Reservation Road

by John Burnham Schwartz

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

A tragic accident sets in motion a cycle of violence and retribution in John Burnham Schwartz's riveting novel Reservation Road . Two haunted men and their families are engulfed by the emotions surrounding an unexpected and horrendous death. Ethan, a respected professor of literature at a small New England college, is wracked by an obsession with revenge that threatens to tear his family apart. Dwight, a man at once fleeing his crime and hoping to get caught, wrestles with overwhelming guilt and his sense of obligation to his son. As these two men's lives unravel, Reservation Road moves to its startling conclusion. This is an astonishing tale of love and loss, rage and redemption, that is as suspenseful as it is emotionally compelling.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Book Club, Contemporary, Audiobook, Suspense

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 1998

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

[Fabian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a story we've all heard before--the loss of a child and its subsequent devastating effect on the parents. This is that story, trimmed & nicely-paced, & the conclusion, perhaps its one original point, is memorable indeed.

This is no Andre Dubus III however, and it shows. The poignancy it reaches for never arrives, perhaps because the story has been recycled to varying degrees & to polarizing results. It is a bit in the formulaic side, but no, it will not completely disappoint.

The best thing I can say about it is that it's short, sweet & well-written; sadly, it won't truly blow you away.

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parallels abound. Ethan is the bereft father, Josh, his lost son. Dwight is the damaged driver, Sam his child, damaged by dad in a different way. How each copes with the aftermath is the core of the tale here. Dwight runs over a young boy, then flees the scene, fearful of the impact the accident might have on his already tentative custody of his son. The wives are also portrayed, measured one against the other. The overall effect is of extreme sadness. It is a remarkably fast-reading book. I felt myself welling up at times. The characters are well painted, real enough to make us care about them. Trailers for the film make it look like the story is about revenge. It is not. It is about coping when bad things happen, or not.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to say you "really liked" a book about the death of a 10-yr-old boy from a hit and run. The book is narrated from 3 perspectives on the events of that night - Josh's father Ethan, Josh's mother Grace and Dwight the guy who hit Josh and kept on driving. Why? What will happen to each of them as time passes without a clue? How far will Ethan get when he decides to do some investigating of his own?
This is not an easy read, but a very good one. The ending left me speechless.
This would be a great book for discussion in a book club.

[Nick Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a powerful and affecting read - mainly due to the subject (how the death of a ten year-old boy in a hit and run accident affects the families of the bereaved and the guilty party who did not stop) but much credit is due also to the starkness, the rawness, the sadness of the writing.

It was a miserable read, upsetting in a more real way than the more death-heavy crime novels I read a lot of. This, despite not being a parent myself, made it difficult to get through at times. In some ways I feel I’m being unfair for aiming criticism at what it surely set out to do (and succeeded in doing) but it left me appreciative but worn out emotionally.

[Webster Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book because I thought it was something completely different. I thought it was the book they made the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio about, Revolutionary Road. It was a silly mistake and after a little bit of confusion I continued on. There was a major problem with the book, dealing with the timing of the novel. Schwartz tells this story in the voices of three characters: Ethan, Dwight and Grace. They each tell their side of a story, their emotional baggage after a horrible accident. The character’s each feel like they came from the 1950’s even thought the novel was supposed to be set in the 1990’s. I feel that the writer liked the time of the 50’s but wanted to be able to include some police procedural that came from the 90’s. This shift from 50’s to present really confused me. Some characters would wear seersucker suits and have habits that seemed pretty dated like the love of classical music or that someone’s father was once in the war. Most people don’t refer to someone as in the war unless they were in World War 2. This further dragged the reader into the past. The only thing that made the book even seem like the present was that someone was reading Dean Koontz and another person went to a Barnes and Noble. This would have been fine but to mention more of the dated terms just made the novel confusing.

