Week #13 - Alice McDermott

Alice McDermott's novel, After This, was written recently, but takes place largely in the turbulent sixties. The arrangement of the novel was very interesting to me; there was not one set storyline, following a concrete timeline. Rather, the time jumps around at times, and the point of view changes from character to character within each section. These little vignettes, an “overarching narrative”, give the novel a broken feeling, but not to the point where the story is not understandable, not enjoyable, or possible to follow. A part of this novel that I enjoyed was that the novel carries an adult perspective: good and bad things will happen to you in your life, but you’ll get over it and you’ll be a bigger person because of it. The tone of the novel is bittersweet, melancholy, sweet and sad; but throughout the novel, there is still the small bit of tone that is hopeful, knowledgeable of the possibilities for the future. There is also the point of nostalgia throughout the piece, based on the cultural references within the novel.