Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Real Struggle...., 18 Sep 2009
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
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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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the effort, 23 Jul 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Sean O'Brien may well have been drawing on his own Cambridge experiences, his youthful struggles and that of being involved with a small literary magazine for the writing of `Afterlife'. His own glittering prizes are a testament to how successful he is, has been and will be. Wonderfully clever and hugely experienced this author will rightly deserve much attention as a first time novelist with this new story.
`Afterlife' could stand with such summer of lost youth successes as A Fatal Inversion, Line of Beauty, The Secret History, Porterhouse Blue or even The Blair Witch Project.
Written backwards with the end at the beginning - time scale from the present day looking back at the seventies - densely wordy and rather tricky to get into, this book proves a challenge at the start with the internecine power struggles of emerging poets - `writers' - being an unlikely hook. The use of true points of reference could confuse as a reader might wonder whether in fact they had missed the allusion to something actual rather than invented. I actually looked up the poet Exton, Martin's subject of study, to see if he existed in reality. He didn't. Which was just as well. Discussion about the value of poetry is central to this book.
There are some lovely set pieces in the book and many delightful phrases that touch a nerve. These are the diamonds in the rough as it were and show the true strength of the writing hidden in the thicket of allegory, metaphor and quotation. Some of the literary in jokes bounced off me as a less knowledgeable reader. A dictionary might be a good companion as there were an unusually high number of words I hadn't come across before. And I read a lot.
Martin and Alex seem mostly self absorbed, cold and unattractive. Their entrenched acid, drink and dope habits together with an apparent arrogant indifference to others make it difficult to work out at first who is actually with who, or why, or to care. Jane and Susie are more hopeful and when we get to hear Jane's voice it is searingly honest and brave. Susie seems a good, friendly and realistic kind person with a skill for usefulness and art. So the two couples, Martin and Susie, Alex and Jane are found living together, after graduation, in May Cottage, looking over to Moon House, on the Welsh Border - a deeply rural environment. Each of them emerging into adulthood with naturally differing expectations for their futures.
Clues are littered about to show us that a death will occur, and whose it will be, thus crossing genres into murder mystery and promising some excitement. In fact I was literally waiting for the smell of smoke to appear, as I felt sure it would, as the lead up to destruction was so clearly signposted.
However, you do begin to long, as for a cool drink on one of the hot summer's days described, and here I am doing it myself; for a page free of anything that could remind anyone of yet another over clever literary, poetic or folklore reference. All in all this can have the unwelcome effect of the author appearing to show off, through his characters' conversation, rather than giving any useful explanation. Surprisingly for such erudite characters his creations aren't averse to heavy swearing and brutally coarse talk. My problem I know, for not enjoying that in a book. The locals, however are more likeable - lumpish Luke and his brighter brother Gareth, Shirley the template barmaid and the rather sweet Professor Gwyther supervising Martin, they all provide colour and some comedy. Moon House too looms large as a silent contributor to the drama - the atmosphere and history of the place being quite thrilling.
The arrival of the two young American women, studious Marcie and darkly cruel contemptuous Diane; galvanises the story into something that really kept me more happily involved. It was as if the book became more readable and easy in the second half. There is sadness and Martin becomes the catalyst, the role he was heading for throughout.
The planned and inevitable party at Moon House with the fiasco that follows -the sheer wicked waste wreaked, that was a depressing chapter to read. Martin Stone grows older and wiser, while the ghastly Alex well... Things get better though and the end is worthwhile and tidy so don't give up!
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