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Afterlife
 
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Afterlife (Hardcover)

by Sean O'Brien (Author)
2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; First Edition; 1st printing. edition (7 Aug 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330455664
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330455664
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.6 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 57,798 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'This taut literary thriller grips from the start and has a nice line in dark humour.' --WBQ

'Gripping and graceful debut novel...it positively throbs with loss, loss that is articulated at an exquisite and poetical register.' --The Irish Times

'This is a rich and powerful testament to the value of the well-wrought word.'
--Daily Mail

'Afterlife reveals he is also a novelist, one whose emotional intelligence informs a satisfying formal sophistication' --Independent

`[a] darkly witty first novel . . . this is an absorbing first work of fiction by a much-admired poet. It is a sharp and unforgiving portrait of literary dreams and jealousies; and of the loss of youthful innocence viewed from the "afterlife of adulthood". --Sunday Times

'A thriller set in the world of contemporary poetry might not sound too exciting, but in his debut novel, the TS Eliot prize-winning poet Sean O'Brien chills to the bone.'
--Independent on Sunday


Review

'Fiercely readable'
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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (9)
2 star:
 (14)
1 star:
 (9)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.3 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A Real Struggle...., 18 Sep 2009
By Snapdragon (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
In the promotional material for this novel it is likened to `The Secret History', which is why I ordered it; sadly it is something of a pale comparison.

Partly due to O' Brien's background as a poet, I was expecting beautiful imagery and flowing prose and was willing to forgive poor plotting and poor characterisation. Instead, the book lacks any kind of focus and at times slips into a very irritating `reviewing' style which is really jarring; an example is when the characters go and see `The Wickerman' (one of the details horn-shoed in so that we remember this is the 1970s.) The narrator tells us; `Although The Wicker Man has somehow ascended to the status of a neglected classic in recent years, in my view (apparently that of a minority) it remains what it always was, a piece of half-arsed crap full of unintended humour and bungled eroticism.' This isn't the only time we have to endure pompous rants which fail to move the plot along or offer any enlightenment about the motivations of the characters. The storyline, too, is predictable and has been written with much more skill by others.

One to miss.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Intractable and unfulfilling, 5 Aug 2009
By Mark Thomas "physics_mark" (Midlands, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
The stifling heat of the English summer of 1976 is a sympathetic backdrop for the melting pot of four newly-graduated friends who move together to a Shropshire village to decide on their futures. Martin, providing the commentary for the novel's events, is a self-doubting poet wannabe, having chosen to study the writings of fictional priest Thomas Exton, with whose anxieties and self-denial he identifies strongly. Caught up in an escalating feud between talented and inspired Jane and the driven but constantly sinning Alex, Martin frets over his own temptations and vulnerabilities while trying to maintain harmony within the ill-fitting group.

In Afterlife O'Brien betrays his poetic background all too often, wandering off into confused introspection for long tracts, and while this may be a literary device to highlight Martin's indecisive, drug-soaked thinking, it makes for agonising reading.

O'Brien's characterisations are a problem. The book's protagonists lack any real solidity and their relationships are jagged and inconsistent. Sometimes believable, sometimes improbable, their interactions are difficult to fathom and are often swamped by impenetrable, profane, arty debate. Even with the death of Jane, for whom Martin harbours a secret devotion, a true sense of devastation is absent, and she is not keenly missed by the reader either. However, the gradual fragmentation of the group as dangerous new characters are introduced as catalysts for the tragic outcome is at least interesting to observe. This, along with the claustrophobic village-setting that feels ever-more suffocating and volatile does something to assuage fears that the whole story is going nowhere.

It is difficult to get away from the feeling that Afterlife tries to be too clever for its own good. It attempts to be an intellectual, art house piece written from the point of view of a frustrated poet mired in academic and personal indecision. The effect of this, though, is to alienate the reader from what comes across as a pretentious exposition of academic over-confidence. There are brief sparks of clarity, but the lack of any definite structure or drama tends to make Afterlife an unsatisfying read.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Sex, Drugs and Tortured Souls, 24 Aug 2009
By C. CAMPBELL "tagatha" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
We've all come across them at some point or another in our lives. That clique who think they're wasted on the rest of us mere mortals, who provide themselves with an excuse not to do anything useful with their existence because they're there to 'create', and who invariably end up destroying themselves with excess, lies and deception.

My experience of this was a certain group of graduate drama students who used to hang around my university like a bad smell, bumming smokes and drinks off the freshers in exchange for being allowed to bask in their formidable aura for an hour or two. Nobody knew why they were still there, what purpose they served, or how they existed without any means of gainful employment. And a lot of us just thought they were a gang of twits to be frank.

I was put painfully to mind of them whilst reading Sean O'Brien's book. His wasters are poets and artists rather than actors and playwrights, but the same hallmarks are all there. These characters are self involved, self loathing at the same time as being self promoting, and shameless about any and all of their exploits. 'Afterlife' is also shot through with the paranoia and fractured reality that result from some of the excess, namely acid, liberally consumed by the characters. O'Brien uses this to really good effect, and instead of excusing or playing down any of the behaviour, it just amplifies the sheer rotten waste of life that the four main characters especially have become.

Unfortunately as the book moves on this method begins to take it's toll on some of the plot and it is used as a bit of a tool to get out of telling the reader the whole story, or to even lead us to any fully formed conclusion. This sort of smacks a bit of laziness on behalf of O'Brien, but on the whole you can't really fault his style or his choice of words in key moments. He has some really wonderful one liners that hit the nail on the head and turns of phrase that are suitably pithy for these types of cads and layabouts.

I'm knocking off a star because the last couple of chapters are needless and dragging, and the story would have been better served to have ended it at the climax of the seventies rather than tagging on a 'present day' resolution, which also includes a rather unlikely continuation of the plot.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not 'The Secret History'...
This is a difficult book that only really gets going about three quarters of the way through (at which point many readers may well have given up! Read more
Published 25 days ago by J. N. Smith

1.0 out of 5 stars Drab & Rambling
I am not suprised to find the writer is a poet, the naration is rambling & at times totally unconnected to the plot. Read more
Published 1 month ago by T. Andrews

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of my precious time
I really struggled to get into this book and eventually only managed to bear three quarters of it. It had very little plot, the characters were abysmal and I found the style of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Taylor

4.0 out of 5 stars Witty and entertaining
I didn't give this the full stars, only because it's not the kind of thing I'd read by choice. But it was a clever, witty and entertaining read.
Published 1 month ago by C. Y. Davidson

2.0 out of 5 stars A difficult read...
I haven't read a book properly in over a year and thought it was about time that I tried reading another. Read more
Published 2 months ago by P. Wareing

2.0 out of 5 stars Literary thriller?
So we have the first novel by celebrated poet Sean O'Brien. It's a story about 1970's small town accademics/students and I didn't feel that it quite found its feet. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Richard Kelly

1.0 out of 5 stars Far too wordy
I thought the plot for this book sounded excellent - a taut thriller with literary references. The information on the back compares it to The Secret History, a slow-burning book... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Nicola

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing to do with afterlife
First, don't be fooled by the title. This book is not a metaphysical nor supernatural book and has nothing to do with the afterlife. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lova

2.0 out of 5 stars Haven't I Read This Before?
I am absolutely sure I heard a Radio 4 play some years ago with pretty much this plot line.

As others have commented, the narrator is weak, wet and ineffectual. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. PJ Taylor

3.0 out of 5 stars People watchers
A book for adults, with adult themes and bad language from the first paragraph. After a slightly shaky start, the book actually picks up quite well and you do feel inclined to... Read more
Published 3 months ago by P. Potter

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