After This
by Alice McDermott

This book is one of those amazing fiction stories that you come across rarely that really makes you think and wonder about life. The story follows the family life of the Keanes. The book begins following the life of Mary Keane, the wife and mother of the family, prior to her marriage and leading up to it. The next section follows the married life of Mary and John Keane as they begin to welcome in their new family members. They have four kids - Jacob, Micheal, Clare, and Annie. The story develops on to follow John Keane, the husband and father, followed by each child's' life and all the hurdles that growing up in the 60s era presented. The Keanes live on Long Island (which is where I have grown up and live when I'm not in college so it's interesting to know where the kids are talking about) and face the tribulations of Catholic school, the families involvement in their church, the Vietnam war and what happens when Jacob is drafted, Micheal's journey to college, Clare's unexpected life-changing event, and Annie's journey to college in England. The book has a lot of religious basis but, as a none-religious person myself, it is not in a preaching sense, but instead is necessary to understand and feel for the tragic events each family member faces. Being that I am still young, the book made me think so much about all that having a family has to offer - both the good and the bad. This is not your traditional chick-lit and instead touches more on a deeper, intellectual level. If you are looking for a good, dedicated read, than this is definitely the story for you. Paying close attention to each sentence and making sure not to mix up each character and their story is also very important because McDermott has a unique writing style where she will be describing a present event and then throw in one sentence about how that situation ends in the future, but not so much that the story cannot still be developed. Overall, amazing is the best word I can use to sum up this story.

Book Flap Summary: Alice McDermott's masterful novel is a vivid portrait of an American family caught at the crossroads of the tumultuous middle decades of the twentieth century. Witty, compassionate, and wry, After This evokes the social, political, and spiritual upheavals of its time through the experiences of a working-class couple; John and Mary Keane, their four children, and the changes radiating through their Catholic community on Long Island. While Micheal and Annie Keanes taste the alternately intoxicating and bitter first fruits of the sexual revolution, their older, more tentative brother, Jacob, lags behind, until he finds himself on the way to Vietnam. Clare, the youngest child of their aging parents, seeks to maintain an impossible, almost saintly innocence. As John and Mary struggle to uphold the framework of their family, the four siblings are destined to experience, first-hand, the challenges and liberties born in the crucible of the 1960s. Alive with the passions and tragedies of a determining era in our history, After This portrays the clash of traditional, faith-bound life with modern freedom while also capturing, with McDermott's inimitable understanding and grace, the joy, sorrow, anger, and love that underpin, and undermine, what it is to be a family.