Customer Reviews

Reservation Road

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Originally reviewed at: booksbiscuitsandtea.co.uk
Rating: 4 out of 5 biscuits

The reason why I wanted to pick this book up -apart from the fact that the story seemed very interesting and I've always loved thrillers/mysteries - is that it seemed different. I love books that are narrated by more than one person so the idea that Reservation Road is told by not one but three different people who, even though they don't know each other at first, are connected has definitely piqued my interest. And how glad I am that I did pick this up! Not only is it a beautifully written story with a haunting atmosphere but it is something that makes you think and will definitely stay with you for a long time.

Reservation Road ticks every box: sophisticated and beautiful writing which grabs your attention from the very first page, everyday, vulnerable characters in a situation which could easily happen to anyone, haunting atmosphere and thought-provoking plot. It's brilliant how well Schwartz works with three so different people and how he manages to create three entirely different narratives. He describes the life of a divorced lawyer just as well as the innocence of an eight-year-old girl or what the dead boy's family is going through.

Even though the plot might seem like a "regular" mystery with a hit-and-run and the police trying to catch the criminal, lots of action and chasing down people, it's entirely different. It rather focuses on what the family and the driver are going through after the accident, how the family is dealing with grief and loss and whether they can be "normal" again. It describes how they live under the same roof, together but still separate, their family gradually falling apart. In Reservation Road Schwartz created a story where you don't know which one of them you should feel sorry for. They've all been through a lot for different reasons and the guilty one's life is just as messed up as the innocents'.

Although it's not an easy read and it can be quite slow-paced at times but if you pick it up I'm sure it will make you think and stay with you for a long time. The ending is absolutely fantastic and I have to disagree with everyone who says it should have been stronger - I'm glad it wasn't and after everything they've been through, this

Late one summer night as a family of four stop for a rest on their drive home, ten-year-old Josh, standing near the edge of unlit Reservation Road, is hit by a speeding car and killed. The driver does not stop. So begins a story told from the individual points of view of the three adults involved: the mother, and in particular, the two fathers: one who has just lost his son, and the other with a history of abusing his estranged son . Each one struggles with their own unique emotions as they try to come to terms with their loss, and their guilt.

Each chapter is entitled any of Ethan, Grace or Dwight. In the case of the two fathers the narrative is expressed in the first-person, while Grace's turmoil is told in the third-person perspective. Ethan Learner is an English teacher and academic, his wife Grace is a garden designer and Dwight Arno, who lives alone as a divorcee, is a lawyer specialising in estate management and will-writing. Ethan and Grace have an eight-year-old daughter named Emma, while Dwight has a son named Sam - like the late Josh also ten years old - who lives with Dwight's re-married ex-wife Ruth. The time span of about three months intimately captures the stresses, strains and agonies of the distraught Learner family - Emma included - interspersed with equally illuminating insights into the emotional conflicts going on in the mind of Dwight.

From cover to cover this is an intense and meticulous character study of a standard I am not sure I have witnessed before. It is an exceptionally well-written story, without doubt one of the finest you are likely to find for sale on Amazon. It was written in 1998 but I knew nothing of it until my attention was drawn to the film of the same title that has recently been released on DVD, although I have not seen it. I simply cannot think of a single novel I have ever read that has been crafted with such exquisite care and attention to detail. This is truly a story that you will love for the journey as much as the destination, and it is not over-stating the point to suggest that almost any sentence from first page to last could be extracted and used as a quotation to illustrate its beauty. To do it justice, I would just have to quote every word. Mention must therefore be made of the person or people responsible for editing the manuscript, because it has been carried out to perfection. Although it is not a long story at less than 300 pages, it is so rich in its tapestry, so consummate in prose and poetic in delivery, that it probably contains more meaning and imagery than a tale two or three times its length.

Flawless from beginning to end.

This novel is not for crime, action thriller or other fast-paced fiction lovers. It's not a courtroom drama either. It's a shattering reality told in three different voices, and even if the characters are not designed as heroic or in any way characters to make true friends with, they are deeply human. All three are just normal people at different stages in their lives. They have suffered and will keep suffering from a reality no one can change. And there authenticity kicks in: where the heroes in a TV show overcome the strain with a smile, here the characters go through with it as if in reality. Because you cannot cut real life experience short.
The ending is deeply human, too: neither of the men opt for the worse. Eventually, common sense and a sense of human generosity prevails. There is no consolation, but this deeply human notion of Ethan's last sentence to Dwight is more moving than anything for in it the notion of mere revenge is overcome by a father's true devotion to a son, and to the care a son needs.

Reservation Road is billed as a thriller and if this is what you are looking for, don't get it, because that is not what it is. I kept waiting for the killer to go on the prowl, for terrible night scenes to emerge, for a cliff-hanger of a multi-sided chase. There is nothing of the sort. John Burnham Schwartz is being short-changed by his reviews and book cover, which bring up the wrong expectations in his reader. For this reason, I am giving the book three, not just two stars.

This is actually a book about parenting, broken families, and the tragedy of losing a child. Dwight, at the beginning of the novel, kills the ten-year-old son of Ethan and Grace in a hit-and-run accident. While the bereaved parents do try to find out who committed the crime, the rest of the book really describes their attempt to cope. Meanwhile, Dwight is divorced and has a son of about the same age, who was also in the car. And the difficulty is that they all live in the same small-town community. What saves the book is that it is written earnestly and without pomposity, if without polish either. This works for what it is, though it is hardly a page turner.

Really loved this book.
Tragedy strikes one night on a back road. One father Dwight is driving his son home in a rush trying to get home in time for the game. The other father Ethan, watching his son at a gas station as he wanders perilously close to the kerb. It was an accident but a child is killed. Dwight makes that split second decision and doesn't stop.
As the story unfolds you see the two parents, one racked with guilt, living constantly with the fear that he's going to be caught. The other parent trying to hold his family together as it's all falling apart.

Great stuff and certainly kept me up reading half the night!

Have you ever held a book in your hands and imagined you can feel its brilliance glow through its cover? I swear that I felt that with this book and I wasn't disappointed. John Burnham Schwartz paints a vivid picture of loss, of guilt and of revenge. A book that makes you want to hold your children close. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a heart...

I found this book very interesting; a bit different, and quite gritty. I even felt sorry Dwight, after feeling that he was a totally unlikeable character at the start of the book. Very well written, the characters really came alive for me. I would look out for more books by Mr. Schwartz

I loved this book. The story, told from the different perspectives of the main characters, is strong enough to hold your attention and the characters themselves are believable and well developed. This is superior writing, in my opinion and the strength of emotion in the book can be felt by the reader. I would definitely recommend this.

Really slow book. Couldn't get excited about it until the last few chapters and then the ending was a complete let down

One of those books where you feel a constant need to shout at the characters to do something. Strange ending.