Two middle-aged hippies from Maine are given a chance to remake their own reality, commune with history's forsaken deities, and meet the Great Devourer of All Things Manifest. By the author of Rumors of Spring.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
If two aging hippies can stubbornly hang on to the '60s for 30 years, then hanging on to life after dying isn't much of a stretch. Sponsored by rival deities, Tex (Bear) and Molly (Raven) become players--or prompters--in an improvisational drama of survival whose improbable cast is vast and largely unwitting. Grant's multimythic storytelling lends glamour to scruffy coastal Dublin, Maine; he's a relentless observer, but an affectionate reporter, of the foibles and faults of the authentically miscellaneous residents and visitors. His major themes and leitmotifs are here, but the novel overall is less abstract and more playful than some of Grant's previous work.
From Publishers Weekly
The title doesn't quite paint the whole picture, but it does point a hitchhiker's thumb in the right direction: Grant's novel combines the literate but gonzo artistry of Tom Robbins with the obsessive spirituality of dedicated New Agers. In Dublin, Maine, aging hippies Molly and Tex fall down a well and die, and therein begins their adventure. In life, they were members of a theater company whose productions were geared towards raising environmental consciousness. In death, they take on the Gulf Atlantic Corporation, whose manmade trees are intended for reforestation of the Great North Woods. Those they encounter during this quirky saga include a homeless dryad (or tree spirit), elfin children, gun-toting separatists, nefarious corporate types and shape-changers. Frequent allusions to A Midsummer Night's Dream suggest Grant's intentions here, but the book's whimsical format (diagrams illustrate such topics as "the angle of divergence between successive leaf buds" and fortune cookie aphorisms called Afterlife Factoids appear at intervals) sometimes leans too far into eccentricity. Some good points are scored in this polemic novel whose message is that humans could benefit from nature's wisdom. Much of the writing is witty, and one wishes that more had been made of the particularly funny Neman and Arth Vawr, the "deities" that Tex and Molly meet right after their demise. The purposely open-ended plot will prove too frustrating for many literal-minded readers, but perhaps not for Grant's (Through the Heart) target audience?those who can take a thesis with a joke?and a grain of salt.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wittily crazy, it is entertaining and thought provoking.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tex and Molly in the Afterlife (Mass Market Paperback)
Richard Grant has written a NewAge tome, a book sure to please any fan of off-track pagan practices as well as those just wishing to challenge the status quo. We enter Tex and Molly's life as 'aging hippies' in Maine, and are soon drawn into their off-beat lifestyle. Or more to the point their after-lifestyle. For Tex and Molly fall into the Otherworld after toking their last joint on a beautiful full moon night. Their adventures have only just begun. The author weaves his eco-sensitive story with care and detail, taking threads from many myths, and somehow making it all work. The characters are all sympathetically drawn and believable, even as the story itself requires suspension of disbelief. This is a book to read for the enjoyment of the story-telling, as his clever style marries art and science. His witty 'After-life Factoids' are sprinkled throughout. A summary of the story would be an over-simplification, but follows the attempts of a diverse group of anti-establishment types (including witches, heavy-metal computer nerds, a gypsy and an elf, to name a few) to interfere with the goals of Corporate America. Unfortunately the book is far too complex to be explained briefly. Those of us who have not bought in to the American dream will happily relate to one of more of his characters, and wish for our own private mystical revelations, much as Tex and Molly received. Did I mention the driads?
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Product of a Mad (in the best possible way) Genius,
By Rabbit Bronte (Shenandoah Valley, VA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tex and Molly in the Afterlife (Paperback)
Tex & Molly is simply one of the best books I've read in ages. My boredom with what usually passes for fiction crumbled before the majesty of Richard Grant's zany genius. I am all admiration for how he can draw characters so well, sharply observing their foibles, and yet still loving them all so tenderly. Dickens also was such a writer.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hats off to Richard Grant,
By
This review is from: Tex and Molly in the Afterlife (Mass Market Paperback)
A lovely lovely book. Richard Grant has upped the ante on Peter S. Beagle's talking raven and dead folk from "A Fine and Private Place" like a writer on a dare and morphed and mutated and created a book so original and wild and funny that it bears re-reading and re-reading. This book impressed the hell out of me. And besides, Tex and Molly listen to some of my fave 60s tunes.
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