Northwest Corner: A Novel

by John Burnham Schwartz

“Nuanced and moving . . . [a] story about the indestructible bonds of family.”— The New York Times

From John Burnham Schwartz, one of the our most compelling and compassionate writers, comes a riveting novel about the complex, fierce, ultimately inspiring resilience of families in the face of life’s most difficult and unexpected challenges. Twelve years after a tragic accident and a cover-up that led to prison time, Dwight Arno, at fifty, is a man who has started over without exactly moving on. Living alone in California, Dwight manages a sporting goods store and dates a woman to whom he hasn’t revealed the truth about his past. Then Sam, Dwight’s estranged college-age son, shows up without warning, fleeing a devastating incident in his own life. As the two men are forced to confront their similar natures and their half-buried hopes for connection, they must also search for redemption in their attempts to rewrite, outrun, or eradicate the past.
 
Praise for Northwest Corner

“A great American novel.” —Abraham Verghese
 
“One of the most emotionally commanding novels of the year." —NPR
 
“Exhilarating . . . In Schwartz’s hands, the narrative unfolds delicately, each chapter a puzzle piece that fits seamlessly into the whole. [] A.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
“A compelling tale of a family . . . finding their way back together again.” —The Christian Science Monitor
 
“Stark and deeply affecting . . . Readers will grow to care deeply about whether and how [the characters’] lives can be redeemed.” —Kirkus Reviews  (starred review)
 
“The masterful  Northwest Corner  is that finest of things—a moral novel about mortal events.” —Dennis Lehane

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Family, American

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

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 director of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, one of the leading literary festivals in the United States.

He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, screenwriter and food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano, and their son.

http://www.johnburnhamschwartz.com/

Reviews

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did a quick second reading of Reservation Road prior to reading Northwest Corner. While it's not strictly necessary, I do recommend doing so if you have the time and inclination. It really enhanced my enjoyment of Northwest Corner to have the characters fresh in my mind and compare the past with the present.

When we last saw Sam Arno in Reservation Road, he was a sleepy boy of ten, asking his dad if they could go sledding later. He hadn't a clue that his life would change forever on that day.
Now Sam is a quiet, confused, surly 22-year-old UConn baseball star. His anger boils over one night in a bar, and he commits a savage act of violence. Fearing arrest, he flees to Southern California, seeking the father he hasn't seen or spoken to in twelve years. His father Dwight has made a fresh start in Santa Barbara, where no one knows about the hit-and-run death of Josh Learner all those years ago.

Sam's crisis gives us a chance to revisit some of Reservation Road's central characters and see the long-term effects of what happened twelve years ago. We get the story through the perspectives of five characters, with Dwight Arno's being the central, first-person narrative. Members of the Learner family are represented, but Northwest Corner is largely the story of what used to be the Arno family: Sam, Dwight, and his ex-wife Ruth. I found Ruth to be the most admirable character, which is quite a shift from the way I viewed her in Reservation Road. She has a lot of history to overcome, and she gives Dwight more grace than he deserves. Ruth has the additional burden of handling a serious health crisis alone, and she does so with strength and dignity.

Schwartz doesn't hit you in the face with what you're supposed to get from the book. These are damaged people doing what humans do. It's up to you to decide how well they've handled their pain, and what's possible for them in the future. If you have wounds of your own, always know where your tissues are. You may find yourself a little weepy. There are moments of clarity that will resonate with your experiences and, if you're lucky, show you a new way of seeing them.

This novel has greater complexity in both content and sentence structure than Reservation Road. The change in writing style does require some adjustment. For me, this wasn't a difficult adjustment to make, and I read Northwest Corner in about two days.[4.5 stars]

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over 12 years ago, John Burnham Schwartz introduced us to two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis – the inadvertent death of a young boy, Josh Lerner, by a hit-and-run driver, a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno. The book was Reservation Road, a wrenching psychological study about how a single moment in time can shatter an orderly world into tiny little shards.

