Northwest Corner: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

John Burnham Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 26, 2011

The New York Times Book Review called Reservation Road “a triumph,” and the novel was universally acclaimed. Now, in a brilliant literary performance by one of our most compelling and compassionate writers, John Burnham Schwartz reintroduces us to Reservation Road’s unforgettable characters in a superb new work of fiction that stands magnificently on its own. Northwest Corner is a riveting story 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, now fifty, is a man who has started over without exactly moving on. Living alone in California, haunted yet keeping his head down, Dwight manages a sporting goods store and dates a woman to whom he hasn’t revealed the truth about his past. Then an unexpected arrival throws his carefully neutralized life into turmoil and exposes all that he’s hidden.

Sam, Dwight’s estranged college-age son, has shown up without warning, fleeing a devastating incident in his own life. In its way, Sam’s sense of guilt is as crushing as his father’s. As the two men are forced to confront their similar natures and their half-buried hopes for connection, they must also search for redemption and love. In turn, they dramatically transform the lives of the women around them: the ex-wives, mothers, and lovers they have turned to in their desperate attempts to somehow rewrite, outrun, or eradicate the past.

Told in the resonant voices of everyday people gripped in the emotional riptide of lived life, Northwest Corner is at once tough and heart-lifting, an urgent, powerful story about family bonds that can never be broken and the wayward roads that lead us back to those we love.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Northwest Corner

"The power of Northwest Corner, as its geographical center moves from Connecticut to California and back again, is in the way it asks the hardest questions of human experience with subtle grace...one of the most emotionally commanding novels of the year." -- NPR "Books We Like"

“Eloquently told…[an] elegiac, thoughtful novel…While this isn’t the first story about the indestructible bonds of family, it’s an especially nuanced and moving one.” -- The New York Times
 
“Poetic, introspective, evocative…one of the most gut-wrenching books I’ve ever read….In Schwartz’s hands, the narrative unfolds delicately, each chapter a puzzle piece that fits seamlessly into the whole. Grade: A.” -- Entertainment Weekly
 
“Daring as usual, Schwartz takes risks not just with his characters’ lives but in his writing…A bruised beauty.” -- Elle

“Finely wrought.” -- O Magazine

“In Northwest Corner, Schwartz delicately explores this broken father-son relationship, and how Dwight and Sam begin to reach out to one another…In short, finely honed chapters, Schwartz examines the state of mind of each of these wounded souls, drawing the reader into their fragile lives. This is a brilliant exposure of one modern family in moral crisis, a story that in some way touches each of us.” -- Bookpage
 
“Schwartz [writes] with a quiet artfulness, giving each character a unique and uniquely moving voice embedded within a consistently interesting and graceful prose -- and creating a structure and style that neatly reflect the story they frame, of piecing together a whole life that is at once the sum of its parts and much more." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
 
“Exceptional at describing the chemistry of desire, creating emotional tension, and making his characters feel more like flesh and blood than fictional constructs. Imaginative and taut, Schwartz’s writing is seamless and infinitely inspired.”
-- Publishers Weekly
 
“Stark and deeply effecting.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred review
 
“Readers of Reservation Road will enjoy continuing the stories of these two families, linked by tragedy, while those who haven’t yet discovered this powerful writer are in for a treat.” – Library Journal
 
“How do survivors carry on after their lives are scarred by tragedy? What causes a legacy of violence to echo from one generation to the next? Those are the questions John Burnham Schwartz poses and answers with a gentle touch in this moving sequel to his popular 1998 novel, Reservation Road…Although Schwartz's novel can be appreciated without reference to Reservation Road, it will be especially rewarding for anyone who valued the depth of characterization, keen psychological insight and ability to sustain narrative suspense that marked the earlier work. It's unlikely we'll see the Arnos or the Learners again, but we can be grateful to their creator for allowing us to leave them with a fuller sense of their lives.” – Shelf Awareness
 
“I was enthralled by Northwest Corner, reluctant to tear myself away even for a moment from a tale so delicately assembled, so well paced. For me Schwartz evokes Steinbeck and Updike in that magical ability to weave out of a regional story of family, a broader chronicle of America…Truly a great American novel.” - Abraham Verghese
 
“The masterful Northwest Corner is that finest of things—a moral novel about mortal events.” - Dennis Lehane
 

About the Author

John Burnham Schwartz is the author of four previous novels: The Commoner, Claire Marvel, Bicycle Days, and Reservation Road, which was made into a motion picture based on his screenplay. His books have been translated into two dozen languages, and his writing has appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker and The New York Times. A winner of the Lyndhurst Foundation Award for mastery in the art of fiction, Schwartz has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Harvard University, and Sarah Lawrence College, and is currently literary director of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Aleksandra Crapanzano, and their son, Garrick.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (July 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781400068456
• ISBN-13: 978-1400068456
• ASIN: 1400068452
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #834,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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. That book, BICYCLE DAYS, a coming of age story about a young American man in Japan, was published in 1989 on his 24th birthday. It went on to become a critically acclaimed bestseller.

