After

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: A very fast read, rather depressing, only mildly erotic, probably meant to be profound, but the writer completely misses the authenticity required to reach any kind of depth. Not worth the time or money.

Rating:
Summary: AFTER!, A MUST READ!
Review: AFTER is a book that is captivating from start to the exciting finale. Page by page, the author grips the reader with a compelling desire to know the outcome of this unique work..

Claire Tristram's writing is picturesque, terse and unique. By the end of the book the reader is emotionally wrung out with the cyclic, energetic and sometimes depressive thoughts of each of the main characters.

Don't miss this promising new author's debut.

Rating:
Summary: A Twisted Tale
Review: Claire Tristram's novel, After, is a slim novel that grapples with colossal passion. A man and a woman meet in a hotel for their first liaison, but the passion the propels the story is his, and hers, not theirs. Caught in an emotional tangle of love, hate and grief, the Widow pursues this man on the anniversary of her late husband's death. The adulterous man succombs to a sexual longing for this woman so different than his own wife. We are privvy to their thoughts in alternating chapters. His anticipation of an erotic encounter is immediately revealed; the Widow's expectations unravel more slowly. The union of two people with separate agendas is, inevitably, skewed and as their weekend progresses, their relationship becomes increasingly raw and disturbing. Tristram's skill in crafting this book is the way she is able to manipulate these two characters to depict the vulnerability, the pain and the confusion experienced by all victims.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing in so many ways
Review: I found this book utterly compelling: I was pulled in with the first few sentences and couldn't put it down until I had finished. Although After has obvious echoes of current hideous world events, the dynamic between the characters could occur in any period of time, between anyone from social groups not only taught to mistrust each other but whose divisions have been sharpened by new horrors. Tristram has done a masterful job with some tough material. I'm dazzled by her skills.

Rating:
Summary: A little book with a big punch
Review: I was immediately drawn into this story of the unnamed widow and her violent, primal, perversely logical rite of passage through some sort of healing and into the next stage of her life. The writing is evocative and tight, and I was never unable to picture the characters, the hotel, the beach, the lobster joint, etc., even though descriptions are minimal. Not erotic? ...I think readers who missed the eroticism are either too used to Nora Roberts-style sex scenes or are too inhibited to allow themselves to enjoy the taboo mix of sexual desire and physical pain/psychological torment. Just because you can appreciate it in a work of fiction does not mean you do it (or want to do it, or approve of it) in real life, folks...Relax!

I found myself wondering why she did what she did, pitying her, sympathizing with her, disdaining her, wanting to hug her...and her lover's recurring thoughts of how much he loved his wife, even as he cheated (however clumsily) on her, made him oddly likeable. The widow is completely honest with him about her motivation for seeking him out as her lover, and even knowing this he does not leave or stop the affair. Hmmmm...Why? The widow is not the only one with complicated motives. Any guilt the reader feels for not hating him for his unfaithfulness is disintegrated at the very end, when he is left facing a situation that would be the nightmare of any cheating spouse. It's an easy read on the surface, but a difficult, raw, and disturbing read on any deeper level. Well done!

Rating:
Summary: not erotic, cheap use of grief
Review: I was very impressed by the complexity woven into this book's spare prose. Tristram elucidates by image, implication and association, and the cumulative effect is powerful. This tale of a tryst covers just about everything that draws human beings together, or cataclysmically divides them, on any scale from the interpersonal to the international. Sexuality is the perfect metaphor--an occasion for intimacy, tenderness and discovery but also fraught with alienation, aversion, power, cruelty, mistrust of self and other, reinvention of self and other. What redeems one person inspires fear or revulsion in the other. The turn-and-turn-about between the two main characters is mesmerizing.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Stunning
Review: Sparse, measured, breathless pacing. I don't lean toward inviting comparisons often but if you liked "House of Sand and Fog" you will love this tender and heart-wrenching novel, a worthy addition to the slender list of fiction dealing with life in a post 9/11 world.

Rating:
Summary: Dark, disturbing, erotic, brilliant!
Review: This is one of the darkest novels I have read. After is the story of a widow who decides to take on a lover in the most unique, albeit disturbing way. Some time after her husband died in the hands of terrorists, the unnamed female character decides to shack up with a married Muslin man at a rundown hotel somewhere in California (the novel's exact setting is unspecified). What transpires is a disarming story centered on hatred, prejudice and reflections on the meaning of true love.

The affair is told in graphic detail. The couple at times turns violent, and said scenes are quite disturbing. The story is incredible, philosophical at times, dark and suspenseful to the core. The theme has a taboo appeal to it that is thought provoking and provocative. I loved the scenes in which the protagonist talks about her husband with her lover and the discussions regarding the Jewish (her husband was Jewish) and Muslin faiths. As said earlier, a lot of the passages come across as dark philosophies centered on religion and politics and I found myself pondering certain lines after I finished the book. After is brilliant. Claire Tristram is a talented, incredible author and I look forward to reading her future works -- that is if there will be future projects. I do hope she will write something as impressive as her debut effort. I can't recommend this novel enough.

Rating:
Summary: She was searching diligently for something she had lost
Review: Written in alternating points of view, After is a poetic, fluid, and highly original novel. Readers will appreciate its short length and its charged, and gutsy style. The story centers on one man 'the Muslim" and one women "the Widow," both nameless and mysterious in their intensity and passion. For the Widow, everyday events are falling apart, and after telling her therapist that she wants to choose a Muslim lover, she happens to meet one at a work trade show. Their connection is instantaneous. She knows immediately that she will sleep with him, and their rendezvous is set to take place at a run-down, empty seaside hotel. As the narrative progresses, the inexplicable motivations that drive each character's actions become clearer. They erotically and emotionally bond, performing a type of perverse and viscous sexual role-play, each letting out their pent up angst and torment.

The woman's husband was murdered at the hand of Muslim extremists - probably on September 11th - and she writes grief stricken, purge-filled letters to his ghost. She imagines sleeping with "the Muslim" because it is something forbidden, unexpected, a way of repaying her husband, and something so clearly outside the role, which she has been forced into by her circumstances. The man she chooses is a married Iranian who immigrated to America after the Shah's fall. He, in being drawn towards "the Widow" also has "a gap, a hole, a tragedy in need of resolution and healing." The Widow's interest compels and sustains him, though her "fervent melancholy" and obvious grief trouble him. He's a married man with two young girls, but he feels he is wedded "to an empty dress, as shallow as cotton." Understanding his wife's inner thoughts has eluded him, and he has fallen into some restless purgatory where "waves and waves of thwarted desire rise up and threaten to engulf him."

After is a quietly deceptive novel where the clues to understanding both characters' motivations unfold steadily and in the end, prove to be quite revelatory. The story is quite topical in its portrait of racism and cultural dissidence; the characters are living a world where, more and more, we can be killed, not for who we are, but for what nationality or religion we happen to be. The language of regret is also quite powerful - the memories of her dead husband that the widow can't quite catch are "like bits of trash blowing over and over along the sand." And as her grief changes shape, what is left is not quite grief at all, but something she could only describe as desire. Yet she has sadness, where the love acts mean no more to her "than memories of the grave." Both characters are erotically responsive, but both keep so much of their anger, fear and emotion internalized. Their disconnectedness comes from a sense of everything having changed, and where times are dark and unstable. Seething in their own psyches, it's probably an effort for them to get even this far. Mike Leonard June 04