I thought that the Schwartz got into the heads of the characters. We were able to see three very different reactions to the pain of loss. Each character was telling their own story but also observing the loss through the other characters. It was interesting to see the way that Grace interpreted Ethan’s emotions. She would discuss her pain and then say that Ethan was cold and unfeeling. Then you’d see the same scene through Ethan’s or Dwight’s eyes and it would be completely different. I loved this about the book but also hated it. It made me confused because I thought the characters were completely different externally and internally. You’d feel terrible for them one second and the next hate them for being complete and utter jerks. I’m not sure if people are that contrary to think one thing and then go completely the other direction in reality. Then again, I’ve never lost someone in a fatal accident so I wouldn’t know how I would react. I think the story also ends abruptly. I would have like to know what happened next, which says a lot for the book.

I think that if you like stories written in different voices and that have a strong emotional feel, you will like this book. If you like character stories and family drama this is also the story for you. You might also like the Memory Keepers Daughter, the Firefly Cloak, The Language of Flowers or Little Children.

Jenny Paxson
Readers' Advisory Librarian

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the beginning of this book, ten-year-old Josh is killed in a hit-and-run accident. The subsequent events are narrated by three characters -- Josh's two parents (Ethan and Grace) and the hit-and-run driver, Dwight.

Grace sinks into a deep depression that distances her from her husband and surviving daughter; Ethan copes with his loss by nurturing a thirst for revenge on the anonymous driver and being belligerent to the police officers who simply aren't doing enough to find this driver. Dwight, a tortured father to his own ten-year-old son, has a long history of poor impulse control which has already ruined his marriage, threatens his relationship with his son, and has now placed him in this situation where he simply cannot decide whether or not to turn himself in and face the consequences.

This book is written well, with complex characters and moral ambiguity. For all my sympathy for Ethan, I kept wanting to shake him and tell him that finding the driver and exacting his revenge would not bring Josh back. And while Dwight was clearly wrong for leaving the scene, Schwartz does a good job of helping you understand his actions in their larger context, if not exactly sympathize.

So why only three stars, then? Well, first of all, as you can imagine, this book was damn depressing. Maybe now that I'm a parent I have far less stomach for premises like these. Additionally, the book's slowness and wallowing in grief was reminiscent of A Death in the Family. Schwartz did justice to the intensity of the grieving process, but it was a bit too much of a good thing for me. The premise was depressing enough without having to feel the unrelieved pain for 200 pages; comic relief, or any other kind, was entirely absent. Finally, I didn't see what including Grace's viewpoint added to the story. I didn't find her to be a particularly interesting character in her own right, and I didn't feel that she served much purpose in moving the plot along.

Bottom line: interesting premise and decent execution, but somehow didn't do it for me.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did a quick re-read of this book in anticipation of the sequel, Northwest Corner. My memory of my overall impressions of the story holds up in the second reading. Some great strengths and a couple of weaker aspects that do diminish the power of the book as a whole. If I focus on the things Schwartz got right, it's a four-star book. If I focus on the things he did wrong, it's three stars. I'm going with the higher rating because I do think the book is worth reading, especially if you're interested in the way grief and guilt affect behavior and thought processes over time. There are a few too many coincidences, and the ending should have been much stronger, but I won't elaborate on the complaints.

There are three alternating viewpoints:

1)Ethan Learner: The father of 10-year-old Josh, who was killed in a hit-and-run on Reservation Road. He fixates on finding the driver who killed his son and exacting some sort of revenge. Ethan loses himself in reading as an escape from the pain and feelings of powerlessness.

2)Grace Learner: Josh's mother. She slips into despair and inaction and completely lets herself go, pulling away from her husband and friends and forgetting to care for her 8-year-old daughter Emma. Her love for her husband and daughter does eventually bring her around to pick up the shattered pieces of her life and go forward.

3)Dwight Arno: The man who hit Josh and didn't stop. He has so far gotten away with it, but the fear and guilt eat away at him. He slips into alcohol abuse and the violence he learned from his own father. His relationship with his 10-year-old son Sam has always been tenuous, and with the added stress of Dwight's secret, that situation becomes even more strained.

