enough, what I found it to be most primarily was a novel that tried to be two things - murder mystery and thoughtful, poignant story - and ended up being neither.
In a most depressing premise, a father driving with his ten year old son hits another man's ten year old son, then is scared and zooms off. At this point, as anyone could predict, the dead son's mother loses it, their marriage suffers, all predictably packaged in short snippets that were like movie scenes trying...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Jodie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, favourites

I find it hard to put into words how I feel about this book. It is without a doubt one of the most moving portrayals of grief and love that I have ever read.

Imagine seeing your precious, irreplacable young son mowed down in front of you. Now imagine being the driver that did it. In our wildest musings we could not even come close to the guilt and sorrow this would throw down on our lives and everyone we meet from that second forward. This novel, written in the narratives of Ethan and Grace, who...more I find it hard to put into words how I feel about this book. It is without a doubt one of the most moving portrayals of grief and love that I have ever read.

Imagine seeing your precious, irreplacable young son mowed down in front of you. Now imagine being the driver that did it. In our wildest musings we could not even come close to the guilt and sorrow this would throw down on our lives and everyone we meet from that second forward. This novel, written in the narratives of Ethan and Grace, who are the parents of Josh and Emma, and also Dwight, the driver, is just so close to perfection in showing us the fractures in our hearts and minds and marriages from just such a thing. The story really focuses on the two fathers, Ethan and Dwight. They both try really hard at being great dads, really hard, yet for Ethan it comes natural and for Dwight it is the biggest struggle in his life, his own father was no role model. There is a section in the book that had tears streaming down my face where Ethan's colleague is talking to him about what a great dad he was, how other kids wait for their fathers to just turn and listen and nod, and how he did it always not realising the acknowledgement he was giving, it was so touching.

And there is Grace, at times I felt so unsympathetic to her, I mean she still has Emma to care for and nurture. But the grief overwhelms her as does her resentment to Ethan and she falls into a great depression over the loss of her son whom she carried in her arms whilst she planted their garden. The author does a great job of showing how all these little things in their lives, the day to day things that before this accident never meant a thing, and now they seem to represent everything. For instance, Grace gets out of bed, her side is thoroughly dishevelled, yet Ethan has pulled the covers right up to the headboard, almost like he laid there and slept peacefully, and she hates him for it.

There is so much to love about this book, so many notes I could make but none of them can accurately portray how brilliant this novel is. I just loved it, all of it, even the ending.(less)

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Mar 30, 2011 Judy Croome rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stylish, emotionally intense book. Easy to read and captivating, I found myself drawn to the tragic “villain” Dwight. It's always a sign of excellent characterisation when one finds oneself empathising against one's better judgment with the "bad guy". All characters – even the dog Sallie – were well drawn. I cared about, or at least recognised, every character.

Lyrical language such as “the sky was faltering” added to the atmosphere of a gathering storm. There was not a wasted word in this book;...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Snotchocheez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes I feel a masochistic urge to wrap myself up in a totally depressing book. When these moods come on, give me Russell Banks' supremely morose "Affliction" or "The Sweet Hereafter" and let me wallow in the protagonists' misery, if you please. When I read about the subject matter (which see in the semi-spoiler below) of John Burnham Schwartz' "Reservation Road" I figured it would fill the depressing bill nicely.

Well, it's got the depressing theme mastered: nearly all of its 290 wispy thin...more Sometimes I feel a masochistic urge to wrap myself up in a totally depressing book. When these moods come on, give me Russell Banks' supremely morose "Affliction" or "The Sweet Hereafter" and let me wallow in the protagonists' misery, if you please. When I read about the subject matter (which see in the semi-spoiler below) of John Burnham Schwartz' "Reservation Road" I figured it would fill the depressing bill nicely.

Well, it's got the depressing theme mastered: nearly all of its 290 wispy thin pages are devoted to grief, mourning, and guilt subsequent to a tragic accident that happens in the first chapter. I guess it's not really a spoiler to reveal the accident: when a couple and their two kids stop for a pee break at a ramshackle gas station on Reservation Road in sorta-rural Connecticut, the eldest child, a 10 year-old boy, is run over a car speeding around a curve in front of the station (whose driver fails to stop). The rest of the book alternates between three POVs: the father's, the mother's, and the guy who drove the car that struck the boy. And that's basically about it. The parents grieve, the other dude wrangles with his guilt, There's not much substance beyond that. Fortunately, the story doesn't need much more embellishment than that, but there's really nothing to elevate this from a somber mournfest into something more substantive, less dour-one-note. As a parent, I totally can imagine the wretchedness the parents must've felt after losing a child in so horrific a fashion; it would be any parent's worst nightmare. After 150 pages of Mourn, Grieve, Guilt, though, the book starts becoming an insufferably painful slog; it's redeemed (kinda) when, by sheer Hollywood-esque coincidence (the book reads more like a screenplay than a nuanced novel) the lives of the parents and the rogue hit-and-run driver start to cross paths...predictably (though not unsatisfyingly) so.

