Everything After

This book has everything: fine characterization, a clear but complex plot, a satisfying denoument, family dynamics, moral issues beyond just the rightness or wrongness of war, realism, mysticism. . . I'm out of breath, but haven't finished the catalog. If you were alive and conscious during Vietnam, you've met Pywell's characters, and very likely at least one of them was in your family. The tragedy was certainly everywhere in our country. And it's come around again.

After the accidental death of her mother the four Sunnaret children (Iris, Angie, Eddie and Perry) move in with adoptive parents Eleanor and Charlie Jackson and treated as their own just like their offspring Hank. Life is good for the five Jackson children until Eddie and Perry join the military and are sent to Vietnam in 1968. Not long afterward, military officials inform the Jacksons that both their adopted sons died heroically in battle. However, a former grunt who served with both siblings visits to tell the truth that one brother killed the other to keep him from endangering the platoon with a foolhardy charge into danger. Angie, already outraged that her siblings served while Charlie and Eleanor allowed them to join, takes it out on Hank by seducing him into an affair and joining anti Viet Nam radicals that disturb the patriotic veteran Charlie. Now nineteen Iris is beginning to learn family secrets of the Sunnarets and Emersons especially from her bitter older sister that leads to inquiries in which each revelation out-shocks the previous one. This powerful historical tale provides a puissant look at ethical issues within a family that serves as an anecdotal surrogate for the country during the late 1960s, but brilliantly applies to today as well. The tale is told from the viewpoint of Iris whose eyes are opening to a not so perfect Ozzie and Harriet life that she thought she led with the Emersons as truth after truth reveal morality questions that shake the teen's core. Adding to the complexity is the sibling relationships between the next generation quintet. Sharon Pywell provides a potent morality tale that will leave the audience examining their own values and relationships while also seeking her previous novel, WHAT HAPPENED TO HENRY. Harriet Klausner