I'm looking forward to the sequel, because the end of this one does sort of leave you hanging, although I can see the subtle statement Schwartz was aiming for.

Second reading completed May 30, 2011.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read some of the reviews of this book and was a little surprised by a few. I think this content is for people who have actually expereinced loss. I don't mean a grandparent who has lived out their days, but someone in their immediate family. Otherwise I think it would be hard to understand the characters reactions. If you have watched and experienced what death does to a family you can relate to this novel.

I am about half way through and I can not put it down. This is an excellent novel so far. It was recommended to me by my sister who was still thinking about it days after she finished the text. Each chapter tells the story through a different character’s perspective so you can really understand how the events are playing out with everyone involved as well as how people are affected by loss.

Schwartz is amazing at characterization and painting a scene... he is so in tune with the human form-it is eerie.

The end can take you a little off gaurd and is the aspect that leaves you thinking about it for days after you are finished.

[Salma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to re-read this book. I read it so long ago.
I still remember the story but I don't remember if I liked the writing style or not. The story was interesting. The plot good.
3 stars.

[Ivar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoewel ogenschijnlijk een simpele detective, bezit toch een diep existentieel verdriet over het verlies van een kind. Wat zijn bestaanswaarde mijn inziens meer dan rechtvaardigd en daarmee een waardevol plekje verdient in mijn catalogus.

[Staci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I wanted to read this one: Last year I read Northwest Corner by Schwartz, which is the sequel to Reservation Road, for a TLC Book Tour. I fell in love with this author's writing and the story hit me hard on many levels. I knew that at some point I had to read about the devastating event that caused these two families lives to spin out-of-control.


Source: My public library

I can only speak of my experience and tell you that I absolutely love this author's voice. There's something so simple, yet strangely complex about his writing. I am at a loss for words to describe how his writing touched me. It just did.
My heart broke for every single person in this story. I couldn't begin to fathom the heartbreak and grief that Ethan and Grace dealt with after the loss of their son. His death haunted me and I had to keep telling myself...this is make-believe, Staci!!

Dwight, the hit and run driver, makes a decision that will change the lives of so many people. I still don't understand why he just didn't stop, but there are many people that have been in his same predicament and chose the same course-of-action. I don't want to condemn him, but his actions were unconscionable.

As a parent, on that  very deep, emotional level, I connected with Ethan. I understood what drove him to find his son's killer. At times he scared himself, but he never relented. I understood his need for solitude and his desire to distance himself from love. I got him and that knowledge shook me up. 

Schwartz crafted a novel that captures your attention and even though many of the characters are seriously flawed, I think that is what kept me glued to the pages. They were REAL. The story is gut-wrenching and the ending surprised the hell out of me....but I believed it. And that to me is masterful storytelling! 

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Driving his son Sam home to the son's mother too fast, divorced lawyer Dwight Arno runs down 10-year-old Josh, son of Literature professor Ethan Learner and Ethan's landscaper wife Grace. Dwight keeps going, pretending to Sam that it was a dog he hit in the gloom. We follow the consequences over the next few months, either through Dwight's eyes or Ethan's (both in first person) or through Grace's (in third person). It soon becomes clear to us and to Dwight that the two families are far more closely connected than we might have thought: Dwight's ex-wife Ruth teaches piano to Josh's younger sister Emma. It takes Ethan a while longer to work this out, but when he does . . .

. . . well, when he does, there's a bit of an anticlimax. The blurb (1999 Vintage edition) promises us "a cycle of violence and retribution," but we have to assume the blurb writer didn't actually read the book, because this is not at all what we get. Let me be clear: It's not the absence of any real violence that bothers me -- I'm all in favor of more reflective crime fiction -- but I do object to the blurbist's complete mischaracterization of the novel.