Now, in a poignantly written sequel, Mr. Schwartz revisits the two families – the Arnos and the Lerners – years later, at the cusp of yet another crisis. But this time, Dwight Arno has served his time, moved from Connecticut to Santa Barbara in an attempt to redefine his life until his estranged son, Sam, shows up. And this time, it is Sam who is in trouble and struggling to come to grips with his anger and his pain.

I’m glad to report that Northwest Corner is every bit as good as Reservation Road, if not better. It sings with love and pain and pathos and the beat of the human heart as it strives for connection. Told in multiple viewpoints from both male and female perspectives – including a first-person rendition by Dwight – this book is as powerful as it is moving.

In clear, detailed images, John Burnham Schwartz defines the emotional state of his characters in just a few taut sentences. Take Dwight’s musings, for example: “We think we are solid and durable, only to find that, placed under a cruel and unexpected light, we are the opposite: only our thin, permeable skin holds us intact. Hemophiliacs walking through a forest of thorns.” Is that perfect or what?

Early on in the book, Dwight and Sam come together for the first time in many years, Dwight is working for an ambitious “family man” in a sports shop. Sam is on the run from college after an impulsive deed that threatens to uproot his life. He has been living with his mother, Ruth, who remains in Connecticut, at a crossroads in her own life. And the other family? The Lerners are fragmented, searching, still unable to break away from the emptiness and reach out to each other for healing. The unbearable pain has been replaced by a type of functionality in each of them. But the hole in the center of their lives remain.

The plot is woven slowly and deliberately, with just enough suspense to keep the reader turning pages but make no mistake: this is, at its core, a psychological novel and the “action” is mostly internal. The growth – the so-called “arc” – is an interior one, more than an external one. And therein lies the beauty of Northwest Corner.

Is there a shot at redemption? As Dwight Arno reflects, “Wait too long to speak up and you might just miss your shot. You may do your time, but you will never really get out.” Redemption, the author suggests, is difficult and elusive, but possible with enough effort.

And the title reinforces this fact. These families have traveled beyond the road where an accident cruelly transformed their lives (Reservation Road) to a wider territory with others (Northwest Territory). They may not have taken their places in the world quite yet, but they’re moving forward. In the end, this is a story of the emotional journeys that these families – and indeed, most of us -- must eventually take to reach a point of self-salvation and completion. It helps to read Reservation Road first, but this book stands proudly on its own.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Northwest Corner revisits the characters from John Burnham Schwartz's earlier novel, Reservation Road, twelve years on. Whilst this offers readers of that book a chance to find out what has changed and developed for the characters, equally I don't think it's necessary to have read that book to enjoy and get a lot out of this one. However, if you are intending to read Reservation Road first, the review below may 'spoil' it, so please bear this in mind.

It's 2006, and Dwight Arno is working as a manager in a sporting goods store in Arenas, California, living alone and reflecting on his life. Now 50, he was involved in a tragic accident twelve years earlier, and went to prison. He is dating Penny, who he hasn't told about his troubled past. His son Sam is feeling very negative about himself, and troubled. He is at University in Connecticut, but after an incident in a baseball game, he heads to a bar, and gets into a serious fight; 'something inside him has ruptured; something hideous has come out of hiding,' and then he flees far away to California, to his father. Sam's unexpected appearance is a complete shock for Dwight, who hasn't seen his son since the accident all those years before, and his arrival means that Dwight's steady existence is shaken up, his hidden past has suddenly caught up with his present, and the guilt resurfaces.

Ruth, Sam's mother, is fighting a private battle of her own, when she learns of Sam's disappearance. Penny wonders whether Dwight will open up to her. Emma, the sister of Josh Learner, the boy killed by Dwight in the hit and run accident twelve years' previously, has a complex relationship with Sam.

This novel is written in short chapters, with the narrative moving from character to character. Dwight's point of view is given in the first person, the others - Sam, Ruth, Penny and Emma - are all in the third person, so to me Dwight felt like the anchor at the centre of the story, whose life and actions impacted on all the others.

