最 低 价：￥47.40
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作 者：JOHN BURNHAM SCHWART 著
出 版 社：0-307
出版时间：2007-9-1
I S B N： 9780307388322 </td></tr><tr><td width="14%" class
| Amazon.com Review "Explain this to me: One minute there is a boy, a life thrumming with possibilities, and the next there are marked cars and strangers in uniform and the fractured whirling lights. And that, suddenly, is all the world has to offer." This is the voice of Ethan Learner, a college professor who has just watched his 10-year-old son, Josh, die in a hit-and-run accident on a silent Connecticut road. John Burnham Schwartz's Bicycle Days (1989) received favorable reviews but seemed very much an autobiographical first novel. His second fiction, Reservation Road, however, is a book that resists genres: a tragedy where all the characters are flawed and none are entirely guilty; a thriller where the killer, Dwight, wants to be caught but is too laden with self-loathing to turn himself in; and an experimental novel where the narrative jumps gracefully among three perspectives. In the opening pages Schwartz establishes strong connections between fathers and sons. Moments before the accident Ethan watches his son standing precariously close to the curb; he sees possibilities in Josh, a shy boy whose musical gifts indicate a sensitivity that is no less present, though more mature, in his father. At the same time, Dwight and his son, Sam (also 10), are rushing home from an extra-innings Red Sox game where Dwight tries to rebuild the fragments of attachment left after a bitter divorce. Schwartz reveals depth in simple gestures--a hand, for example, placed in a hand, only to be self-consciously pulled away. Dwight drives on after hitting Josh, though he slows in a moment of hesitation in which Ethan hears him calling "Sam" or "Sham"--he's not sure which. Out of grief, and with only scattered clues, Ethan begins his quiet pursuit of the killer, a pursuit that fuels the novel to its poetic conclusion. In Reservation Road, John Burnham Schwartz has crafted a lasting work of literature, a page-turner that's also a rich character study. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly "I wasn't rich, but my life was secure. That had always been its fundamental premise," observes Ethan Learner, an English professor at a small college in Connecticut. Moments later, his 10-year-old son, Josh, is killed by a hit-and-run driver, inaugurating a novel of terrible beauty that charts the progress of grief with concerto-like precision. For Ethan, his wife, Grace, and their daughter, Emma, Josh becomes both a cold absence and a constant, haunting, unfulfilled promise. For Dwight ?the driver who killed Josh?the event stands as more evidence of a significantly flawed life. Dwight is no cartoon villain; with a son, an ex-wife and a history of sudden violence, he's like a lesser Ethan?a poor father who, through incompetence, has killed another man's son. Schwartz structures the book with the tautness of a thriller?Will Ethan find his son's murderer??but this book quickly becomes much larger than a simple revenge tale. Neither does it become maudlin or forced. Ethan, Grace and Dwight all seem ruined by the boy's death, but, like three drowning people, they keep fighting for air?aided by Schwartz's strong, measured prose and exquisitely chosen metaphors (describing his now-troubled marriage, Ethan says, "Our house... a wordless, internalized diaspora... a landscape riven with fault lines"). "I want to tell this right," Ethan says several times during the course of the book. The author's first novel, Bicycle Days, gathered solid reviews but modest notice. With this effort, he seems poised to reach a break-out audience. If a story about overwhelming tragedy can be told right, this novel is?telling it with wise observation and abundant humanity. 100,000 first printing; Random House audio; author tour. Agent, Amanda Urban. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal The author of Bicycle Days (Summit, 1989) returns with a powerful story about two unhappy Connecticut families linked by one violent moment. The Learners are the victims of tragedy: an ordinary stop at a country gas station turns to horror when their oldest child is killed by a hit-and-run driver in full view of his father, Ethan. As his wife and small daughter suffer through grief, depression, and guilt, Ethan is consumed by his compulsion to find and punish his son's murderer after the police give up. Nearby, failed attorney and divorced father Dwight Arno tortures himself with his memories of speeding away from the accident. Has running saved his fragile relationship with his own son (a schoolmate of the Learner boy), or has it made the unbearable problems between Dwight and his family even worse? More than slightly hoping to be apprehended, Dwight begins to behave oddly and deteriorate mentally, even as Ethan closes in on him. Narrated mainly by the two fathers, this is a forceful psychological novel in which nobody wins?except readers appreciating Schwartz's well-wrought prose. Recommended for most fiction collections.