Leaving that aside, what do I think of the book? It seemed to me that what I was reading was a very good novella that unfortunately happened to be 300 pages long. For whole chapters at a time the narrative seemed merely to be treading water. I can understand that Schwartz wanted to accord suitable respect to a subject so serious as the abrupt loss of a 10-year-old child, but I'm not sure that giving us pages-long descriptions of how the bereaved parents feel too drained to do anything is the way to go about it.

This is a book with many fine qualities -- not least the general excellence of the writing -- but, overall, well caveat lector.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this was readable enough, what I found it to be most primarily was a novel that tried to be two things - murder mystery and thoughtful, poignant story - and ended up being neither.
In a most depressing premise, a father driving with his ten year old son hits another man's ten year old son, then is scared and zooms off. At this point, as anyone could predict, the dead son's mother loses it, their marriage suffers, all predictably packaged in short snippets that were like movie scenes trying to make a point.
Aside from the lack of originality in how this played out, the book also became gimmicky very fast. We flip through three narratives (and I kept getting the two dads confused) which at first worked but then got tiresome and lacked enough differentiation. Then the two families end up intertwining - go figure - in all of these teasing sort of ways. Then we had an Edgar Sawtelle sort of annoying dragged out ending of will he or won't he seek revenge which also felt sort of reverse Hamlet-esque. By the end I really forgot who was who and didn't feel at all for any of the characters.
There were some interesting things - the inevitable question of who you'd rather be, the person guilty but still has his son or the opposite - but overall the book was too heavy and not well enough executed to justify it. It was just sad and sometimes not even that.

[Robin Glasser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz for my book club. There are so many 'road' movies: Revolutionary Road, The Road to Perdition, etc. and as I got further into the book, I realized I'd seen the film, which was good, btw...Mark Ruffalo played the tortured lawyer (oxymoron?). The Learner family, Ethan and Grace and their children, Emma and Josh, stop at a gas station on their way home. Their son is standing by the road when a car comes racing along the bend. Josh is hit and killed instantly. The car's driver, Dwight, speeds away. The author weaves the voices of Grace, Ethan and Dwight into a gripping narrative that tells the story of two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis. Although the book seems like a thriller, it opens up a world rich with psychological nuance and emotional wisdom. This page-turner explores the terrain of grief (I've been lucky not to have lost someone dear to me but actually felt what these people were going through) and yet the novel astonishes with unexpected redemption. I highly recommend it.

[Reindert Van Zwaal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply stunning. I got completely drowned into the story and almost read the book in one go. There is a sort of unspoken tension through the whole book, the emotion can be felt all the time. A sad story but very well written!

[Louise Behrendt Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult story about an accidental death , and how it affects the victim's family, as well as the coward who caused the accident and fled the scene.

[Dave-Brendon Burgh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not a fan of literary novels – a term, I have to add, which just doesn’t make sense to me, and smacks of incredible elitism. That being said, when I read something which falls into that bullshit category (which doesn’t happen often), the novel has to be accessible, and by that, I mean that I don’t want to feel as if I should be sipping a too-expensive wine while sitting in a too-expensive chair in my ‘den’. Reservation Road is a novel anyone can read. You don’t have to be part of some inaccessible circle of award-chasers to appreciate this novel. And yes, I watched the movie, years ago, but this novel… I completely forgot about the movie while reading it, and the movie was good. The novel is heart-breakingly sublime. Absolutely unflinching, incredibly emotional. It hits hard, folks – as it should. And I don’t have kids; folks who do have kids and read this might not be able to finish it, but I urge you to stick with it.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sad story of two fathers and how they will be forever connected in the most tragic of ways is compelling and tense which keeps the pages turning despite the bleak storyline. It is told in three voices, the first-person narration of the two fathers and the third-person narration of the wife of one of the fathers. The wife's narration did not resonate with me like the other two voices did; I am not sure if I wanted more from her or less, but I was just more engrossed with the pages reflecting the portrayals of the two fathers.

