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Loading... After This: A Novelby Alice McDermott
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. A well-written story about a particular American family, John and Mary Keane and their four children, from shortly after WWII to the 1970's. For much of the book the focus seems to be on vignettes from their lives that show us more about the family members and their dynamics, with not much of consequence really happening. Things pick up around the onset of the VietNam War and the sexual revolution, and we see the family conflicted by death, premarital sex and pregnancy, abortion and mental illness. There is some good stuff here about the clash between traditional Catholic values and the new mores of the 1960's, and what it means to be a family in troubled times. But the frequent jumps in time are a bit distracting, and the occasional glimpse forward into the fate of one family member or another is also a bit disconcerting. (  ) burnit99 | Sep 13, 2009 |  This is the first book I have read by Alice McDermott. She is indeed a very fine writer and this story of an American family spanning two decades is brilliant. John and Mary Keane and their 4 children are a traditional working class Catholic family living on Long Island. Their children come of age in the 60's and the family faces a changing world, Vietnamn, the sexual revolution, and new ideas. The only fault I found with this book was that occasionally it moved too slowly with too much detailed description of events. Ms McDermott is a realist which I apreciate but the visit to the beach early in the book is an example where I felt that the movement of every grain of sand was being described. This was however a very small problem compared with the quality of the writing. (  ) bhowell | May 27, 2009 | I was surprised not to like this book bec. I do like the writing of Alice McDermott. It just didn't hold my interest. After reading 1/2 the book, I can't even rem. the characters names. (  ) hammockqueen | Apr 11, 2009 | McDermott is a master at evokinig readers' understanding of the characters through a paucity of description of the truly meaningful events in this book. I found the same was true of Charming Billy. The chapters often begin with the event already accomplished that determines the responses and interactions of the characters that then lead to the next chapter. I really enjoy this prose. Ms. McDermott is well worth reading. (  ) pdebolt | Jun 16, 2008 | A collection of vignettes about the Keane family of Long Island, living in the wake of the Vietnam War. In vignette-like chapters, McDermott probes the inner lives of this family. McDermott flawlessly encapsulates an era in the private moments of one family's life. ( ) gwendolyndawson | Mar 27, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:16 -0400)
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