Customer Reviews

After the Fire

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After The Fire is an anthology of brief poems supplemented by prose insights. Composed to express author J. A. Jance's anguish at being married to an alcoholic, they chronicle her realization that her unwitting denial and co-dependence was only serving to further condemn herself and her spouse. After The Fire is an insidious portrait of addiction and its terrible costs, hard-hitting to the core, and each page further draws the reader into the experience. Fog: I walk in fog / Its velvet touch caresses me / And hides the hurt. / Beyond the fog, the sun / Shines clear and bright. / I must keep moving, / I have earned the light.

The author talks about each of the poems before she reads them. In that way we get a kind of autobiography of J.A. Jance's early years, focusing especially what she went through while in a disastrous marriage to a hardcore alcoholic (9 rehab stints in 7 years!). Still, she never makes it clear why she stayed for so many years, and there is nothing new in her experiences or revelations.

I loved this book. It took me to places that I have visited and would like to return to. I really enjoyed the characters. This writer describes her people well.

I returned this book, I do not like poetry for every day reading. I ordered this book in error.