A story of unbearable loss with an ending that made me want to know more. Fortunately, I just read the author wrote a sequel in 2011.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes being an attorney takes the fun out of books for me. Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz is a prime example. I could not figure out why Dwight didn't stop at the accident scene. It was dark. The road was not well-lighted and Josh was in the road wearing dark, non-reflective clothing. Dwight would not have been charged with anything (other than a ticket for the burned out headlight). Further his ex-wife could not have said anything about him being late bringing Sam home since they were involved in an accident and legally required to stop. Dwight was an attorney and should have known this.

Secondly, (and this was so irrelevant I wonder why the author even mentioned it) Dwight claims that he voluntarily pays child support even though he does not have to do so since his wife has remarried. Every attorney knows that child support is mandatory, not voluntary. It does not matter if your former spouse marries the wealthiest person on earth. You are required to pay child support if you do not have primary custody. I know this is a silly and unimportant fact to be hung up on, but the character was an attorney and to me it made him less believable and took me out of the story.

I really liked the way the book was written from different points of view. I noticed that even though the characters were often speaking or interacting with other characters in their respective chapters, each character still felt isolated to me. I believed this helped set the tone for the book and furthered one of the themes which was how each of us deals with grief and guilt. Ultimately we do it alone.

I also found it interesting that the Dwight and Ethan chapters were told in a first-person narrative, but the Grace chapters were in a third-person narrative. To me, it emphasized that while Grace was an important character the author wanted her to be more distanced or aloof than the male characters.

There was a quote in the last third of the book that I think really captured the whole story. It said that without hope punishment becomes one's religion. I found that very compelling.

I was interested to learn that there is now a sequel. I plan on reading it as well as other books by this author. He is a gifted writer. I just hope that next time he does a little more research to make his characters more authentic.

[Jodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find it hard to put into words how I feel about this book. It is without a doubt one of the most moving portrayals of grief and love that I have ever read.

Imagine seeing your precious, irreplacable young son mowed down in front of you. Now imagine being the driver that did it. In our wildest musings we could not even come close to the guilt and sorrow this would throw down on our lives and everyone we meet from that second forward. This novel, written in the narratives of Ethan and Grace, who are the parents of Josh and Emma, and also Dwight, the driver, is just so close to perfection in showing us the fractures in our hearts and minds and marriages from just such a thing. The story really focuses on the two fathers, Ethan and Dwight. They both try really hard at being great dads, really hard, yet for Ethan it comes natural and for Dwight it is the biggest struggle in his life, his own father was no role model. There is a section in the book that had tears streaming down my face where Ethan's colleague is talking to him about what a great dad he was, how other kids wait for their fathers to just turn and listen and nod, and how he did it always not realising the acknowledgement he was giving, it was so touching.

And there is Grace, at times I felt so unsympathetic to her, I mean she still has Emma to care for and nurture. But the grief overwhelms her as does her resentment to Ethan and she falls into a great depression over the loss of her son whom she carried in her arms whilst she planted their garden. The author does a great job of showing how all these little things in their lives, the day to day things that before this accident never meant a thing, and now they seem to represent everything. For instance, Grace gets out of bed, her side is thoroughly dishevelled, yet Ethan has pulled the covers right up to the headboard, almost like he laid there and slept peacefully, and she hates him for it.

There is so much to love about this book, so many notes I could make but none of them can accurately portray how brilliant this novel is. I just loved it, all of it, even the ending.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

If ever there were two people in the world who needed either counseling or a good chest-beating, accusation-laden, finger-wagging, knock-down, curse-ridden fight, it's Ethan and Grace. I get that what they went through was the worst thing you can experience as a parent, but they were so content to let that consume them, and that made this story hard to read.

Beyond that, Dwight is just an ass. There is no black or white here. He's self-absorbed, angry, obnoxious and violent, and he's in the wrong for the entirety of the book. He lets his issues with his ex-wife, his son, and his work cloud his thinking, and never once tries to redeem himself.

