The Sweet Hereafter: A Novel
by Russell Banks
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1050)
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 1997
recommends it for:
everyone
i found an old list of books i read back in 1998..........
this was at the top of the list......
it is a haunting tale.......
sparse..........somber...........
bad things happen 2 good people........and we all want 2 find a villain.........but maybe...........we simply cant......
when i was a kid...something like this happened in the valley................it was sad, the chaos that came after the tragedy of that event........
this book really haunts u.......the film adaptation ...more
this was at the top of the list......
it is a haunting tale.......
sparse..........somber...........
bad things happen 2 good people........and we all want 2 find a villain.........but maybe...........we simply cant......
when i was a kid...something like this happened in the valley................it was sad, the chaos that came after the tragedy of that event........
this book really haunts u.......the film adaptation ...more
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
recommends it for:
Everyone
Banks is in a class with very few other authors. I finished this book while traveling, and picked up another. I had to put the second book down because, after reading Russell Banks, it felt like reading a third-grader's essay.
I know a lot of parents who refuse to read this because it involves the death of children in a school bus accident (not a spoiler - the accident happens on the first page or two). It's not about death per se, but how a tragedy affects a community.
I know a lot of parents who refuse to read this because it involves the death of children in a school bus accident (not a spoiler - the accident happens on the first page or two). It's not about death per se, but how a tragedy affects a community.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2007
I do enjoy a novel that is narrated by many characters as it gives the story a variety of perspective, but some parts of this book left me wanting more, specifically with Nichole's character. Perhaps because I have never experienced anything tragic in my lifetime, I couldn't quite empathize with her feelings and didn't understand the route she took in terms of the lawsuit.
I must admit that I had higher expectations for this book, but it was still a good read overall.
I must admit that I had higher expectations for this book, but it was still a good read overall.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This is one of those rare instances where I saw the movie before I knew it was a book, and so the Hollywood interpretation greatly influenced my experience of the novel, but it was still a very disturbing story along the lines of Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', wherein a small community, struggling with the loss of several of their children in a school bus accident, tries to find answers by bringing a lawsuit against the bus driver and the school district.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
I did a craft analysis of this book for Sheri's workshop. He did some interesting things with POV and a revolving narrator, which is facinating from a craft perspective, especially how the revolving third acts like an interesting creation of a existential commentary on meaninglessness, and how every person is trapped within their own perspective. However, that said, much of this book frustrated me and the POV manipulations creaked a bit.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This is one of my favorite books ever. It's hard to talk about this novel without giving away spoilers or inadequately summerizing what is so pitch perfect about it. It's one of those books that caught me off guard and I can remember vividly every moment I spent with the book the first time around. I remember where I was when I finished it and the sob that escaped my lips. God, I love this book.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