This is a fairly slow-moving novel, a contemplative look at people's lives, their relationships, the everyday struggles that people face. I felt that the characters all seemed to have a lot of issues, to dislike themselves at times. They are looking back on their pasts, the mistakes and the missed opportunities., and trying to work out the way to move forward, because that's all they can do. The way the author tackles these relationships, where family haven't seen each other or spoken for years, but how the bonds are never broken no matter how far apart you are physically and emotionally is very convincing. The tension is palpable as Dwight tries to reconnect with Sam but finds it incredibly difficult; 'my son beside me yet miles distant...to build a solid, lasting bridge between two people, let alone a father and son with a history like ours, is a mighty human endeavor...' Dwight observes his son, 'a muscle twitching in his jaw, biting down furiously on all the words he'll never say,' and for me, this is at the heart of the novel, and the characters; I found myself thinking, are any of them going to say what they actually feel towards each other?

This is not to say that the story is told without humour. I loved this bittersweet passage about Ruth and Sam, which sums up the gulf between the idyll and the reality:

'She makes her mother's meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and thin coaster-size disks of grilled eggplant with extra-virgin olive oil, and they sit down to Sunday supper as if it's old family times. The only missing ingredients are: (a) conversation, (b) appetites, (c) a bottle of good red wine, and (d) old family times.'

The quintessentially American love of baseball provides a lovely metaphor of how Dwight wishes things could be between him and his son, as he had imagined it when he was younger and Sam was little:

'My sense of things then was of an extended warm-up between two teammates old and young, the sweet early innings of what would eventually become a long, meaningful game stretching through the afternoon hours and into the starlit evening of our lives...Of course, for many reasons, things did not turn out that way.'

I really like this sort of novel, which gets to the heart of difficult, mixed-up lives and relationships, and I would recommend it.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a literary blessing for fans of Reservation Road who felt that Schwartz wasn't "finished" with the Arno family, that he had more to say and a penetrating way of saying it. This is a follow-up to the Arno and Learner families, twelve years after a hit-and-run tragedy that shredded two families to fractious pieces. At the time of the incident, Dwight and Ruth Arno (the centerpiece family) were already divorced, and this just annihilated any redemptive force from taking shape between them. Their son, Sam, was only nine, and already packing some rage from the tragedy.

The review is circumspect so as not to give spoilers on either novel. In this case, it is highly recommended that Reservation Road be read first, to have a more thorough understanding of the situation and characters.

As in Reservation Road, Schwartz writes with a powerful poetic and impressionistic style. Whereas some authors' stylistic devices get in the way and distract the reader, Schwartz's form of narrative deepens the experience, gives a potent and intoxicating weight to the characters and their circumstances. This novel is more breathtaking than its predecessor.

Schwartz delivers with brief (sometimes less than a page) chapters headed by character names, and only Dwight's is written in the first person perspective. Most final sentences (of the chapters) are gorgeously, painfully beautiful, a smooth stone of a line that lodges in the reader's throat, down to the intestines, and sometimes to the groin. He is elliptical without being pretentiously showy.

Sam is now 21, a baseball star at UConn, and feels lousy after the last game of the season. His rage and self-hatred has slid to danger zones, and he is headed toward phenomenal adult problems at the start of the story. He gets on a bus to see his father after courting trouble. He hasn't seen Dwight in twelve years, but he isn't even sure of his motives. Dwight is trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life near Santa Barbara, and Ruth is coming apart at the seams in her casually comfortable Connecticut home.

The Learner family is already on robotic mode, especially Grace, the mother, and the dad, who is primarily off stage. Emma, who is close to Sam's age, is home from Yale for the summer and on a precipice, headed either toward a fog or crucial clarity.