The only characters I actually cared for in this book were Sam and Emma. Sam, forced to be older and wiser than his 10 years, and Emma, forced to live in a home where her parents have lost themselves to grief, where she's become the non-child in the face of her brother's death, and where she's made to be the strongest of the Learner family.

I struggled so with the complete lack of caring on Ethan and Grace's part. At some point, don't you have to remember your other child? Don't you realize your responsibilities as a parent, and as a spouse? Don't you step back and say, "We might need some help here"?

I know this is going to sound terrible, but I was also frustrated by Josh. How awful is that? This kid - this peripheral character who is only briefly in, but manages to drive the entire story, this child who was taken so young - this same kid manages to frustrate me. But maybe it wasn't Josh I was frustrated with. Maybe it was Ethan, and his inability to reach Josh, or his lack of trying.

This was written well, and I liked that the chapters flipped between the three major adults in the story, but I would have liked a little more gumption from Ethan and Grace, and something a little more redeeming from Dwight. I shudder to imagine what the future years hold for Sam and Emma.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reservation Road was less of a thriller than I had really expected from the synopsis. There was a certain element of one man trying to find his son's killer, and another man trying to hide, but that was only a very minor element of the story when it came down to it. In fact the synopsis made me want to read the book less than I would have if it was presented in the way I read it.
This was a story of loss, and of love. Initially the loss of Josh and how it effects his family- particularly his parents. You can really imagine how his parents may feel, and although you see different perspectives from the family they don't really hold together, which increases the sense that the family are falling apart, individually and as a unit. Sometimes I found myself almost wanting to shout at them to get their acts together because being able to see inside all their thoughts made you know that they could help each other if they tried. Indeed that they had the capacity to help one-another.
On the other side you see Dwight. A man terrified of loosing his own son who he as just started establishing a new relationship with after some time in prison and a split from his son's mother. Dwight is so scared that something will go wrong, and he searches for love from his son. I think that is part of the reason that he drove on after hitting Josh- he fears he will loose his son all over again. It was quite clever how Burham Schwartz made you feel sympathetic for Dwight rather than angry at him for hiding. I think I preferred the story of Josh's family, but Dwight's story was compelling enough to want to read.
Corsair have also sent me the sequel to Reservation Road (Northwest Corner) to review. I am unsure of how wise a sequel is as Reservation Road feels like a stand-alone novel, however I am interested to see.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Reservation Road, by John Burnham Schwartz, Various narrators, one for each of the three protagonists, Produced by Books on Tape, Downloaded from audible.com.

Ethan and Grace were coming home from vacation with their two children, Josh and Emma. They stopped at a deserted gas station because Emma had to go to the bathroom. Despite his father’s warning, Josh stood too close to the road and was hit by a passing car with only one headlight. He was killed. The driver did not stop. The rest of the book dealt with both of the families involved: Ethan, Grace and Emma, the family of Josh, and Dwight, the driver who hit Josh and didn’t stop, plus his son, Sam, the same age as Josh. The aftermath of this hit and run had many many consequences: one of which was that the police were not able to determine who did it, and Ethan determined he would find out on his own. The details about both families and the consequences for each person were spelled out in detail. A well-written book, a modern tragedy.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap this book was good: haunting, tragic, and gorgeously written. This was written about a dozen years ago and I only heard about it recently because the author has a follow up out (Northwest Corner: dying to read it). I can’t believe I never ran into Reservation Road before. It was a bestseller and a movie and so amazing it’s hard to fathom this is the first I’ve heard of it. It focuses on a tragedy (hit and run) and is told through multiple viewpoints. Sometimes shifting narration works and sometimes it doesn’t but here it is essential. I think staying in any one person’s head would’ve become too much. The contrast between grieving parents (I so felt the depths of their despair) and the guilt and self-loathing of the driver is essential to the story of these people. I don’t have much to say other than it was captivating, though depressing, and definitely a read-in-one-sitting book. I will for sure read this author’s other books.

