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mtomchek's review
5.0
"Why isn't life better designed so it warns you when terrible things are about to happen?"
"...there's no love without pain, that you can't ever love someone without that tinge of dread at how it might end."
Absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking, and touching. I am loving Maggie O'Farrell right now. She knows how to sew a story, with various timelines, back and forth, different ages, ah. I loved this book and felt so much in my heart reading. The main character was simply amazing, powerful, and so strong. Love a courageous female lead, paving her way through a story where she is faced with challenges, love, work, and sadness. AH! Much needed right now...
"...there's no love without pain, that you can't ever love someone without that tinge of dread at how it might end."
Absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking, and touching. I am loving Maggie O'Farrell right now. She knows how to sew a story, with various timelines, back and forth, different ages, ah. I loved this book and felt so much in my heart reading. The main character was simply amazing, powerful, and so strong. Love a courageous female lead, paving her way through a story where she is faced with challenges, love, work, and sadness. AH! Much needed right now...
punkinmuffin's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, intelligent fiction and I could read books like this forever.
bookwormbecks's review
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
the_sara_post's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
gabybeckley's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
daisyvb's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A compelling narrative that sucked me deep into the lives of characters who for the most part, were only as complicated as everyone thinks they are. Yet I needed to know why I was being told their stories. The "unlikable" characters here are without compromise, and the more "grey" ones intrigued me constantly. The twists/reveals smacked me in the face, despite sort of guessing one, and having known about the other (technically) from the start. This story doesn't really hide things, its all there in plain sight, starting with the fact our protagonist of sorts, is literally in a coma. Clearly shit has, is and will go down. When I realised I only had a few pages left I was aghast because how was it all going to be wrapped up, how could this end well???? That's not how life works. The end was confusing and exhausting and thats the only way it could be I think.
phoebedowling's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
cat_book_lady's review against another edition
3.0
One of the first Maggie O’ Farrell books that introduces her as a promising new author, After You’d Gone recounts the utter depression and suffocating grief that Alice feels when her husband dies by an explosion, and whose father never accepted her because she was not Jewish - he even tells his son that if he marries her, Hitler wins. I decided to read this after Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait because O’Farrell has entranced me with her writing and has become one of my favorite authors, and in this novel she has the uncanny ability to delve into the human condition, especially grief. Just as in Hamnet, she explores the devastating effect that an untimely death has on the people who loved them, and how their lives become immersed to the point where they find it difficult to move on and live. (Trigger warning: the novel explores attempted suicide.)
I will admit that I felt myself tired of being drowned in the grief just like Alice, and so this is a hard book to read. Just be prepared that after a larger-than-life blissful love story that is tinged with religious discrimination, there is no true happily ever after. There is - however - regret, forgiveness, and reconciliation, together with anger, frustration, and loneliness. I can see that dealing with death is a theme throughout her books, and yet becomes more subtle and more thoroughly explored in later novels.
I can see, too, how this book put O’Farrell on the map of great writers. I did feel that the characters were a bit unbelievable …Alice and John try to remain steadfast amidst obvious prejudice, but I wanted Alice to get enraged at the utter lack of disregard with which she was treated (I know I was) by her father-in-law. Instead, her reaction was too — complacent. I was also getting frustrated at Alice’s lack of moving forward- which is the obvious point of the novel since many people suffer from debilitating depression following the death of a loved one.
I found it interesting that O’Farrell chose to experiment with different timelines, and this worked for the most part but also became a bit confusing as she jumps from the perspective of comatose Alice to her childhood, meeting John as an adult, her fraught relationship with her mother, etc. so, I’m not entirely sure this was effective.
Overall, I rate this a 3* with the caveat that O’Farrell definitely improves with age. I do recommend this novel, especially if you are a fan of her other works, because you can see her tremendous growth as a writer and also see how well she started.
I will admit that I felt myself tired of being drowned in the grief just like Alice, and so this is a hard book to read. Just be prepared that after a larger-than-life blissful love story that is tinged with religious discrimination, there is no true happily ever after. There is - however - regret, forgiveness, and reconciliation, together with anger, frustration, and loneliness. I can see that dealing with death is a theme throughout her books, and yet becomes more subtle and more thoroughly explored in later novels.
I can see, too, how this book put O’Farrell on the map of great writers. I did feel that the characters were a bit unbelievable …Alice and John try to remain steadfast amidst obvious prejudice, but I wanted Alice to get enraged at the utter lack of disregard with which she was treated (I know I was) by her father-in-law. Instead, her reaction was too — complacent. I was also getting frustrated at Alice’s lack of moving forward- which is the obvious point of the novel since many people suffer from debilitating depression following the death of a loved one.
I found it interesting that O’Farrell chose to experiment with different timelines, and this worked for the most part but also became a bit confusing as she jumps from the perspective of comatose Alice to her childhood, meeting John as an adult, her fraught relationship with her mother, etc. so, I’m not entirely sure this was effective.
Overall, I rate this a 3* with the caveat that O’Farrell definitely improves with age. I do recommend this novel, especially if you are a fan of her other works, because you can see her tremendous growth as a writer and also see how well she started.
timna_wyckoff's review
4.0
Another really good one from Maggie O'Farrell. I really like this author's writing style and stories!