Before and After

I'm not sure when this was actually published, but i read the newly minted paperback. Surely over a decade. I was mesmerized by the prose that wrapped its' way around the slowly revealed facts and the viewpoints. The actual premise sickens me to think of it, even as my children could actually hurt someone. They are after all, Adults. Fabulous. Couldn't put it down. And now in my later life, nothing to compare to this (no death, but my work life is ruined)..... and I question....

When Jacob Reiser, a teenager in New Hampshire, kills his girlfriend, his parents Ben and Carolyn are forced to think about their values and their morals as well as their relationship. They would like things to go back to the way they'd been before the murder, but it can't be. This story grabbed me and held me.

The plot of is simple, like its title, "Before and After." Into the stable routine of an affluent happy family drops a bombshell which rips them asunder and throws them together. Carolyn and Ben Reiser's 17-year-old son, Jacob, is accused of a brutal murder. Chapters alternating between Ben, Carolyn and their pre-adolescent daughter, Judith, explore their reactions and, through memory, yearn for the way life had been. Brown's themes are anything but simple. Love is central but around it swirl murky questions of alienation, moral choice, duty, forgiveness, good, evil and truth. At first shock brings the Reisers together. New Yorkers transplanted to bucolic New Hampshire, they are instantly outsiders again. Jacob has vanished, leaving only questions. The future yawns like the unimaginable black hole. Hope -- kidnappers, maniacs -- is to be clung to. Then time works its magic. Jacob's whereabouts still a mystery, Carolyn grows restless, considers returning to her work as a pediatrician. Ben, a man of action who destroyed evidence in Jacob's car without hesitation, recoils from thoughts of "normal" activities. Judith goes back to school and endures the taunts of her peers in silence. Tension simmers at the surface, obscuring darker roilings beneath. Finally even the reader grows impatient. Get on with the story so they can go on -- somehow -- with their lives. And, at last, Jacob is found. Ben, however miserable, is in his element, taking charge, wholly committed to his son. It's more difficult for Carolyn. She can't forget the murdered girl. She wonders how well she ever knew her son. Ben is passionate and focused, Carolyn is sensitive and tortured by the rigors of soul searching. Judith cleaves to a world where right and wrong are simple truths. Brown's ("Civil Wars," "Tender Mercies") exploration of character is riveting. Her characters' memories and struggles seem as real as our own. Almost too real. Heart-wrenching truths cut close to the bone, leaving no room for the comfort of "It can't happen here." One minor complaint -- New Hampshire has no death penalty and too much of the story depends, unnecessarily, on the fiction that it does. Life in prison is horror aplenty.

Brown says, "I take very seriously the idea that novelists raise questions and don't necessarily answer them," and that "Novels are where we learn what it feels like to be someone else, where we learn to be patient with ways of looking at things that are not our own." (These quotes are from an interesting overview of the writer at ..., which is a great source for all sorts of literary stuff.) I think that some of the readers on this page need to keep this approach in mind before dismissing the book because they don't like the characters. I think Brown would say they're missing the point.What was most notable about this book to me was that the situation is so ghastly, you can't imagine how you'd deal with it. I liked the way the main characters reacted so differently, and that the father did something that seems as terrible as the son, and yet, while you want to slap him and tell him to snap the hell out of it, you have to recognize the emotional truth of his reaction. Some readers seem to want a clear-cut resolution, but to do so would immeasurably flatten the book and diminish the power of the story. For instance, in writing off the son as an irredeemable creep while lauding the daughter's characterization, readers are ignoring her loyalty to her brother, which clearly doesn't spring out of a vacuum. The characters are extremely flawed and complex, and they get into your brain. You may want to hug them or shake them or yell at them, but whatever your reaction, they seem incredibly alive. Brown's a poet, and some of her descriptions are beautiful if a fair amount of the dialogue, particularly early on, isn't esp. natural; small price to pay for some of the lines, which are beautiful, simple, and true. Good book, and a fast read as it's extremely compelling.

It is a compelling novel about relationships within a family and the struggle between right and wrong as the Reisers try to protect thier son. It's a great book!