[AliceinWonderland · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5 STARS*
- The writing in this book is good; it's solid - no doubt about that.
- But I was very disappointed in the storyline. The front cover touts it as some kind of literary "thriller" but there was NO thriller aspect about this book at all!
- It's just a very simple story, written well stylistically, but unfortunately very dull. NOTHING HAPPENS.
- In fact, this entire book could have been condensed and shortened into a very good short story or novella (which would've had much more impact, in my opinion).
- It was far too long as a novel, dragging on about Ethan & Grace's grief...their disintegrating relationship, etc, etc...I just lost interest.
- The ending was also anti-climactic...Nothing much happened either and it was utterly predictable.
- I can't believe there is actually a sequel to this; as a reader, I'm not really very interested in what happened to these characters after the first book ended.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reservation Road was intense. Short (and I mean really short) chapters marinated in depression, despair, and not much plot. I've never been a huge fan of merry-go-round narration like this, and I think getting just a short snapshot of each of the three character's awful day just made it worse.

This is the kind of book that can convince you that a terrible thing can, and probably will, happen to you. Maybe tomorrow.

Sometimes reading is supposed to elicit these feelings in you, make you take stock of the world around you and get your thinking on. But I just wanted it to end. The book at least obliged me in that, being a quick read because of the length. But it took a surprisingly long time to get through it. I'd find myself dreading it, sitting there on the nightstand sulking and brooding and daring me to get it over with.

[Aaron Martz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one depressing book. Each page is filled with grief, memories, stark truths. The characters are completely believable, the situations wrenching and unbearable. You almost want to turn your back on the book, it's subject is so horrifying. It took me a long time to read it, and I will not soon forget it. It is a powerful dramatization of events I hope I never have to go through. When most people think of thrillers, they think of armed robbery, of guns and bloodshed. There is a crime in Reservation Road, and it is a thriller, but it is a thriller that deals with the aftermath of that crime and how it physically and mentally disintegrates the lives of all those involved. You are placed in the shoes of the victims and the perpetrator, and the writing is so effective, by the end of the book you are morally drawn.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 STARS

"A tragic accident sets in motion a cycle of violence and retribution in John Burnham Schwartz's riveting novel Reservation Road. Two haunted men and their families are engulfed by the emotions surrounding an unexpected and horrendous death. Ethan, a respected professor of literature at a small New England college, is wracked by an obsession with revenge that threatens to tear his family apart. Dwight, a man at once fleeing his crime and hoping to get caught, wrestles with overwhelming guilt and his sense of obligation to his son. As these two men's lives unravel, Reservation Road moves to its startling conclusion." (From Amazon)

A gripping novel for sure! It had me all over the place when it came to emotions.

[Mandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was unique in that it told the story from the viewpoints of both the victim's family and the perpetrator. It was engrossing and moving. The grief felt by both parties was so real that it was nearly palpable. I sometimes find that male authors tend to gloss over emotions,even in the toughest of circumstances. That was not the case for this novel- John Burnham Schwartz very effectively makes the reader ache to reach into the novel and comfort the deeply grieving characters. My only complaint is that the novel seemed to stretch on for too long and the ending did not seem to fit the tone of the rest of the novel.

Full review at:

http://theinsomniacbibliophile.blogsp...

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have you ever read a book that held promise and captured your attention but then let you down? A book that left you saying...this book COULD have been so good? Reservation Road was that book for me. A fatal hit and run accident leaves two families reeling. Ethan is the father of the little boy that was killed. Ethan blames himself for being unable to protect his son and keep him from harm. Dwight is the driver of the car that killed Ethan. Dwight struggles with his guilt and his feelings of failure in regard to his own son, Sam. The plot is interesting and could have been so great but the author lost steam half way through the book. The ending was unsatisfying and unrealistic. Disappointing.