Saturday, August 7, 2010
Red Hook Road
Waldman, Ayelet. Red Hook Road: A Novel. New York: Doubleday, 2010.
Reading Red Hook Road is like watching a train wreck (or in this case, a car wreck). You know something really bad is going to happen, but it’s hard to look away. The novel begins with a horrible tragedy, and the remaining 333 pages describe in detail how the victims’ families deal (and don’t deal) with the acute pain of losing a loved one. Unless you are desperate for something to keep you occupied during an airplane trip or a long wait at the doctor’s office, it’s not worth buying. Red Hook Road is depressing, but it probably won’t make you cry like a good tearjerker should. What it offers is more like a dull, long-lasting headache.
This book’s description reminds me of the haunting Atom Egoyan film The Sweet Hereafter. It’s the kind of film that will leave you awash in it’s sadness.
It sounds familiar. I wonder if I’ve ever seen it before.