Reviews

After the Fireworks: Three Novellas by Gary Giddins, Aldous Huxley

horrorscopeee's review

2.0

The stories only get good the last few pages tbh the rest is so boring

icesloth's review

3.0

Very different from a brave new world or the island. Uncle Spencer was my favorite tale in the book.

athend's review

5.0

I thought Two or Three Graces was magnificently written!

hailslayton's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

3.5

"f people write, it means they exist; and all ask for is to be able to pretend that the world doesn't exist." 

Huxley's writing is so fluid and gorgeous and easy to absorb but his themes are deceptively challenging to decipher. While these three novellas were mostly entertaining and intriguing, they were also a bit meandering and Huxley occasionally gets in his own way with long-winded and unnecessary passages that dampen the reading experience a bit. However, his ability to flesh out incredibly rich and complex characters full of narcissism and neuroses is unmatched and found myself entranced by the way these characters were observed and judged by the story's respective narrators and, ultimately, by us.

webslingingadam's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny 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

4.0

A collection of three novellas by Aldous Huxley. The core theme of all three stories is the fictional lives we all build for ourselves through the identities we create. We believe we should be certain types of people and live certain types of lives and so we become those people and shape our lives to fit them even if it is against our natures to do so, and this is something we can and do observe in those around us but always believe ourselves to be genuine despite evidence to the contrary and sometimes it works and often it doesn’t. I enjoyed them, and Two Or Three Graces is the most humorous of the stories and also the most heartfelt. 

dinbee's review against another edition

5.0

Very introspective stories. In his strange, sometimes pedantic, way of storytelling, he masterfully captures the personalities of his characters in a manner that I have rarely (if at all) encountered at this particular level.

tmbrundage's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.25

gailbird's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Aldous Huxley is of course best known for his heart-chilling vision of a hellish dystopian future in Brave New World. I can’t say I really loved that novel, though I recognise its societal importance “so much the more as we see the day approaching,” so to speak. However, this selection of novellas by Huxley are slightly less terrifying in that they don’t deal with grand themes of morally questionable governmental oversight as much as they deal with the more small-scale tyranny of ordinary human relationships. Huxley has a gift for depth of character and the volatility of human psychology in any given situation that makes these stories compelling and entertaining.

The first novella contributes its title to this collection, After the Fireworks. In it, a philandering writer meets with an impressionable young fan and they proceed on an intense and long-lasting affair that leaves them both physically wrecked and disillusioned. The beginning is rom-com-esque in its lightness and charm, with its mismatch of world-weary experience and fresh innocence colliding to spark the affair, complete with a knowing friend predicting outcomes and passing judgement on the whole thing. The characters are very vivid and engaging, with smart dialogue and keen insights providing a window to their minds. Unfortunately, Huxley appears to have a somewhat pessimistic view on the tendency of human nature toward bitterness and degradation, and that is exactly what happens in this story; everything bright and light fizzles out, after the fireworks.

The second novella is perhaps my favourite, Two or Three Graces, with its hilariously quirky insight into certain types of people, and the fascinating anomaly that is someone who is unreadable and appears to have no individual personality. The story is told from the perspective of a looker-on, who observes the seemingly amorphous character of a woman named Grace who takes on separate personalities depending upon her situation. When she is introduced to a friend of his, who is also of a changeable nature but in a completely different way, heartbreak and transformation are the only possible outcomes of their short-lived affair. Although not a particularly happy story, this one tends to be more optimistic, acknowledging the incredible human capacity to adapt and change even in adverse circumstances.

Uncle Spencer is a very different beast altogether. It begins in a prison… or with someone telling a story of being in a prison… or something. Honestly, I was a little confused about the structure and point of this tale generally. However, I can appreciate parts of it independently without being enthralled with the story overall. The characters accompanying Uncle Spencer in the prison, his trials and education about those he was forced into close company with, are little vignettes told with Huxley’s attention to the bizarre and unique, yet somehow universal and constant, in human nature. And if that seeming incongruity doesn’t turn you off, perhaps you’ll be able to find something compelling in this somewhat disjointed and meandering story. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and War