Aftermath [Paperback]

Brian Shawver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2007

East Breed’s Pennsylvania, is the sort of blue-collar town that simmers with barely concealed prejudices. One Friday night, in the parking lot of a chain restaurant, a brutal fight breaks out between the privileged boys from St. Brendan's and a group of kids from the local high school. Casey Fielder, the restaurant's manager, watches the melee but does nothing to stop it. When the fight ends, Colin Chase, a handsome, cocky St. Brendan’s student, is severely brain-damaged. Haunting and heartbreaking, Aftermath portrays the lasting effects of that night: Casey loses his job and is determined to discover what led to the fight. Lea, Colin’s mother, hopes to reclaim her remote and defiant son. And both of them are drawn to a girl who seems to have played a larger role in Colin’s life than anyone knew.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shawver (The Cuban Prospect) takes a careful and polished but ponderous look at the aftereffects of a preventable tragedy. On a January night in blue-collar East Breed's, Pa., the manager of a restaurant watches as two gangs of teenage boys, townies from the public high school vs. privileged kids from the private Jesuit school, attack each other. Casey, the manager, does nothing—the last time there was a fight, the other manager got in trouble for calling the cops—and so the fight ends with wealthy Colin, a prep schooler, lying in a pool of blood. He survives, but he's severely brain damaged. Shawver explores the high price Casey pays for his passivity and also tracks the emotions of Lea, Colin's mother, who'd long felt that her cold, handsome son was "an extremely difficult boy to love." Shawver puts most of his energy into his exploration of moral issues, and though the story approaches life and death issues courageously, it folds under the weight of Lea's and Casey's excessive contemplation. The people in Shawver's story can be as bleak as the landscape—from the town's hedonistic teenagers to Casey's prickly girlfriend—and there seems no one to root for, though there are certainly people to mourn. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Engrossing. . . . A meticulous portrait of the way class works in America. . . . A chronicle of our unforgiving reality, as opposed to our ephemeral dreams."—The Washington Post Book World“Compelling. . . . A thoughtful and thought-provoking novel about class and class conflict in small-town Pennsylvania." —Courier-Post (New Jersey)“Powerful and moving. . . . An impressive story of loss and love." —The Kansas City Star
“A moving study of class division and its tension. . . . Often heartbreaking and sometimes shocking, Aftermath is an intense, harrowing look at not only an ugly crime but its agonizing consequences.” —Library Journal (starred review)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (March 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140007987X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400079872
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,148,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Every sin is the result of a collaboration." (Stephen Crane), January 31, 2006

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aftermath (Hardcover)

Casey Fielding, the night manager of O'Ruddy's Restaurant in East Breed, Pennsylvania, is a product of his environment, where the bottom line of corporate management dictates his every move, a night manager who literally works by the book. A fight breaks out one night, the second in as many weeks, between the lower-income townies and the wealthy prep school boys. When the melee is over, one boy, the athletic Colin Chase, lies on the ground, blood leaking from his head. The young man hovers near death in a coma; he recovers, but with the mentality of a four-year old. Fielding bears the wrath of the authorities for not calling the police at the first sign of trouble and is fired for incompetence, embarrassing his employers; his girlfriend treats him with even more disrespect than her former active disdain; and the local paper prints an article lamenting Casey's inaction, implying a violation of the Good Samaritan Act. Casey spends his days in self-doubt: "He had to mine the depths to deal with this season of his life."

Colin's parents, Lea and Geoffrey Chase, provide a second dramatic focus, his physician-father and once-ignored mother adjusting to their son's damaged existence, their handsome, vigorous son reduced to the behavior of a helpless toddler. Their lives settle into the mundane details of daily care: "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorns have roses." For all the immediate drama of the tragedy, the survivors are left the results, press and cameras no longer seeking to titillate the public. Geoffrey can barely adjust to their changed circumstances, but Lea Chase is fearless, tracking down the truth of that terrible night through fragments of details found among her son's jumbled belongings. At the same time, Casey investigates local rumors, both of them uncovering information that will change the dynamic of the brutal beating in the parking lot of O'Ruddy's, the easy simplicity of tragedy tempered with a moral dilemma, a poignant reminder that nothing is ever as it seems.