***SPOILER ALERT*** (sorta)

I learned of this book indirectly from an a tiny Entertainment Weekly blurb touting this book's recently released sequel "Northwest Corner". Part of the enjoyment I got from mucking through all that depression was wondering how the hell Schwartz was going to create a sequel out of this dour mess, when it seemed the three principal characters were all careening out of control so badly they were one step away from killing themselves or earning a one-way ticket to the loony bin. While I didn't really enjoy this book all that much, Schwartz intrigued just barely enough to try to slog through the sequel. I might have to wait awhile, though before I attempt that one (gotta cleanse the "palate" from all the yuck, first).(less)

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Jan 17, 2010 Khaya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Khaya by: Mintzis

Shelves: intense-sad-dark-or-bleak

At the beginning of this book, ten-year-old Josh is killed in a hit-and-run accident. The subsequent events are narrated by three characters -- Josh's two parents (Ethan and Grace) and the hit-and-run driver, Dwight.

Grace sinks into a deep depression that distances her from her husband and surviving daughter; Ethan copes with his loss by nurturing a thirst for revenge on the anonymous driver and being belligerent to the police officers who simply aren't doing enough to find this driver. Dwight,...more At the beginning of this book, ten-year-old Josh is killed in a hit-and-run accident. The subsequent events are narrated by three characters -- Josh's two parents (Ethan and Grace) and the hit-and-run driver, Dwight.

Grace sinks into a deep depression that distances her from her husband and surviving daughter; Ethan copes with his loss by nurturing a thirst for revenge on the anonymous driver and being belligerent to the police officers who simply aren't doing enough to find this driver. Dwight, a tortured father to his own ten-year-old son, has a long history of poor impulse control which has already ruined his marriage, threatens his relationship with his son, and has now placed him in this situation where he simply cannot decide whether or not to turn himself in and face the consequences.

This book is written well, with complex characters and moral ambiguity. For all my sympathy for Ethan, I kept wanting to shake him and tell him that finding the driver and exacting his revenge would not bring Josh back. And while Dwight was clearly wrong for leaving the scene, Schwartz does a good job of helping you understand his actions in their larger context, if not exactly sympathize.

So why only three stars, then? Well, first of all, as you can imagine, this book was damn depressing. Maybe now that I'm a parent I have far less stomach for premises like these. Additionally, the book's slowness and wallowing in grief was reminiscent of A Death in the Family. Schwartz did justice to the intensity of the grieving process, but it was a bit too much of a good thing for me. The premise was depressing enough without having to feel the unrelieved pain for 200 pages; comic relief, or any other kind, was entirely absent. Finally, I didn't see what including Grace's viewpoint added to the story. I didn't find her to be a particularly interesting character in her own right, and I didn't feel that she served much purpose in moving the plot along.

Bottom line: interesting premise and decent execution, but somehow didn't do it for me.(less)

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Dec 12, 2011 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 22, 2011 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Holy crap this book was good: haunting, tragic, and gorgeously written. This was written about a dozen years ago and I only heard about it recently because the author has a follow up out (Northwest Corner: dying to read it). I can’t believe I never ran into Reservation Road before. It was a bestseller and a movie and so amazing it’s hard to fathom this is the first I’ve heard of it. It focuses on a tragedy (hit and run) and is told through multiple viewpoints. Sometimes shifting narration works...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Staci rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads

Why I wanted to read this one: Last year I read Northwest Corner by Schwartz, which is the sequel to Reservation Road, for a TLC Book Tour. I fell in love with this author's writing and the story hit me hard on many levels. I knew that at some point I had to read about the devastating event that caused these two families lives to spin out-of-control.

Source: My public library

I can only speak of my experience and tell you that I absolutely love this author's voice. There's something so simple, yet...more

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May 24, 2012 Simon Lipson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My appreciation of this book may have suffered from the fact that I read Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin at the same time. I have reviewed McCann's book elsewhere; suffice it to say I consider it to be a masterpiece. Schwartz, I feel, has striven to write his own masterpiece, but has fallen some way short. McCann writes with effortless grace and a feel for language, dialogue, pacing and the key emotional notes that mark him out as a genius. Schwartz is ticking boxes a lot of the time, hi...more

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Mar 07, 2009 Mickey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, I listening to this book on tape, and I finished it in about 3 days. Tragedy, loss, quilt, redemption, and despair are all major themes in this novel. Right from the start, it was a tragic book. Although I have never really felt the loss that some of the characters from the book have felt, I seemed to understand how empty the hearts of these people were. I would definitely recommend this book, although it is not a light read; it is pretty heavy in some parts (especially the end) and is very...more

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May 15, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: emotionally crippled rebels

Shelves: 2011

Another cringer. Reservation Road tells the story of unraveling. The story centers around a horrible accident occurring and the two men directly involved and subsequently their families. How do people emotionally handle tragedy and what happens if they don't? That's the most interesting part of this book, the surprising ways the characters move about and don't do the right thing. It's their tragedy is it not?

