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Title: Beatiful but Dispassionate
Review: Russel Banks is a truly accomplished writer and "The Sweet Hereafter" serves to cement that reputation. Beautifully written and constructed, Banks accomplishes a rare feet in narrating the events from four seperate viewpoints--each of which comes across authentic.Many reviews have called this novel depressing, a reading I dispute. Like any good tragedy the novel employs extreme cirumstances--events which violently disrupt the lives of those involved. But as the novel progresses, so to do the characters. Perseverance in the face of tragedy is, in my view, a triumph of human nature and it is rarely expressed so eloquently.As beautiful as the novel is, it sometimes leaves the reader feeling cold and analytical. The prose has a tendency to lull the reader, rendering him or her placid and unfeeling. At times you wish Banks would break out with some raw emoting, but it rarely happens.
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