The Sweet Hereafter

There has been a terrible accident in Sam Dent, New York: a school bus veered off the road and into a gravel pit, leaving 14 of the small town’s children dead and others with devastating injuries. Russell Banks’s novel explores how the townspeople deal with the tragedy, dedicating each section to a different character. The first and last are given to Dolores Driscoll, the middle-aged bus driver, a hard-working woman with a husband severely disabled by a stroke. In other sections, the story is picked up by Billy Ansel, Vietnam vet and garage owner, who was following the bus his two children were on that morning; a slick New York lawyer who persuades several grieving families to sue; and Nichole Burnell, a pretty, popular cheerleader who survived the accident but will never be the same. Their narratives inevitably intertwine, and we learn that life in small upstate towns isn’t really quite as simple as it seems. Banks’s character studies and the portrait of small town life are stunning. (I recall seeing a film version of the novel several years back, which was also quite good. A sad story, but one that ends on a note of some hope.

It’s hard to write a review for the novel and the novel alone, for if you’ve seen the brilliant film adaptation they really mold into one amazing experience. Both the novel and the film add so many layers and compliment one another so well that I’m almost forced to advise everyone who has read the novel to see the movie and visa-versa. It’s only in that way that you’ll get the whole experience. That’s not to say that either is incomplete but that each one is so well-rounded, so well fleshed out and so in tune that it’s almost a continuation rather than an adaptation. That said I’ll try and focus mainly on Russell Banks novel here but don’t get upset it I reference Atom Egoyan’s film adaptation more than once.

First I want to point out that Russell Banks is a masterful writer. This is the first novel of his that I have read and I’m so impressed that I’ve already ordered `Affliction’. His style is so calm and relaxed; it perfectly fit the atmosphere of the story. Some have mentioned this being boring or slow paced. It’s far from boring in my humble opinion, but the slow pacing is essential to the feel of the novel. It helps you to get inside the aftermath of the tragedy by fully understanding the mindset of the town. If you’ve seen the film you’ll understand better, for Egoyan also was able to brilliantly capture that pure unsettling serenity that Banks exposes on each and every page.

It was a very easy read, not something you long to put down. My only fault with the writing was more the arrangement. There are only five chapters, each with a different protagonist (except the first and last, each being the same) and each chapter is quite lengthy of course with no breaks in text to render a good stopping point. So, with that said it became difficult to find enough time to devote to finishing a chapter. I know that not everyone will have this problem, but for someone who can’t seem to set aside more than ten minutes or so to get in some reading it can prove difficult. Don’t let this detour you from divulging this brilliant novel. That would be a grave mistake.

The story focuses around the small town of Sam Dent after a tragic bus accident leaves 14 children dead, the bus driver, Dolores Driscoll, and a 14 year old student Nichole being two of the only survivors. The novel shifts between four key characters, Dolores, Nichole, Mitchell (a lawyer) and Billy Ansel, a widower who lost his two children in the wreck. The story follows Mitchell as he tries to persuade the town’s people to file a negligence suit against the town of Sam Dent. There are conflicting opinions in regard to the suit, to the money and to the accident as a whole and those opinions are fleshed out so well before us. Each of these four human beings has so much history, so much baggage, yet Banks’ superb novel never gets bogged down. That is due in large part to his calm and steady style.

To me the novel excels in really exposing Mitchell Stephens, the lawyer, for the man he really is. He’s troubled by the wayward course his only daughter Zoe has taken and this affects his almost every move. It’s almost as if he’s fighting for her with every breath, every case, as if she was his only motive. I feel that film adaptation excels in really exposing Nichole’s character. That’s not to say that Banks doesn’t breathe life into the soul he created, but Egoyan’s film effortlessly makes her the star, giving her so much substance and character and really fleshing her out in all due subtlety to make her relatable and heartbreaking, the moral center of a tragic accident. The book brilliantly relates Dolores Driscoll’s account of the accident as well as the post-accident life in the small town, her treatment by the town’s people before and after.

Somewhere where the novel and the film seem to tie or at least both deliver valiantly is in the case of Billy Ansel, the Vietnam-War Vet widower who loved his kids more than anything, the man who was trailing behind the bus waving to his children when he lost his whole world with the sight of a crash. His story is heartbreaking. The book though really delivers with its final chapter, something that is not delved into with the film, and it adds a few more layers to both Ansel and Driscoll. So, this is why I can’t help but recommend both in the same breath. They both add so much and deliver so well that you truly must read and then watch or watch and then read to grasp the magic in its entirety.

The story revolves around a school bus school bus accident where 14 kids are killed (this part is on the back jacket no spoilers here) the book is separated into 5 chapters; each chapter a different perspective, (the bus driver, a man who looses two children in the accident, a child who was in the bus accident,and a lawyer) – the bus driver has two chapters each of the other, one – it is a great study in different perspective, secrets people keep and life in general, how people look at things, etc.
there is one part that involves the girl who was in the accident that was sooo good, wow it gives me shivers just thinking about it – great read, surprised me, was not expecting it to be this good.

Book Review for `The sweet Hereafter’

This novel by Russell Banks told in the voice of four people, Dolores Driscoll, the driver of the school bus that crashed causing the death of many of the school children, Billy Ansel, a Vietnam veteran and the father of two kids who died in the accident, Mitchell Stephens, a New York lawyer who has come to file lawsuits, and Nicole Burnell a girl on the bus who gets paralyzed in the accident.

Hearing each of them tell the story we realize that there is no absolute truth and there are different angles to the same event. We realize that Dolores has driven the bus for many years, and is taking care of a husband who has suffered a stroke. Similarly the New York lawyer is himself estranged from his daughter who though not dead is heavily into drugs and calls him only when she needs money.

The novel begins with the events of the day of the accident in this small town in upstate New York, told in Dolores voice. Then like a relay race, the voice shifts to Billy Ansel and he tells the story from the time of the accident to the meeting with the lawyer. Then we hear the lawyer’s story and then Nicole from the time of her coming back home after being hospitalized. Backstory is cleverly woven in.

This book breaks some of the rules, such as show, don’t tell, as a lot of the book is telling but the telling is vivid and drew me right into the head of the characters. Also the other rule to break up and go back and forth between the various characters is not followed as we gets chunks from different people and finally circle back to Dolores, but it works the way it is. That could be because we are moving forward in the year and the events with each narrator and some significant moments like the meeting of Billy and the lawyer are in scene from both their viewpoints. Also all the others in the neighborhood, like Risa who is having an affair with Billy Ansel and whose child has also died and other characters are mentioned in the four narrations and we get to learn about those characters too so we feel like we are seeing a community coping with their loss.

The final event is Dolores Driscoll and her wheelchair bound husband back at the country fair in the town of Sam Dent and here we also see Billy Ansel and Nicole Burnell and it is strangely ironic that they are all watching cars crashing against one another. In the end will the town forgive Dolores or not that is answered right at the very end.

This book is definitely worth reading, I was surprised a couple of weeks later how the book has remained with me. And it makes us think, about the question asked in the book back flap, when the worst things happen who do you blame?

Love this authors writing, hard to put down!

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