Customer Reviews

After All These Years: Novel, A

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is fabulous.

I don't agree with or endorse everything in it, but I have to confess, this is a great, great book to read.

First, it's funny. The funniness is the most significant part of it. How many stories about estranged dead husbands are funny, especially when the ex wife wishes he were neither dead nor estranged? But Rosie, the heroine, is irrepressible... and that has nothing to do with the fact that we're both English teachers. She is, in her own words, postmenopausal, and she's Jewish, while I'm neither. But we both do have dark hair.

Anyway, Rosie's husband is dead, and the next best thing about the book is that he was murdered. He was stabbed in the chest with a knife, and everyone thinks that Rosie did it, though all she wanted at that moment was a hot dog. As the book evolves oh-so-deliciously, we learn that someone familiar to the deceased did in fact do it, but who? The well paced and clever plot unfolds without wasting time nor skimping on details, and despite the fact that I'm a savvy voracious reader, the murderer was a total surprise to me. Total. Talk about a totally logical though well-concealed perp!

Isaacs liberal sensibilities are poured all over this tale, which do in fact conflict with my own perspectives, but I find it relatively easy to overlook the ideological differences I have with this book to savor its finer qualities. The only other problem I have with it deals with Rosie's knight in shining armor... Isaacs never does spell out why he didn't ask her to the prom in high school.

Read it! You'll love it.

I picked up this book after reading "Compromising Positions" and its sequel, "Long Time No See". "Long Time No See" was written 20 years after "Compromising Positions", and "After All These Years" was written between these two novels. I have concluded that Isaacs continues to improve with age. This book was better than "Compromising Positions", but not quite at the level of "Long Time No See."

There's plenty to enjoy in this novel. Isaacs has such a pleasant style and is so clever, this book will keep you laughing throughout. Plus, you have to love a heroine who, after, being dumped by her adulterous husband, manages to solve the mystery surrounding his murder plus makes time to enjoy not one, but two, affairs while on the lamb. The characters are well-crafted and entertaining. Isaacs does not hesitate to allow the main character to poke fun at herself either. Plus, it is fun to find out the secret life her husband has been leading ever since they struck it rich. The only detractor was that I figured out "who done it" very early on. So, to me, the ultimate solving of the crime was definitely not the highlight of the story.

I read this thick book over a weekend, while in the car on a long trip. It was thoroughly entertaining, and made me promptly go out and purchase another Isaacs novel--"Lily White". Even when I do solve the mystery sooner than the protagonist, Isaacs keeps me laughing, and I'm always anxious to read some more.

I had my doubts about Susan Issacs, but I will definitely read more of her books. Rosie Meyers is delightful and witty, and never loses her dignity no matter what is thrown at her. I kept seeing the cast:

Sela Ward as Rosie Meyers, David Boreanz as Danny Meese, S.Epatha Merkerson as Cass, maybe James Brolin as Tom Driscoll, Ed Begley as Carter Tillotson. As for Jessica and Stephanie, you'd have to find some bimbos to play them, but maybe you could put in Rebecca Mornay as one of them.

If you need light entertainment, have a long train ride, or need to while away a rainy weekend, this is the best for what it is . There are other "pulpy" writers but they are often insulting to women and just downright awful. This was a lot of fun and you couldn't help but be on Rosie's side.

This was a good book. I didn't expect to read the greatest book I'd ever read; what I'd expected was a story gripping enough to make me turn away from the computer and just want to read. That's what I got out of "After All These Years," which I think to be a terrible title for what is, really, quite a fun read.

"After All These Years" is based around solving the crime that middle-aged English teacher (but extremely wealthy by marriage) Rosie Meyers stands accused. I love a good murder mystery, and this one held my interest, despite the fact that stories surrounded by disgusting amounts of wealth ordinarily make me cringe. However, Rosie was a down-to-earth yet fallible woman, who mostly held true to the character Ms. Isaacs had created for her (a small flaw being that Rosie was a little too sexually promiscuous to me, considering how she acted in all other situations).

I figured out who had done it about three-quarters of the way through the story...and I'm not the world's best sleuth. So mystery fans may be disappointed by the easy answer. However, there were lots of twists and turns in this story that kept me turning pages right up until the end.

In comparing "After All These Years" to the other Susan Isaacs story I have read -- "Lily White" -- I liked "After All These Years" better. "Lily White" was an intriguing book, but based less on mystery and more a character study. Also, "Lily White" danced between first- and third-person narratives, which became confusing at most and took a lot of my concentration to follow at least. "After All These Years," on the other hand, was told completely from Rosie's point-of-view and in chronological order.

Plus...who wouldn't want to be in (or out) of Rosie's shoes as she, a middle-aged English teacher, scampers about New York on the run from the law, evading the cops and manipulating the enemy into handing over information. She'll clear her own name and lament over her jerk of an ex-husband, then play footsies with men half her age, all in the same day. For me, this was quite an escape into a world I am not (or hope not to be) a part.

And once in a while, Rosie will make you smile, if she doesn't make you laugh out loud. Recommended "beach" reading.

I always enjoy Susan Isaac's books. I'm never bored, there are never slow spots and although they are certainly not literary masterpieces, they are excellent reads. Perfect to take on a plane or, like I did, lose yourself in when things get unpleasently complicated in your own life.

The characters are just plain interesting. People you want to know. Have tea with. You want to find out what happens to them next.

I will not give any of the story away, but I will say that in this book the author does take a stand against moral relativism. From the ruminations of the heroine:

"....where did evil fit in? Or was evil irrelevant? Did Hitler's father abuse him? Was Pol Pot's mother self-involved? Maybe that explained them. Maybe nobody was to blame for anything.
But I didn't believe that."

Now isn't that refreshing?

A great read! Middle-aged housewife drowning in self-pity regains her confidence and sense-of-self when she finds her dead husband on her kitchen floor, tampers with the evidence, and of course is accused of his murder. The cast of characters is diverse and nutty. The wry wit of the herione is truly enjoyable! Don't miss this book.

Susan Isaacs appears to have such a good time writing. Her salty combination of murder, satire and romance does whats it's supposed to exactly.

This is a great, light murder with a pretty predictable plot, but with just enough twists and turns that all 40 somethings will enjoy. The main character, Rosie, seems just like a normal woman with a real sleazebag for a husband. After I read this novel, I proceeded to read all of Isaacs novels, and this is the best. One problem -- all her heroines are unrealistic in two ways (1)they may be middle aged, but they are beautiful and thin and have either great careers or lots of money or both and (2) these women may get dumped in a big way, but by the end of the novel, they have a great man in their life. Still worth reading. It will make you laugh.

This is a jolly page-turner. Isaac's one-liners and down-home quips are great.

As usual, the protagonist is a middle-aged woman who finds real ecstasy and

happiness after being dumped by her jerk of an ex.

Tired of self-pity and crying, she becomes a sleuth. Interestingly, she is trying

to find the murderer of her soon-to-be ex-husband. The police think she is

the murderer so she must first escape from them as she investigates her hus-

band's seamy side which she appears to not have known about when they were

together.

Despite the spectacular assumptions and leaps of faith that the reader must

make, this book is lots of fun!

A histerical story about a woman who must go undercover to find her husband's killer after she's accused of his murder. A great read for anyone who loves satire and mysteries; this book is both and much, much more.