Customer Reviews

After

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Sparse, measured, breathless pacing. I don't lean toward inviting comparisons often but if you liked "House of Sand and Fog" you will love this tender and heart-wrenching novel, a worthy addition to the slender list of fiction dealing with life in a post 9/11 world.

Writing this novel is either very brave or very cynical, as it embraces the recent tragedy of 9/11, Americans beheaded on foreign soil (Daniel Pearl) and the culture clash of Middle Eastern Fundamentalism with the loss of American innocence. Nothing is referenced in particular, nor are names spoken, only suggestions, but the recent violence is tangible, a widow grappling with the aftermath of her loss.

The widow arbitrarily decides to have an affair with a Muslim and says so to her grief counselor, at first merely for shock value. But the idea holds a strange appeal and the woman makes advance to a man she meets at a trade show. That he is of Persian origin is irrelevant; he fits the need of the moment, whatever dark forces are working in the widow's subconscious. This Muslim has been unfaithful to his wife before, but not since the recent events that have branded him as suspicious rather than mysterious. His life has been "reduced to a choice of pronouns", us or them. The widow finds "a naive intensity about him that had made her think she could skip all the small talk".

Driving to a clandestine meeting at an unkempt hotel in California, the man ponders his life, remembering the violence in his own country, the shocking death of a close friend, his childhood joy in the contours of the sea, remnants of a homeland left behind years ago. Meanwhile, the widow waits. Perhaps she has chosen a man she could not possibly love and therein lies his appeal. Her reasons for arranging the tryst are complicated, suspect, as the widow blindly pursues a release to the unbearable tension that has gripped her since her husband's death. The Muslim has no delusions, only a wish to comfort this strange woman, mislead by her changeable emotions.

The couple embarks on their assignation in the anonymous hotel room by the sea, but with the view of an empty pool, any traces of romance obliterated by disuse. Here they act out her fantasy; later he makes tentative advances, wanting a closeness that she cannot or will not allow. He makes dogged attempts at intimacy, refusing to give up on her passivity. The widow has seduced this man with her vulnerability; they are joined in the physical act, yet irrevocably separated by their differences. The union is more unsettling than erotic, his wife barely present, her husband hovering. The coupling takes on a life of its own, with surprising twists of cruelty, barely suppressed rage and the jagged edge of violence. In only a day and a half, what should have been a simple transaction between two virtual strangers degenerates into a purgative ritual, leaving the widow and the Muslim stunned.

The author rides the widow's subconscious to the darkest corners of her rage and grief, unleashing the demons that have usurped her ability to function without her husband. The Muslim sees himself as an individual, seeking only the comforts of an extra-marital affair, but this is not the time for such distinctions, as the woman is blinded by the enormity of her loss. Prodding relentlessly at the widow's damaged psyche, Tristram creates a vulnerable, haunted character, driven to act out what she cannot process in words, love and rage impossibly entwined. This provocative novel examines the reclamation of self by a woman who cannot achieve closure by ordinary means, unmoored by an act of infidelity with the object of her enmity. Whether the author goes too far is for the reader to decide. Perhaps this is an act of bravery, writing of the forbidden to uncover hidden reserves of hatred and unfathomable grief. Luan Gaines/2005.

Written in alternating points of view, After is a poetic, fluid, and highly original novel. Readers will appreciate its short length and its charged, and gutsy style. The story centers on one man 'the Muslim" and one women "the Widow," both nameless and mysterious in their intensity and passion. For the Widow, everyday events are falling apart, and after telling her therapist that she wants to choose a Muslim lover, she happens to meet one at a work trade show. Their connection is instantaneous. She knows immediately that she will sleep with him, and their rendezvous is set to take place at a run-down, empty seaside hotel. As the narrative progresses, the inexplicable motivations that drive each character's actions become clearer. They erotically and emotionally bond, performing a type of perverse and viscous sexual role-play, each letting out their pent up angst and torment.