I enjoyed this book up until the end. I found the ending a huge let down from the overal...more

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Mar 22, 2009 Claire S marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: a-2-interest-wo-urgency, ever-young, fiction, form_complexia, novel, psyche-of

Some reviewers say what would also seem obvious, that this book will be most impactful for those who have experienced loss. Which I have, thankfully not of my own child (who I'll hopefully precede in death by about 5 decades, despite living until 114 myself) but of others. Including surviving a young-person's suicide, 25 years ago, anniversary of which is in a few weeks.
And I think I have more grief to release yet about that one and others, none of them have anything to do with revenge; but rev...more

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Sep 23, 2010 Ella rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Story line was interesting from the start. The whole book is written in the first person and deals primarily with what each of the characters is feeling about the hit and run accident which killed Ethan and Grace's 10 year old son Josh. You get a bit of what Josh's sister is feeling as well. The other side of the coin is the guy who hit Josh with his car. All the emotions and guilt that he is going through.
There were 3 different narrators for each of the main characters, so you always know exac...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Parallels abound. Ethan is the bereft father, Josh, his lost son. Dwight is the damaged driver, Sam his child, damaged by dad in a different way. How each copes with the aftermath is the core of the tale here. Dwight runs over a young boy, then flees the scene, fearful of the impact the accident might have on his already tentative custody of his son. The wives are also portrayed, measured one against the other. The overall effect is of extreme sadness. It is a remarkably fast-reading book. I fel...more

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Mar 27, 2009 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If ever there were two people in the world who needed either counseling or a good chest-beating, accusation-laden, finger-wagging, knock-down, curse-ridden fight, it's Ethan and Grace. I get that what they went through was the worst thing you can experience as a parent, but they were so content to let that consume them, and that made this story hard to read.

Beyond that, Dwight is just an ass. There is no black or white here. He's self-absorbed, angry, obnoxious and violent, and he's in the wrong...more

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

This is one depressing book. Each page is filled with grief, memories, stark truths. The characters are completely believable, the situations wrenching and unbearable. You almost want to turn your back on the book, it's subject is so horrifying. It took me a long time to read it, and I will not soon forget it. It is a powerful dramatization of events I hope I never have to go through. When most people think of thrillers, they think of armed robbery, of guns and bloodshed. There is a crime in Res...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Mary Beth Gibson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Two men, two points of view. After a tragic accident where ten-year-old Josh Learner is killed by a speeding car, the driver, Dwight, zooms off in an effort to protect his fragile visitation rights with his son. Josh's father, Ethan, chases the car down the street, distraught. The book alternates between these two men as they struggle with the aftermath of Josh's death. My fascination with this book is with John Burnham Schwartz's skillful ability to make both men sympathetic. There are no white...more

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Mar 29, 2010 Joan Colby rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A rather over-written, but widely praised novel about a hit and run death of a young boy, told via the voices of the parents, the sister and the culprit, who has secret of his own, a failing divorced lawyer whose life is in disarray and who is consumed by guilt but won't come forward as he fears losing visitation rights with his own partially disabled son. The story is predicdtable, but there's too much philosophizing by the narrators, too much internal sturm and drang, and too much focus by the...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

Reservation Road was less of a thriller than I had really expected from the synopsis. There was a certain element of one man trying to find his son's killer, and another man trying to hide, but that was only a very minor element of the story when it came down to it. In fact the synopsis made me want to read the book less than I would have if it was presented in the way I read it.
This was a story of loss, and of love. Initially the loss of Josh and how it effects his family- particularly his pare...more

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About John Burnham Schwartz

John Burnham Schwartz grew up in New York City. At Harvard College, he majored in Japanese studies, and upon graduation accepted a position with a prominent Wall Street investment bank, before finally turning the position down after selling his first novel. Schwartz has taught fiction writing at Harvard, The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Sarah Lawrence College, and he is the literary d...more

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Quotes from Reservation Road

“There are heroes, and there are the rest of us. There comes a time when you just let go the ghost of the better person you might have been.” — 2 people liked it

“She was Mattie Tucker now, mother of three and a good forty pounds heavier, casting that burning eye over them all, reaching way back for a southern pleasantry that was more like a Halloween apple with a razor blade in it: 'Well, don't y'all make just the perfect family of four?” — 1 person liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4557800-reservation-road?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356126434l/4557800.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4557800-reservation-road?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz[/url]

Reservation Road

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