Nights Below Station Street (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
Nights Below Station Street is my introduction to the work of David Adams Richards - and it's certainly not a bad choice, as it won the author the prestigious Governor's General Award for Fiction when it was first published in 1988.Nights... is a short, quiet book set in a small mill town in the Miramichi region of Northern New Brunswick, and draws us into the lives of its people who struggle with poverty and all the harshness and difficulties of ordinary existence. The novel focuses on the Welsh family - Joe, a good, trustful but troubled man, who struggles with insecurity and alcoholism; his wife, Rita, who does what she can to make the best of their marriage, and the rebellious daughter, Adele, whose bouts of anger often serve as a curtain to hide real feelings for her family. Richards has been often categorized as a regional, "Maritime" writer - which is not a drawback, and is one of the reasons I come to read his work in the first place - but experiences of his characters defy regional boundaries and categorizations; there exists an universal language of human emotion, and essence along with character of the region only add to it, instead of defining it. I believe that there also exists a universal language of human poverty - but this one is most often heard in fictional works on blue collar workers in the poor and depressed communities of the developed and undeveloped world, such as this book. In this case, as in the words of Truman Capote, "fiction is the truth inside the lie".This isn't a perfect book - the storyline is fragmented and there isn't really a plot to speak of - but I do not regret reading it, and I intend to read the following novels which are set in the same region, and more of Richards in general.
"An object falls, it has no idea where it will land, but at every moment of its descent it is exactly where it is supposed to be." This line toward the end of the book encapsulates the main theme of this interesting work. Adams begins with a too forced staccato style that so many writers over the last 50 years seem to favor. A style that perhaps once seemed fresh and honest, but has grown stale and contrived. Adams is at his best when he forgets this affectation (which he often does); only then does the story really take off. And an interesting story it is. A story about isolation and loss and insecurity, and misunderstanding and being misunderstood. And yet with an unmistakable note of redemption that is not forced in any way, but grows naturally from a compelling narrative.
What do You think about Nights Below Station Street (2003)?
My favourite of David's books--and I like them all!
—Fred Stenson
Well written in omniscient third person; the characters are hemmed in by poverty and difficulty (and their own moment-to-moment mental and emotional issues). Not an easy or comfortable read. It also doesn't have a plot, per se, but consists of a series of moments that highlight the characters as their move on through their lives. I liked it, and it won a GG award, but it wasn't always easy to read -- sometimes it devolved, for me, into a mere list of depressing incidents tumbling one over another. Reminded me of Steinbeck in his 'Cannery Row' sort of mode but with less of a poetic or redemptive quality.
—Zvi
Strangely, I find this novel -- one of David Adams Richards' earliest -- to be one of his most depressing. Everyone seems to be trapped in a personal hell of their own making, and even the final redemption/gleam of hope at least one character usually finds by the end of a Richards' novel seems tiny compared to his later works. Very bleak, and very despondent...but I can't deny the power of the prose, which keeps one reading in spite of the bleakness, determined to make it to the conclusion, hoping against hope that a single ray of positive sunshine will envelop at least one of the characters. Compelling, but terribly (almost beautifully) sad.
—Daniel Kukwa