-?Starr E. Smith, Marymount Univ. Lib., Alexandria, VACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist This tale reminds one of two maxims: there is nothing more tragic than losing a child, and there are two sides to every story. Reservation Road is a spellbinding tale of two fathers, the one who lost his gifted young boy in a hit-and-run accident and the one who collided with the boy and then, in a moment of sheer panic, sped away. In this, his second novel, Schwartz cleverly manipulates the reader, garnering empathy for down-on-his-luck hit-and-run driver Dwight Arno and twinges of annoyance for Ethan Learner and his wife, Grace, who become so absorbed in their own grief that they lack the wherewithal to comfort their equally grieving young daughter. The mystery created by the fact that the lives of Arno and Learner are closely linked moves the story along at a brisk pace. Proving that ultimately the most effective reproach comes from within, Schwartz's haunting tale, overflowing with thinly veiled lessons in life, is nothing short of captivating. Toni Hyde --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews The complex stages of guilt, grief, and recovery in the wake of a boy's hit-and-run death are exquisitely portrayed in this heartrending story by Schwartz (Bicycle Days, 1989), whose characterizations are as finely nuanced as they are sympathetic. Ten-year-old Josh Learner barely knew what hit him that summer night in northwestern Connecticut, on the way back from a symphony picnic with his family; for the three adultshis parents and the driver of the speeding carwho saw what happened, it was as if their lives stopped then, too. His father Ethan, an English professor at a small college nearby, bears guilt for not having insisted that Josh come away from the road; his mother Grace is guilt-ridden as well, for having insisted they stop at the gas station so that Josh's sister Emma could use the restroom; and Dwight, running late after seeing a Red Sox game with his son and worried about the wrath of his ex at not having Sam back on time, not only has to bear the certainty of having killed someone Sam's age, but also the fact that the sleeping boy received a black eye from the accidentto go along with the broken jaw that Dwight had given him accidentally on another occasion. In the ensuing months, Ethan tries to carry on while Grace shuts down almost completely, losing her business and her bearings. The police investigation goes nowhere, and when Ethan blows up at the officer in charge, he guarantees there'll be no further help from that quarter. Dwight, meanwhile, has let his legal practice go to hell, alienated himself from Sam and everyone else, and taken to heavy drinking while waiting for someone to find him out. After more than a year, Ethan finally doesand as the first snow of that year falls, they enact a ritual of revenge both primal and fitting. Rarely have three lives in crisis been detailed with such compassion and care: a tragic, utterly absorbing tale. (First printing of 100,000) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review "This is a shattering book, imagined with startling emotional precision and generosity. And though it begins in catastrophe, Reservation Road turns out to be a kind of map of connectedness: Touch a child here and the whole world trembles out of orbit; everyone bleeds; finally, perhaps, after great pain, everyone heals. John Burnham Schwartz is awfully young to own this much wisdom, but there it is, on every page."--Rosellen Brown"A powerful and affecting novel...haunting...highly suspenseful...compelling to read."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times"Spellbinding...a haunting tale"--Booklist"A poignant thriller...quietly breathtaking...a suspenseful literary novel"--Betsey Osborne, Vanity Fair"A pleasure to read. Suspense is redefined here..."--Sandra Scofield, Newsday"A lovely book, full of life and feeling"--Peter Matthiessen"One of those rare--very rare--novels that you don't so much read as inhabit...But it's the novel's conclusion, as perfect as it is sudden, shocking and completely unexpected, that will stick in your memory." --Tom Dehaven, Entertainment Weekly"A beautiful novel. An important novel"--David Bowman, New York Observer"Both a beautiful, wrenching story of redemption, and a novel of exquisite suspense"--Anne Lamott"A first-rate work of fiction disguised as a page-turning thriller"--David Halberstam"An unexpected pleasure...It will leave the reader entranced as well as moved."--Erica Noonan, Boston Herald"A non-stop read...a wonderful writer"--Ward Just"A triumph of form, pacing and power...character-driven as it is, it reads like a thrille, swift and complete."--Kit Reed, New York Times Book Review"It possesses a conclusion of such power that it would be a literary crime to reveal it."--Deirdre Donahue, USA Today -- Review...a melodious discourse on the obscure moral forces behind life's seemingly random moments of chaos. -- The Wall Street Journal, Emily Sendler...what John Burnham Schwartz has given us is a dark and irresistible miracle: a heartbreaking thriller. -- The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Bret LottIt is Mr. Schwartz's authoritative depiction of his characters' inner lives ... that makes this novel so compelling to read, despite its somewhat jerry-built plot.... a powerful and affecting novel. -- The New York Times, Michiko KakutaniReflective, character-driven as it is, Reservation Road reads like a thriller, swift and complete. -- The New York Times Book Review, Kit ReedThis is one of those rare--very rare--novels that you don't so much read as inhabit and that makes everyday life seem altogether mysterious and fragile, and infinitely perilous. -- Entertainment Weekly, Tom De Haven --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review “Haunting. . . . Powerful and affecting.”—The New York Times“A dark and irresistible miracle: a heartbreaking thriller.”—Los Angeles Times“Thrums with suspense and moral ambiguity. . . . This is one of those rare . . . novels that you don't so much read as inhabit and that makes everyday life seem altogether mysterious.”—Entertainment Weekly“A triumph . . . character-driven. . . . swift and complete.”—The New York Times Book Review |
| John Burnham Schwartz is the author of Bicycle Days and Reservation Road, which have been translated into more than ten languages, and Claire Marvel. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and Vogue. He lives with his wife, filmmaker Aleksandra Crapanzano, in Brooklyn, New York. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. |
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