Schwartz's prose sets off emotional landmines without melodramatic or over-dramatic story progression. He keeps it simple, yet rarefied. And you don't have to like baseball to embrace the imagery, so subtle is he in weaving baseball concepts and terms into base-stealing metaphors and aphorisms. You don't even have to understand the game, so fertile is Schwartz's imagination and visual concepts. He doesn't press it, either. His imagery is expansive, and includes the elegance of nature--flora, fauna, and the deep green grass and brown earth and endless sky.

Each page offers a nugget or morsel of ferocious insight or incisiveness. Your emotions will slide around and feel messy, and click into nooks and crannies that are frequently uncomfortable. Schwartz illuminates shame with fierce precision, and he portrays love with electrified pathos. He'll go a step beyond what you would expect. He's the canary in the coalmine that delivers. He is a sexy writer, a sharp, clear-eyed poet. It is a quick read but a slow burn.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

After I finished Reservation Road , countless questions lingered amid disparate emotions coupled not only with the painful narrative which continued to haunt me, but also the enduring legacy foisted upon the memorable characters of Dwight, Sam, and Ruth of the Arno family pitted against Ethan, Grace, and Emma Lerner begging to be explored.

Twelve years later, Northwest Corner spiritedly revisits Dwight Arno, outwardly transformed and contrite, vaguely expectant in his new West Coast surroundings, mindful of the compulsory physical and emotional distance essential to create a life anew without relentless reminders of one careless moment that shattered two families into irrevocable pieces. The pivotal tragedy alone did not thrust Dwight into these recent circumstances; rather his immediate unforgivable response mingled with excessive evasive subterfuge disqualified him from any possible future in his previously fractured existence.

Once the solitary motivation in Dwight's circumspect memories, his collegiate son Sam now stands in a similar place after his violent and physically brutal attack upon another young man as he hastily chooses an unplanned disparate course of action, an abrupt departure from his UConn dorm room, West Coast bound aboard a Greyhound bus to Santa Barbara and his father. When the sins of the father become a heavy burden to bear alone and lie befuddled upon a son's hazy conscience, the ominous consequences of inexplicable rage are quickly disowned.

Succinctly, yet sparingly the author reveals the parsimonious remnants of each affected character's life. He unconsciously captures you with his eloquent words and deftly draws you into vicariously endure those profusely diverse emotions deftly woven within the gritty details that accompany life's most unexpected torturous moments accompanied by their insurmountable losses.

If John Burnham Schwartz's intent is to unceremoniously immerse the reader into each distinctively disquieting character's churning vortex of inner thoughts and feelings, he is successful beyond all expectations. Every single page is a pithy volume of overwhelmingly unforgettable words that linger long after it is read. Minute corners of the mind and heart are brutally bared until mercy finally prevails. Ultimately, love empowers and redemption triumphs.

[Larry H · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his magnificent book, Reservation Road, John Burnham Schwartz traced the lives of two families, the Arnos and the Learners, affected by tragedy and a subsequent cover-up. It has been 13 years since that book was published, and 12 years have passed in the lives of the Arnos and the Learners.

Dwight Arno has rebuilt his life after a stint in prison, and settled in California, far from the Connecticut neighborhood where he lived when he was married. His existence is rather austere—a job managing a sporting goods store, occasional dating, weekend softball games—but he feels this is the life he deserves to live. Into this placidity drops his son, Sam, whom he hasn't seen in 12 years. Sam, an angry college baseball player, flees to California after an incident that leaves him wondering if the sins of the father are truly visited upon the son. And Sam is searching for something else, from his life and from his father, but he has no clue what those things are. The ripples of Sam's reconnection with Dwight, and Dwight's return to Connecticut, touch Ruth, Sam's mother and Dwight's ex-wife, and others.

I still count Reservation Road among one of my favorite books, so I was somewhat concerned about whether a follow-up novel would be on par, and I hoped that the characters wouldn't have changed too drastically. I'm happy to say that Schwartz did an exceptional job revisiting this story, and while this second book lacks a little of the suspenseful nature of the first, it again inhabits the same type of tension-filled environment. All of the characters are flawed in their own way, and you realize how the damages they suffered years ago have shaped them. If I have any criticism, it's that I felt Sam was just so angry and so resentful that it was difficult to engender a great deal of empathy for him until fairly well into the book. In the end, however, it was terrific to have a new book by John Burnham Schwartz, and even better to be able to revisit a story I loved and feel it was worthy. Read this.

