Book Review: Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwartz

northwest-corner Title: Northwest Corner

Author: John Burnham Schwartz

304 pages, Published by Random House

Buy The Book: Amazon

Summary:

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. (Summary provided by Random House.)

My Thoughts:

Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwartz is the follow up to his acclaimed novel Reservation Road. Northwest Corner shines in the large shadow cast by Burnham’s earlier works. It absolutely shines.

Northwest Corner takes place twelve years after the events of Reservation Road. At the beginning of the novel Dwight is living in California and has not talked to his son, Sam or his ex-wife, Ruth in years. But they have always been in the back of his mind along with the actions that landed him across the country. Like his own personal ghost or cross to carry, Dwight has never been the same since the events that took place twelve years ago. Burnham does a great job of writing in such a way that the reader feels for Dwight even though he is as far from perfect as a character can get. This is part of the beauty of Burnham’s writing.

Northwest Corner utterly encapsulates emotional pain from every angle in the aftermath of a tragedy. Every character, from Emma the sister of the boy that Dwight killed down to Penny the woman Dwight is contemplating a relationship, has been affected by Dwight’s actions in some way or another. But Dwight is not the only dispenser of pain and anguish in the story this time around. His son Sam deals out his own brand of pain, both physical and emotional,to those around him.

Burnham also has a knack for developing even periphery characters (i.e. Norris, Ruth’s soon to be ex husband) so well that I hope there’s a spin off novel involving their back stories. Throughout reading Northwest Corner the phrase “the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the sons” came to mind again and again. When I finished Burnham’s book I smiled through my tears thankful for the men in my life. I highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys a well-written, character driven novel with a unique narrative style. Now excuse me while I go find my husband, sons, brother and dad so I can give them each a hug.

Many thanks to TLC Book Tours for having The Well-Reade Wife on the Northwest Corner tour. Be sure and check out the other stops on the tour.

Tuesday, July 19th: Chaotic Compendiums

Wednesday, July 20th: Lit and Life

Thursday, July 21st: Acting Balanced

Monday, July 25th: Well Read Wife

Tuesday, July 26th: Teresa’s Reading Corner

Wednesday, July 27th: Hey I Want to Read That

Thursday, July 28th: Starting Fresh

Friday, July 29th: Book Reviews by Molly

Monday, August 1st: Colloquium

Wednesday, August 3rd: Melody & Words

Friday, August 5th: Rundpinne

Monday, August 8th: Deb’s Book Bag

Wednesday, August 10th: Books Like Breathing

Thursday, August 11th: She Treads Softly

Monday, August 15th: Life in the Thumb

Wednesday, August 17th: Girls Gone Reading

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