(8.5) The 'Afterwards' of the title refers to post traumatic stress disorder often experienced by those who have served in the armed forces.
When Alice meets Joseph, they feel an immediate connection and the relationship develops gently. As they begin to spend more time together, Alice becomes aware that Joseph withdraws at times from the relationship and she struggles with this. She is aware he had spent a few years in the army but he never talks about it.
She herself is recovering from her grandmother's ill health and eventual death. To this end she regularly visits her grandfather but he has always been an aloof individual. It was her grandmother she was close to. Her grandfather was in the airforce when his grandparents met, in Kenya. It soon becomes apparent to the reader that his experiences have impacted on his behaviour as well. When she introduces the two men to each other, the grandfather seems to sense Joseph's ability to empathize and talks of his past.
However, this then triggers Joseph's own memories of active duty in Northern Ireland and relationships rupture.
This is an thought provoking read, well structured, with the storyline moving forward, while being punctuated with recollections from the past. ( )

Alice meets Joseph and they begin to see each other. It's a cautious relationship between two ordinary people. Alice is concerned about her recently widowed grandfather and wishes he was more willing to talk about his time serving in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising. Joseph is maybe not as talkative as she's like, but he's kind, even going over to paint her grandfather's house. Joseph was also in the British army and served in Northern Ireland. An incident there replays often in his mind and he struggles with PTSD, which he handles by disappearing for weeks at a time, a behavior that wreaks havoc on both his employment history and on his relationships.

This is a tonally quiet novel and manages to maintain that air of calm even when both men's experiences are being described. What comes across vividly, though, is how deeply both men have been adversely affected by their experiences. Rachel Seiffert writes so well and so subtly about her characters that I would have happily read another few hundred pages. ( )

Here again, I have my evidence, this time on the contrary way, that this is the Book who builds the writer and not the other way around. I read the writer's first book, and I enjoyed it. Now that I was reading her second one, I was disappointed.
It is indeed a readable book with the potential for an excellent story, but it is falling in the level of the writer's first novel. Too bad, this is one more time that I witness how detrimental it is for "young writers" to win prizes for their first book.

And yet for the book itself - it is a love story between two people, each carrying something from the past. A story about traumas and their effect on life: despite my immediate interest in everything written about Ireland, especially about its wars in the 20th century, this book didn't interest me.

Maybe it's just because I never cared less about what happened "later" nor how good was another book of the same writer, or perhaps it's just that (and I'm apologetic) this book is boring. ( )

Just a quick review for this one: having recently read Seiffert’s new novel A Boy in Winter, (see my review) I decided to hunt out a copy of her 2007 novel, Afterwards. Like A Boy in Winter and The Dark Room, Afterwards explores guilt and moral responsibility, but the context is different to Seiffert’s WW2 novels. Former soldier Joseph is struggling with the aftermath of events in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, and David, the grandfather of his girlfriend Alice, is haunted by what happened in Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–60).
Alice is surrounded by people who keep their secrets to themselves. Her mother never married her father, and Alice has had no contact with him. It’s not something they talk about. Her grandfather is also reticent, not just about his service in Kenya but also about the circumstances of his marriage – which was a scandal at the time because his wife had been married before and there was stigma attached to divorce at that time. And Joe, slowly forging a comfortable relationship with Alice, has learned to manage what is surely PTSD by withdrawing from everything – including his work and his friendships. Alice is remarkably patient when Joe suddenly disappears out of her life without explanation: she spends a lot of time mulling over the best ways to get these secrets out in the open. She really wants to make this complicated relationship work.
So this is a quiet, meditative sort of novel, with a slow build up of tension.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/12/17/afterwards-by-rachel-seiffert/ ( )

This is a very well written novel with information given to you in brief sections of text. Conversations are not reported in full, but relevant direct speech is reported in indented sections. You get an effect much like private but controlled thought as your mind ranges over a subject. It’s like the author is ruminating over a series of events of which she has complete prior knowledge. Very cleverly and idiosyncratically done.

The review on the back says this is a novel about borders, and that’s true. There are countless examples of distance and boundaries scattered throughout, the greatest of these being shame. The ‘Afterwards’ of the title refers primarily to what happens to someone psychologically after they have committed a shameful act and the boundaries it places between them.

At the centre you have Alice.
Her father has abandoned her. She writes to him as an adult and he responds until she sends him a photograph of her. Quite literally, he cannot face his shame.
Her grandfather is responsible for hundreds of deaths, having bombed Kenya, but never saw the faces of his victims.
Her boyfriend has killed one man at close range.

A clever and meaningful set-up, and all delivered in the calmest prose I think I’ve ever read. The ending is also very good. “And afterwards..?” I asked myself. ( )