[Staci · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Thoughts after finishing this book: "I'm keeping this book...I want to read it again!"

Writing that really touched my core because sometimes I feel this way about my oldest son:

He looks up at me. "Do you hate yourself?"
My mouth is dry. Carefully, I sit on the edge of his bed.
"Some days. Other days are better."
He nods as if he understands, which makes me sadder than anything he could have said.
He is my son. He's within reach now. Soon, I think, I will try to touch him, but not just yet.

(from Northwest Corner page 240 in the ARC; finished version may be different)


This book touched me on so many levels. The writing is some of the most authentic and real that I've read in quite some time. My only wish is that I would liked to have read 'Reservation Road' to get the back story before delving into this one. However, not doing that did not hinder my ability to fully love and appreciate where the characters are in their lives with Northwest Corner. This is quintessential American story telling and I could not put this book down. The characters seemed so real that I felt as if I knew them, as if they could be my next door neighbor. The story is something that could happen to anyone at anytime. For that reason alone I was drawn into the grips of their tale and when I finished felt as if I too had been put through an emotional wringer. This is a powerful piece of work about how a family comes to terms with past mistakes and to what lengths one may go to for redemption and love.

Recommend? I'm standing on the rooftops screaming out to my friends- READ THIS ONE! I finished this book over a week ago and the characters are still rattling around inside my heart. I have purchased Reservation Road and The Commoner because Schwartz's writing touched me and has made me want more!

Rating: 10/10

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am having a hard time figuring out why I finished this book, given how frustrated I was with it, but there must have been something compelling, because I kept reading. I think despite its flaws, the story and characters were interesting, even if the story wasn't told well and the characters didn't often make sense. There were a few main things I did not like: 1)the short chapters and constant changes in point of view completely interrupted the flow of the story (the only saving grace was that the author at least kept the chapters chronological, so you didn't have to relive the same event through a different character's perspective.) What was particularly annoying about the structure of the book is that the author seemed to be trying too hard to be profound - there were so many chapters, and each ended with these deep metaphors or life lessons - it was exhaustingto read. I wished he had just told the story. 2)As with the prequel, I thought the character of Dwight was unreal - he had too much insight for a character who behaved the way he did, yet he had purportedly not had therapy, or anger management training, or anything other than prison to aid him in a significant personality change; 3)I could see no valid reason why the author added the characters of Penny and her daughter to this sequel - was I missing something?; and 4)I continued to have a hard time feeling empathy for Ethan and Grace (maybe unfairly), as they could not seem to take steps to access help or begin to heal after so many years, if not for themselves, then for their daughter.

I did like the characters of Emma and Sam, and particularly Ruth, who seemed to be the hero of this story. Ruth in particular seemed able to hold onto hope under extremely challenging circumstances, and this is most likely why I didn't give up on the book.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Northwest Corner" by John Burnham Schwartz is a novel that picks up more than ten years after "Reservation Road" ends. This time, Sam Arno and Emma Learner are all grown up and still dealing with the turmoil that their parents lived through since the death of Emma's brother Josh. Dwight is now in California, trying to make a life for himself. Ruth is battling cancer, Grace is trying to get her business back together, and the children are attending college. It is only after a seemingly random bar fight that Sam gets into that these two families interact again.

This book is written in the same style as "Reservation Road" with the reader getting a glimpse into multiple points of view. The story follows Emma, Sam, Dwight, Ruth, and Dwight's California girlfriend Penny. Written in this way, the reader gets to see the same situation from different points of view, which makes it very well written. The only part of the story that seemed completely out of place was getting Penny's perspective. Dwight has practically stopped communicating with her by the time we meet Penny and first get her point of view. She has little, if anything, to do with the rest of the story, yet her story is still woven through, but really not necessary.