RESERVATION ROAD, his second novel about a family tragedy and its aftermath, published in 1998, was also critically acclaimed and a bestseller, and in 2007 it was made into a major motion picture based on Schwartz's screenplay. The film starred Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, and was directed by Terry George.

Schwartz went on to publish CLAIRE MARVEL, a love story set in America and France, and, in 2008, THE COMMONER, a novel inspired by the lives of the current empress and crown princess of Japan. Spanning seventy years of modern Japanese history and looking deep into the secret, ancient world of the Japanese Imperial Family, THE COMMONER has won Schwartz the best reviews and sales of his career.

In July of 2011, Random House will publish Schwartz's fifth novel, NORTHWEST CORNER, which picks up the lives of some of the characters from RESERVATION ROAD twelve years later. NORTHWEST CORNER is an urgent, powerful story about family bonds that can never be broken and the wayward roads that lead us back to those we love.

Schwartz's work has been translated into more than 20 languages. He is a recipient of a Lyndhurst Prize for mastery in the art of fiction, and his journalism has appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, and Vogue.

Since writing the script for Reservation Road, Schwartz has become an accomplished screenwriter as well as a novelist. He has written screen adaptations of New York Times editor Dana Canedy's memoir "A Journal for Jordan," and Nancy Horan's bestselling novel Loving Frank for Sony Pictures and Lionsgate, respectively. He is currently creating a dramatic television series for Showtime, inspired by Den of Thieves, James Stewart's acclaimed account of the insider-trading corruption scandal of the 1980s.

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, Garrick.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Twelve Years After the Tragedy, A New Crisis June 5, 2011

By Jeanette TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

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)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, poetic, surpasses RESERVATION ROAD June 7, 2011

By switterbug TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Can one eventually escape a devastating incident? (4.25*s) August 3, 2011

By J. Grattan TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

The author left us with two very devastated families, the Lerner's and the Arno's, twelve years ago in RESERVATION ROAD as the fallout from the death of 10-year-old Josh Lerner in a hit-and-run accident at the hands of Dwight Arno. The families have long since splintered and scattered, with Dwight being forced to completely revamp his life after his incarceration for three years. He works in Santa Barbara, CA, as a sporting goods store manager, miles from his former Conn home. The structure of the book reflects that breakup as the perspective shifts in short, alternating chapters among Dwight, his ex-wife Ruth, his college-age son Sam, Josh's sister Emma, also in college, and others.

Supposedly, time heals all hurts, but it becomes quite evident that their apparent normalcy is at best a thin veneer over the deep-seated pain that all too often reappears. What brings the past rushing into their lives with unmitigated ferocity is a senseless bar fight after a U of Conn baseball game, where Sam gets sucker-punched. His baseball gear being under his barstool, he grabs a bat and strikes his assailant forcefully enough that he ends up in ICU fighting for his life. Sam, flooded with the obvious parallels between his actions and the violence in his father's past, flees to CA with no real understanding of why he is drawn to his father who he has not seen in over a decade.

Though some of it is directed at each other, the raw emotions of these characters are best seen in their no-holds-barred introspection. This is a collection of people who are hurting, who are compelled to spend a great deal of energy in coming to grips with the impact of the past and who generally see a hopeless future. Yet, especially in Dwight and Emma, perhaps contradictorily, there is a persistence that haltingly attempts to see through the limitations and emotionalism of the instant, that, despite the intense feelings, seeks to find a way to establish some way of communicating and connecting on the grounds of these ravaged psyches.

Though there is some semblance of plot, the story is essentially concerned with the emotions and thinking of these characters. The author's precise and insightful writing permits the exploration of their despair and sadness without unduly dragging the story to a halt. Clearly, the passage of time alone is a minor factor in the recovery of these individuals. The return from psychological depths is measured in very hard to achieve small increments, but progress down a mighty long road is possible in the author's telling.