After Silence [Hardcover]

Jonathan Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 1992

In his late thirties, Max Fisher is a cartoonist living in LA. When he moves in with Lily Aaron and her nine-year-old son Lincoln, he discovers she kidnapped her child when it was an infant, and has been hiding from the world ever since.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An electrifying, unforgettable novel that unfolds with the logic of a Greek tragedy, Carroll's parable on moral cowardice starts out as a quirky romance in laid-back southern California but gradually descends into nightmare. Max Fischer, a Los Angeles cartoonist, is a bachelor when he moves in with eccentric, opinionated Lily Aaron, a restaurant manager, and her precocious 10-year-old son, Lincoln. Sensing that Lily is hiding something, Max hires a detective and does some snooping of his own. He discovers, to his horror, that Lily's ex-husband is nonexistent, a fabrication, and worse, that Lily--whom he deeply loves--is a kidnapper, having stolen Lincoln as an infant. When Lily eventually confesses to her crime, which she committed as a college dropout fleeing drugs and an abusive boyfriend, Max decides to marry her anyway and create a stable family. But seven years later, when Lincoln, now a sullen, crack-addicted adolescent, discovers Lily's crime and the reputed identity of his real parents--tragic events unwind with terrifying inevitability. Carroll ( Outside the Dog Museum ) writes with uncompromising honesty about how secrets gnaw and kill.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-An all-absorbing story that begins with warmth, light, and humor. Max has found the seemingly perfect mate in Lily, who comes with the seemingly perfect son, nine-year-old Lincoln. They marry and form the seemingly perfect, loving family. When Max begins to realize that their life is a lie, he searches Lily's past and learns that she kidnapped Lincoln as a baby. The love that flowed between them as a young family will die if Max tries to right this long-ago committed wrong, yet doing nothing is equally as devastating. When 17-year-old Lincoln finds Max's diary, however, the now rebellious, angry teen takes matters into his own hands and commits suicide. Readers may wonder why Lincoln, before even finding the diary, changes so drastically from a fun-loving, adoring son to the totally defiant opposite. The transformation seems exaggerated, since love, attention, and general concern were constants in his life. But the book is filled with truths and values that could perhaps open teens' eyes to the problems (both everyday and extraordinary) that parents face. A moving and very sad book.
Bunni Union, Geauga West Library, Chesterland, OH
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; First Edition edition (April 2, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0356203425
• ISBN-13: 978-0356203423
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,297,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biography,free downloadable stories, screenplays, daily blog and other relevant information available at

www.jonathancarroll.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of Carroll's most addictive novels, January 8, 2003

By 

Adam Crosby (Gibsons, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Silence (Hardcover)

After Silence is one of Carroll's most addictive novels. I got sucked into the story and had a hard time putting it down. Like all of his novels, the sudden ending may put some readers off but I felt it summed up the novel perfectly. Definately a good place to start for those new to Carroll.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good novel, but not Carroll's best to be certain., February 26, 2006

By 

Alexiel (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: After Silence (Paperback)

If you're looking to start on Jonathan Carroll's works, this might be a nice place start because it's easier for the average reader to get into than a number of his better novels, which demand a more open mind and greater suspension of disbelief, but which subsequently yield greater rewards.

"After Silence" is a nice novel but one that feels a bit more dated than most of his other works. I read it 7 years ago, and while it felt somewhat more contemporary, that isn't really the problem. It lacks the strong sense of the author's impossibly dead-on sight with which he views the world and filters those sensibilities through a warped glass back to his readers, as well as more of his trademark flights of fantasy and fancy found elsewhere.

I'm rather shocked the editorial reviews give away so much of the book - that's a shame. But in case it seems like I'm taking a lot of shots at this book, I did give it 4 stars, and I did enjoy it. Ironically, if it were a book from an author I'd never heard of, I'd be heaping more praise on it.

Max Fischer is a Los Angeles cartoonist whose life is missing a little something. He finds it in love of a woman, Lily, who has an interesting and lovable son, Lincoln. She works at a homey, warm restaurant that brings a lot of joy and some interesting characters into their lives.

Max finds out a secret about Lily. He says and does nothing about it virtually.

We move ahead in time. The secret ends up having disastrous effects, but it is not clear at all that Max could've done anything to prevent what happened. That's the rub. Even if he acted on the secret and told the concerned party, the end may have been inevitable.

This book is pervaded by a strong sense of loss. How does a child so bright and wonderful, full of so much curiousity and love, turn into such a cynical, hateful *thing*? How do such relationships go wrong? We see this sense of horrifying loss and the psychological, emotional, and physical beatings life inflicts on people in an interesting scene with one of Lincoln's friends and Max, a scene of what is sometimes called "magical realism" of which Carroll makes more ample use of in other novels.

"After Silence" is a very good book, well-written, but as I said before, it is not Carroll's best. It's a decent place to start out, it's a lot more grounded in reality and straightforward than many of his novels. This one is still one of his better novels though. If I had to do some improvisational ranking, however, I did prefer "The Wooden Sea," "Land of Laughs," "From The Teeth Of Angels," "Sleeping In Flame," the collection "The Panic Hand," and "Outside the Dog Museum" to "After Silence." Just my opinion at this point and time.

Make no mistake about it though - this is a genuinely affecting novel. Recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A nightmare in three parts, January 2, 2004

By 

L. E Notkin (Montreal, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AFTER SILENCE. (Paperback)

JC has always been very deceptive in his style: simple language, many fantastic elements, and heartwarming moments. However, all these elements are accompanied with severe dark fantasy or even horror.

I find this book to be the most extreme example of what I just cited. A deceptively simple story starts with the hero falling in love with a single mother, goes on with his discovery and eventual acceptance of the mother's dark secret, and ends with the consequences of such an an acceptance. It is a love story that ends like an ancient greek tragedy: complete devastation.

In an uncharacteristic manner, this story has very little fantasy in it and all of it crammed at the very end which makes the feeling of devastation strangely real and permanent.

I highly reccomended it.