The Sweet Hereafter (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Russell Banks
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1990
- Setting: Sam Dent, New York, a small town in the Adirondacks
- Principal Characters: Dolores Driscoll, Billy Ansel, Mitchell Stephens, Nichole Burnell, Risa Walker, Hartley, Wanda Otto, Abbott Driscoll
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: Victims, Accidents, Death or dying, Fate or fatalism, Tragedy
- Locales: Adirondacks, NY
Inexplicable mystery and the deep-seated human need to fix blame are the primary internal motivating forces of this new novel by Russell Banks. The external motivation, however, may well be the author’s desire to produce a commercially successful book, for Banks seems determined to include all the central concerns of modern society he possibly can: the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the economic depression of small-town America, the dilemma of the runaway teenager, the pandemic fear of AIDS, and the dark family secret of child abuse. The result is a work so packed with can not-fail...
[The entire page is 2289 words long]
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