After the Rain

A short novel, which is hard to classify, John Bowen's "After the rain". For sure, it is a science-fiction novel, starting as it does with rain causing a flood, which destroys human civilisation up till then. The narrative voice makes the book sound a lot like work, for instance, by John Wyndham's "The Kraken wakes".

Stylistically, the book is somewhat unbalanced. The first five chapters are in many ways so ironic, that it seems the writer did not take himself or his work very seriously. Subsequent chapters have more and dramatically convincing action, which pulls the reader in, but in the final three chapters the novel becomes very philosophical, first concentrating on the character's problems, and finally settling on religion. In this show more way the book also foreshadows Golding's "The Lord of the Flies".

The similarity to other writer's work, and the lack of stylistic balance make the book hardly qualify as great literature. On the other hand, I would definitely not put the book together with pulp fiction, as has been suggested by other reviewers. First published in 1958, one can hardly call the book an experiment in the genre. Perhaps, the short novel, only 144 pages, could best be described as a personal experiment, of the author. Interesting. show less

Part of book project. I think. This is a short play so it hardly counts. It is not very compelling as written. There is a deluge, in 1969, and a small group of survivors founds a new society.