Overall, this is a great read. "Northwest Corner" can stand on its own as a novel, but it will be a a bigger payoff for those that read "Reservation Road" before starting this one.

*Reviewer received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. Each chapter tells the story through another protagonist, shifting from first-person narrator to third-person narrator. Schwartz's writing is on the point precise, capturing deep emotions with beautiful metaphors. The book is immenseley sad and beautiful at the same time. A coming-of-age story as well as a story about family, life and death. Highly recommended.

[theda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it but only discovered after I had finished it that it is a sequel to Reservation Road. Hmmm. How did I miss that?

[Jim Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.o* because I abandoned it after reading 75 pages.

The book promised an interesting plot but the writing style was not to my liking. It didn't flow, and didn't engage me with the character, or the surroundings.

To be fair on the author though, I attempted to read this after finishing One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez who received the Nobel prize for Literature.

That is a hard act to follow.

Still I don't think that it would have pleased me anyway.

My rating criteria is..

I round down

5.0 - Amazing
4.5 - I loved it
4.0 - I liked it a lot
3.5 - I Liked it
3.0 - It was OK
2.5 - Just
2.0 - I wouldn't bother
1.5 - I didn't like it much
1.0 - I disliked it

[Josh Sussman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to like a book with no compelling characters. Every character in the book is flawed, one or two are sympathetic, but not likable. The writing was good (although sometimes it seemed the author liked his writing a bit too much giving it an 'overwritten'). I finished the book hoping that one of the characters would come to the fore to emerge as a hero, but it never happened...the book just kind of ended.

[Suzanne Petrella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personality under a microscope

This story was expert in revealing the innermost thoughts of a cast of characters. It is fun because as different characters, each in a new chapter named after them, come forward the story sets it pace. It moves along at a steady pace displaying depth and a solid story. Only problem I had was I was sad it ended.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure why I finished this book. It was a boring read and nothing really happened in the end. It just goes on and on and on. Not my kind of book. It does not really have any purpose but to relive a broken marriage, a tragedy that happened many years previously and different characters who somehow played a part.

[To Read Pile Too Big · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had trouble deciding whether to give it a 2 or a 3. In the end, I decided on 3 but 2.5 is more accurate.

The writing is good. The characters are pretty good. I actually wanted to know what happened next. Unfortunately, not a lot happened and nothing is resolved in the end. If you aren't depressed before you read this, you will be after.

[Romi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this wS very well written and a nice story from five points of view. I didn’t know it was a sequel so it might have been nice to read the other one first! But overall a fast and interesting read.

[Bonnie W. Timaeus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real but unloving life

I thoroughly enjoyed the style of writing. The content is depressing and leaves the reader wishing Sam would appreciate, at least a little, the efforts his parents have made in his behalf.

[Jeff Weyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shortly after I met my wife, she was just starting to read "Reservation Road." We finished it together while on a road trip through the Grand Canyon area. One book I had never forgotten.

[Sheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

So a dysfunctional family hits a bump then at the end of the book all goes well...blah blah blah.

[Vanessa Freshwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read! Beautiful writing style and very captivating storyline.

[Molly McGeehin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Follow up to Reservation Road which, I believe, is essential to have been read to make this novel even better

[Ksullashe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Family trying to save itself worth reading not an easy read. Must read Reservation Road , revisits the characters ...

[Lori Gideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contemporary fiction

[Sarena Neyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the best writing I've read. Why id he not more famous?

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Northwest Corner by Jonathon Burnham Schwartz flows like a river. It has deep eddies, grade four rapids and places where the water is so clear that it's like looking in a mirror; places were a reader can rest and catch their breath. It reads as langorously as a William Stafford poem and there is even a nod to Stafford in the book.