The woman's husband was murdered at the hand of Muslim extremists - probably on September 11th - and she writes grief stricken, purge-filled letters to his ghost. She imagines sleeping with "the Muslim" because it is something forbidden, unexpected, a way of repaying her husband, and something so clearly outside the role, which she has been forced into by her circumstances. The man she chooses is a married Iranian who immigrated to America after the Shah's fall. He, in being drawn towards "the Widow" also has "a gap, a hole, a tragedy in need of resolution and healing." The Widow's interest compels and sustains him, though her "fervent melancholy" and obvious grief trouble him. He's a married man with two young girls, but he feels he is wedded "to an empty dress, as shallow as cotton." Understanding his wife's inner thoughts has eluded him, and he has fallen into some restless purgatory where "waves and waves of thwarted desire rise up and threaten to engulf him."

After is a quietly deceptive novel where the clues to understanding both characters' motivations unfold steadily and in the end, prove to be quite revelatory. The story is quite topical in its portrait of racism and cultural dissidence; the characters are living a world where, more and more, we can be killed, not for who we are, but for what nationality or religion we happen to be. The language of regret is also quite powerful - the memories of her dead husband that the widow can't quite catch are "like bits of trash blowing over and over along the sand." And as her grief changes shape, what is left is not quite grief at all, but something she could only describe as desire. Yet she has sadness, where the love acts mean no more to her "than memories of the grave." Both characters are erotically responsive, but both keep so much of their anger, fear and emotion internalized. Their disconnectedness comes from a sense of everything having changed, and where times are dark and unstable. Seething in their own psyches, it's probably an effort for them to get even this far. Mike Leonard June 04

This book is a refraction of reality and it is eerily prescient of current events and it packs a political punch. A widow who lost her husband in an act of terror finds herself drawn to a Muslim man. The lovers learn a great deal about one another, much more than they expect from the short time they spend together. I would call it a love story only it is deeper than that, and the characters are far more vulnerable and flawed, so that it's impossible not to identify with them. The sex in the story is not so much erotic as it is purgative, almost redemptive, beautifully written and at times so intense that I had to put the book down for a few minutes before picking it up again. The story is told in an elegant way that draws you in and doesn't let you go.

This book upset me .. it is shocking and strange and emotional .. in a very controlled way that lets the reader open to an emotional freefall without actually having to jump out of an airplane.

Wierd analogy, sorry. But an earlier review complained that the author doesn't understand how people facing this kind of tragedy feel. I think the whole point of "After" is to NOT treat this woman who is now labeled "the widow" as a role or a type but instead to let her be intensely individual. This kind of tragedy happens to individuals .. and that means it could happen to any one of us. I think it's an important book .. it makes you think .. and feel.

I have just finished reading "After" and find myself feeling much the same way as the first time I saw Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Tristram does with language what Hitchcook did with film. She cooks up a suspenseful, scary ride that leaves you totally wrung out at the end, and unable to shake the experience you just had. The prose is as good as any "literary" novel but it reads as easily as the latest Michael Crichton thriller. This book is not for those who just want mild entertainment in their reading. The author breaks more than one "taboo" and that's part of the book's power. I am still thinking about it.

One wonders if the author of this book acutally has ever spent any time with victims of the kind of tragedy she writes about. The very concept of the book is bizarre at best and insulting at worst.

Additonally the novel - which isn't erotic despite the hype - does not seem to come from a place of great caring but rather a place of self importance. The writing, while tight, is minimalistic to a fault and makes too great an effort to be "well written" rather than get to the heart of the characters. It reads like an short story experiment rather than a strong work of fiction.

A very fast read, rather depressing, only mildly erotic, probably meant to be profound, but the writer completely misses the authenticity required to reach any kind of depth. Not worth the time or money.

I was very impressed by the complexity woven into this book's spare prose. Tristram elucidates by image, implication and association, and the cumulative effect is powerful. This tale of a tryst covers just about everything that draws human beings together, or cataclysmically divides them, on any scale from the interpersonal to the international. Sexuality is the perfect metaphor--an occasion for intimacy, tenderness and discovery but also fraught with alienation, aversion, power, cruelty, mistrust of self and other, reinvention of self and other. What redeems one person inspires fear or revulsion in the other. The turn-and-turn-about between the two main characters is mesmerizing.

I have to think that the people who've panned this book are reacting to the subject matter (which is difficult to think about) instead of the quality of the writing (which is very fine.) This is a beautiful little novel.