Nights Below Station Street

by David Adams Richards

Book Overview

David Adams Richards' Governor General's Award-winning novel is a powerful tale of resignation and struggle, fierce loyalties and compassion. This book is the first in Richards' acclaimed Miramichi trilogy. Set in a small mill town in northern New Brunswick, it draws us into the lives of a community of people who live there, including: Joe Walsh, isolated and strong in the face of a drinking problem; his wife, Rita, willing to believe the best about...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0771076274
• ISBN13: 9780771076275
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

The genuine heartbreaking book of staggering genius

What I recognize in my second adventure into this author's work is a particular truth--which is that (at least in my Canadian experience) poor communities have a singular commonality. There is a language, both spoken and experiential, about being poor that transcends its environment. In Richards' books, poor in Toronto sounds and feels a lot like poor in New Brunswick. While the physical aspects are very different, the population isn't. And there was something so familiar about some of the characters that I felt as if I'd known them in my childhood.Poor angry, alienated to the point of sickness Adele; her mother, lovely, determined Rita, making the best of her marriage to alcoholic Joe--who just may be one of the most perfectly rendered characters I've ever encountered. One cannot help but love and feel for Joe, battling his demons and temptations that all reside within bottles; stammering, powerful Joe with his big body and battered, but still functioning heart; Joe the unlikeliest of heroes.There is such a cast of characters in this book; they have their hopes and miseries and they all intersect at one point or another as time eases away unnoticed and fate makes itself felt in every way in the hushed, shattering beauty of a blizzard.David Adams Richards is the consummate observer, translating his visions into quiet, apparently effortless prose; placing people before us in all their flawed splendor so that we might view the human condition and reflect upon our similarities and differences.My highest recommendation.

Pretty good

Slow going at times, but it wraps up nicely and the reader is feeling as though everything is as it should and always has been.