Northwest Corner is a sequel to Reservation Road, taking place twelve years after Reservation Road ends. Dwight is working in a sporting goods store in Santa Barbara and has been seeing a woman, Penny, who knows nothing of his past. His son, Sam, has just been involved in a serious bar fight where he beat someone up with his baseball bat so badly that the other young man may not live. Sam leaves Connecticut and takes the bus to Santa Barbara, appearing on Dwight's doorstep. They have not seen each other in twelve years and the meeting is more than awkward. Sam sees his father's rage inside himself and so he heads there, to be with someone like himself.

Meanwhile, Ruth is struggling with the aftermath of breast cancer treatment. The Lerner household is in disarray. The parents have separated and Emma is in her senior year of college waiting to start at Yale. She and Sam Arno get together and it's like a magical life raft for both of them for each of them understands the trauma and pain of the other's family.

Emma feels like the chosen child is the one who has died and that she is left, the shadow child. Her mother has turned cold and hard. Her father is inaccessible as he studies the Talmud and leaves their home for Chicago to immerse himself in his studies.

We watch as Sam tries to find himself and Emma straddles a line between learning what life is about and becoming part of it herself. Sam wonders if he can ever be anything other than his mistake, if all his life will be this one episode of violence, reliving his father's past.

The book's prose sings. It is like reading an epic poem. The writing is so clear and beautiful that I hated to turn a page. It is by far one of the best books I have ever read, and I have read a lot of books. It is certainly on my top ten of the year.

I didn't think a sequel could ever top the original, but this one does. Its fluidity, beauty and maturity are sublime. It's a book not to miss. I do recommend reading Reservation Road first to familiarize oneself with the characters, but be sure not to stop there. This book calls out to be read.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book on Goodreads Giveaways and I'm so very glad that I did. I have not read Reservation Road, but it will be added to my to-read list. This was a dramatic story, but I loved the roles that the mothers played in this book. It has some very troubled characters, but I feel that none of them are all that far away from any of us in many ways. The raw emotion displayed in this book is often tough to take, but I felt like it was a story that needed to be told.

interesting quotes:

"There's a kind of ironic innocence involved, and it stems from genuine hope. The hope being that when judgment finally comes, if it does (and I'm not talking about law here -- that already happened -- or about God, either), good intentions might actually count for something concrete, or at least there might be an understanding by someone who matters that bad intentions were not originally present, but rather appeared unexpectedly at some horrible juncture, and somehow took root, and only then ruined everything." pp. 82-3

"...she has recently vowed to herself to give up the word always, because it is fraudulent. There is only now; there is only this." p. 113

"You can do all the planning you want, or you can do none; once their bags are packed, people leave."

"You cannot reach fifty years of age and still think that nothing is better than something, unless you are a fool as well as an asshole. Despite what the mathematicians assure us, zero is not a meaningful number in real life." p. 157

"When in a position of doubt or anxiety...it behooves you to speak politely and firmly, as though from a podium of formidable rectitude and calm wisdom." p. 167

regarding cancer:"...if they find nothing, you will live to come again. And if the constellations return, dark as dark matter, soon enough they will stop looking. And that will be the end.
To live, then, means continually opening her most hidden self up to clinical scrutiny. No other way to do it..." p.269

"We think we are solid and durable, only to find that, placed under a cruel and unexpected light, we are the opposite: only our thin, permeable skin holds us intact.
Hemophiliacs walking through a forest of thorns." p. 282

new words: pedantry, probity, fabulist, interstice

[Gloria ~ mzglorybe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moves along at a snails pace...

...realistically so does grief, guilt, despair and depression. If that's what you want to read about, then you've come to the right place. One cannot rate such a talented writer as Schwartz less than 3 stars for any of his work, but I was tempted with this one. He can put words to feelings that most of us don't even recognize or can't begin to describe, and seems to do so effortlessly. I was excited to start this after loving Reservation Road, but this work, however, is so dark and depressing that I just can't say I enjoyed it very much. I found myself skimming through some parts, which is not a good sign. The writing yes is eloquent, (even at that, I grew weary with how deep he'd get) but the story as it evolves leaves a lot to be desired.

