Customer Reviews

After You've Gone

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This collection of short stories is a series of views into the lives of women, mostly. These are not extraordinary women or even very important instances in their lives. In fact, all of them seemed exceedingly ordinary. Also, none of them really end. I mean, you come to the last page of the story, and that's all it is. The last page. No summing up, no climactic moment, just....the end. After the first few it was hard to invest in any of them, knowing the conflict wouldn't be resolved and you wouldn't have any idea whether they went on the way things were or made some sort of dynamic change. It all left me feeling a little...disconcerted. I like for stories, all of them, not just short stories, to have an ending. A denouement, a punchy line at the end that changes everything, something that makes you feel the story is over and you can go on to the next.
All the stories were exceedingly well-written, though. The characters were well developed, as well as the settings, so hard to do in the protracted space of a short story. My only issue is the lack of endings, but that's enough to ruin the whole thing for me. Another reader without my particular hang-up on this issue might like this collection just fine.

I really loved this book. It captures what real romance and falling in love is really like. The writing is smooth, with deceptively simple prose. Alice
Adams captures family conflict withhout cliche. Her evocation of the love between a man and a woman rang so true without being syrupy. The mystery involved is gripping. I also enjoyed the references to North Berwick and London. Adams evokes the setting very well

This is another one of Ms. Adams collections of short stories. Like the others it refers back to some of the characters in other books (like Popsie). Ms. Adams is so excellent in her description one can almost feel the fog roll into the San Francisco bay as the stories are read. The stories of how children are affected as adults by their parents alcoholism were my favorites in this collection.