Shawver translates the human condition into a drama of the aftermath of a violent act, skillfully mining the long term residue of ill-considered actions, his characters far more than facile cutouts of the damaged, the bereaved and the unfairly judged. For most, life goes on as before, the event but a moment in unexamined lives. Fielding is an ordinary guy caught up in an event not of his making, now at the mercy of fate, stepping carefully through an unexpected minefield of emotions. For Fielding, Lea Chase and a girl named Jenny, the world has tilted subtly on its axis. Lea regains a damaged, if purified son, Jenny is vaguely comforted and Casey clings to the brittle memory of an icy winter night, the beginning of an inevitable slide into a difficult future in a barely predictable and dangerous world. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably a favorite for 2006, February 24, 2006

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aftermath (Hardcover)

AFTERMATH by Brian Shawver
February 24, 2006

Amazon Rating: *****

The tale of a teenage boy who is beaten nearly to death, and how this event impacts two very different people, the debut by Brian Shawver, AFTERMATH will probably be one of my favorite reads from 2006. It is the story of a tragic event, the search to find the truth behind this tragic event, and how those around the deceased react to his life and his death.

There are two main characters, one of them being Casey Fielder, who is the restaurant manager of a restaurant chain called "O'Ruddy's". The story takes place in the blue-collar town of East Breed, Pennsylvania, a small town where it seems everyone knows every body, and events such as this are talked about by everyone. Casey is the type of man that takes pride in his work, follows the rules to a tee, and is quite proud of the job he does. The night when Colin Chase is beat up in the parking lot of O'Ruddy's changes Casey's life forever, as he is blamed for the brawl between the two groups of teenage boys, and he is soon fired from his job.

The rest of Casey's story is in which he tries to convince every one he meets that it was not his fault that this happened, and after much careful thought, Casey feels that he failed to call the police because his co-worker Jenny told him the phones were not working. Casey, however, never tells the police this, and he is thus presented to the press as the man that did not take responsibility in order to save Colin's life. He's lost his job and is now marked as a man that no one wants to hire.

Lea Chase is Colin's mother, and she is trying to deal with a son that is brain-damaged and forever changed into that of a child with the IQ of a 4-year old. While Colin was the man on campus, Lea soon learns things about Colin that any mother would not want to hear. She ponders over Colin's past life, and his new life today, and wonders if the brawl that changed Colin's life was a change for the better. Like Casey, she too does her best to find out what really happened that night in the parking lot, and why anyone would want to kill her son.

What makes AFTERMATH an interesting read is that a traditional book would have the reader empathizing with Colin. However, in this novel, the reader will actually learn to despise the teenager, but find themselves feeling more for Casey the restaurant manager and Lea, Colin's mother. I found the book quite refreshing and well written. AFTERMATH will be on my top 2006 list of best novels of the year.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "[Everything] was spelled out in the handbook...a crisis not addressed by headquarters could not be put on his shoulders.", April 20, 2006

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aftermath (Hardcover)

The aftermath of a vicious fight which left a Pennsylvania prep school senior injured and with the mental capacity of a four-year-old is the focus of author Brian Shawver's intriguing story of the fight between townies from East Breed's Township and local preppies from St. Brendan's. The night-time fight, the second to have occurred within two weeks, takes place in the parking lot behind O'Ruddy's, a small, franchised restaurant managed by Casey Fielder, who runs the restaurant according to the handbook. As he watches, one boy picks up a heavy metal rod and brings it down on the head of Colin Chase, maiming him forever.

Everyone even peripherally involved with the participants and the fight is dramatically affected by the results, and as Shawver takes the reader into the minds of the various players, the reader sees them considering their own culpability (or rejecting it), making excuses, and replaying and second-guessing events. Casey Fielder's failure to call the police when the fight started is soon seen in a more complex and sympathetic context, since insurance issues and the possible closing of the restaurant have been paramount for the owners. As Casey investigates the background of the victim and the running feud between the preppies and the townies, he discovers that issues are far more complicated than he ever suspected.

Alternating the point of view between Casey and that of the victim's parents, especially Lea Chase, Colin's mother, Shawver shows the human impulse to connect with the participants and to discover the truth--Casey through meeting with one of the participants from the Township, who has more information than he has revealed, and Lea through her examination of the effects of her long-estranged son. Gradually, both discover that Colin may not have been as much a victim as some people think him to be.

Shawver's pitch-perfect dialogue reveals the attitudes and expectations of his characters at the same time that his fast-paced prose highlights their impulsive actions and immaturity. With feeling and high drama, he shows the human reactions of friends and parents to this seventeen-year-old student's brain damage, while avoiding sentimentality and melodrama. Class issues play a part in the outcome, and the novel, which depends on the developing characters for its drama, rather than on non-stop action, takes a long view to show why the fight took place. In doing this, however, Shawver also shows that one can never be certain of the answers--that reality may be far more complex and far different from what anyone ever suspected. n Mary Whipple