Reservation Road, one of my all-time favorites, had me riveted and reading late into the night. This one, I struggled staying with. Each time I picked it up, I hoped for more, but it just continued along in it's slow, emotional way.

The reading is choppy, the chapters short, jumping around from person to person very quickly. He adds two new characters, which in this readers opinion don't add much to the plot line: Emma, the sister of the young victim Josh, who in the first book was accidentally run down and killed by Dwight Arno. Now, 12 years later, Emma has a tight physical and emotional connection to Dwight's son Sam. The second new character introduced is Penny, Dwight's latest girlfriend, who really knows nothing about him. We don't get to know much about her either, and that part of the novel is left open-ended. Adding Emma was ok, she was affected by the tragedy on Reservation Road. Penny's part in Dwight's life adds little, and drags it out even more. Perhaps the author is thinking of yet another novel in the life of the Arno family, but I for one don't care to continue on with the saga :( no matter how eloquently the words are strung together.

This ARC was acquired through Amazon Vine's pre-release program for my unbiased review of this work.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwartz continues the story from his novel Reservation Road. Dwight Arno is now fifty years old and out of prison. He is now living in California and is the manager of a sporting goods store. Dwight is surprised by an unexpected visitor, his estranged son, Sam. Sam has left college in Connecticut and is running from something he has done. Northwest Corner examines the lives of ordinary men and woman who are all damaged in some way and are all searching for meaning and redemption.

All the chapters are short and each one is from the point of view of a different character. Rest assured, though, that you do not need to have read Reservation Road in order to appreciate Northwest Corner. For those who have read Reservation Road, the characters include: Dwight, Sam, Ruth, Penny (Dwight's girlfriend), and Emma Learner.

Schwartz explores his damaged characters, their desires and fears, while slowly building an emotional tension that should resonate with most readers. The characters are all so very, very real - so true to life.The sheer raw emotion that leaps off the page is heart wrenching, yet does not feel manufactured. The characters feel like real people. You know these people. You feel their sadness and despair. You may have been through circumstances similar to these tortured souls. You will hope that they find redemption, that there is some resolution to their pain.

This is an incredible novel, exquisitely written. Schwartz is a gifted, poetic writer with a keen sharp insight into human character. There are observations throughout the novel that are brilliant gems of perfect cut and clarity. His descriptions transport you into the scene with the characters. While the plot itself is not full of action, the emotional landscape explored is packed full to overflowing.

Very Highly Recommended - one of the best; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

[J.M. Cornwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dwight is a manger of a sporting goods store in California, far from the scene of a fatal accident. After twelve years of prison and losing his family and position, he is still running, living a half-life that is respectable but nothing compared to what he had before the accident that changed his life.

His son Sam is in college and is running from his own mistake. Sam runs to his father in California in hopes he can outdistance the trouble and that Dwight will help him out. Things are about to get complicated.

In this sequel to Reservation Road, John Burnham Schwartz continues his story twelve years after an accident shattered the lives of two families, bringing them together in California with a whole new set of trouble. The thing about running is that the past always catches up.

Northwest Corner is, like most sequels, lacking in the complexity and poignancy of Reservation Road. The characters are the same, with a few more miles on them, and time has ticked away, leaving Schwartz with a convoluted tale from several points of view that get bogged down in Schwartz’s attempt to twist metaphor into literary pretzels that often fail to make sense. There are brilliant moments quickly swallowed by details that do not move the story forward and are confusing.

In trying to continue the story in the wake of his previous success, Schwartz has allowed the art to get in the way of telling a good story, often taking chapters to say what could have been said in a page or less. Schwartz’s writing is over wrought and sometimes artful, but he fails to catch fire. The characters’ inner monologues are intense navel gazing without reaching a truth or answer. I doubt anyone would plumb to those depths whatever the reason or the payoff.

I would recommend reading Reservation Road first or much of the meat of the story and the motives will not make sense. Even so, Northwest Corner promises much and falls short on the payoff.