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The After Party
From the nationally bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls comes a story of 1950s Texas socialites and the one irresistible, controversial woman at the bright, hot center of it all.
Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Tall, blonde, beautiful, and strong, she dominates the room and the gossip columns. Every man who sees her seems to want her; every woman just wants to be her. But this is a highly ordered world of garden clubs and debutante balls. The money may flow as freely as the oil, but the freedom and power all belong to the men. What happens when a woman of indecorous appetites and desires like Joan wants more? What does it do to her best friend?
Devoted to Joan since childhood, Cece Buchanan is either her chaperone or her partner in crime, depending on whom you ask. But as Joan’s radical behavior escalates, Cece’s perspective shifts—forcing one provocative choice to appear the only one there is.
A thrilling glimpse into the sphere of the rich and beautiful at a memorable moment in history, The After Party unfurls a story of friendship as obsessive, euphoric, consuming, and complicated as any romance.
Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Tall, blonde, beautiful, and strong, she dominates the room and the gossip columns. Every man who sees her seems to want her; every woman just wants to be her. But this is a highly ordered world of garden clubs and debutante balls. The money may flow as freely as the oil, but the freedom and power all belong to the men. What happens when a woman of indecorous appetites and desires like Joan wants more? What does it do to her best friend?
Devoted to Joan since childhood, Cece Buchanan is either her chaperone or her partner in crime, depending on whom you ask. But as Joan’s radical behavior escalates, Cece’s perspective shifts—forcing one provocative choice to appear the only one there is.
A thrilling glimpse into the sphere of the rich and beautiful at a memorable moment in history, The After Party unfurls a story of friendship as obsessive, euphoric, consuming, and complicated as any romance.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published May 17, 2016
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February 2, 2024
Sir Walter Scott knew that a best setting for a historical was 60 years back, long ago enough to belong to another world, but still within living memory. In the case of The After Party, that living memory is mine. I lived in the very place & time the story is set = the River Oaks area of Houston, Texas in the 1950s. When the narrator Cici mentioned Troon Road I thought, OMG, we could have been neighbors. That’s only one block away; when my brother or I were out late & our mother, lying awake, heard the Morgan’s motor rev as we downshifted for the turn onto Chilton, she knew she could stop worrying and go to sleep. If the principal characters, Joan & Cici, had younger siblings, they might have been belonged to the same group of teenaged friends I belonged to that formed in the summer of 1957; over the following yearswe were to live our own private Secret History.
Like her characters, my family bought clothes @ Battelstein’s & Sakowitz’s (when I went to prep school in New England my clothes-snob roommate made fun of the labels; I labeled him “the littlest Brooks Brother”!) Just as soon as the Shamrock Hotel opened, my parents joined the Cork Club & I can well-remember that huge pool with that terribly high diving board (I only dared go off the board @ mid level), & went to deb parties there when I was an undergrad. Reading this book, I felt like a T-Rex visiting a natural history museum. For moments it almost felt like I was back in Texas then.
Anton DiSclafani's The Yonahlosee Riding Camp for Girls is one of the best school stories that I have ever read. The After Party belongs to the next generation; Joan & Cici are living out as 20-somethings the kind of life Yonahlosee girls were being prepared for: “good” marriages (@ least in Cici’s case) to men who worked for oil companies (3 of my friends fathers were with Humble Oil), membership in the Junior League & the River Oaks Country Club. In real life girls like Joan & Cici did @ least try college: Texas - “The University” - pledging Pi Phis or Kappas & perhaps marrying a Kappa Alpha, or Hollins or Sweetbriar, majoring in playing bridge & dating boys from W&L or UVA majoring in alcoholism. Joan & Cici would have had more of a cultural life too - going to plays @ the Alley Theatre & hearing the Houston Symphony Orchestra, which was already trying to become respectable.
Actually, Houston CC was the snob club & not everybody was a nouveau riche parvenu like Glenn McCarthy. There was some “old money” (Galveston before the hurricane) like the Andersons & the Claytons. But I am utterly overwhelmed by how much research Anton DiSclafani must have put into this book. did she unearth a huge cache of ancient issues of the River Oaks Times? I even caught the bartender’s reference to the Fortiers’ locker @ the Cork Club - the Byzantine Texas liquor laws made club membership imperative if you wanted to entertain. I’m not sure the author quite got the liquor laws right either (there was also something called a “liquor pool” - quite appropo for these characters!) Of course then I was too young to drink - legally that is.
I got too caught up in the nostalgia & historical reconstructions to pay all that much attention to the plot or the characters. The narrator Cici is intended as Joan’s fidus Achates living in the shadow of her glamorous but mysterious friend. Had I listened more carefully I should have figured out the story behind the disappearance of the teenaged Joan (something similar would happen with one of us). Neither of them quite reached the tragic level of Thea Atwell in Yonahlossee. (Which reminds me - the Fortiers certainly would have owed a ranch, with horses - maybe cattle - & nobody ever called “the Fat Stock Show” - pronounced as a cretic - “the Houston Fat”!) But my GR friends can do the criticizing. I loved this book for the memories. Next time I read a story set in one of my favorite historical periods such as England in the ‘40s, I’ll be aware of how close an author can get to reconstructing what it was really like to live in that time in the place. So close, but not quite. Thank you Anton DiSclafani for all your hard work. You got it almost perfect!
Like her characters, my family bought clothes @ Battelstein’s & Sakowitz’s (when I went to prep school in New England my clothes-snob roommate made fun of the labels; I labeled him “the littlest Brooks Brother”!) Just as soon as the Shamrock Hotel opened, my parents joined the Cork Club & I can well-remember that huge pool with that terribly high diving board (I only dared go off the board @ mid level), & went to deb parties there when I was an undergrad. Reading this book, I felt like a T-Rex visiting a natural history museum. For moments it almost felt like I was back in Texas then.
Anton DiSclafani's The Yonahlosee Riding Camp for Girls is one of the best school stories that I have ever read. The After Party belongs to the next generation; Joan & Cici are living out as 20-somethings the kind of life Yonahlosee girls were being prepared for: “good” marriages (@ least in Cici’s case) to men who worked for oil companies (3 of my friends fathers were with Humble Oil), membership in the Junior League & the River Oaks Country Club. In real life girls like Joan & Cici did @ least try college: Texas - “The University” - pledging Pi Phis or Kappas & perhaps marrying a Kappa Alpha, or Hollins or Sweetbriar, majoring in playing bridge & dating boys from W&L or UVA majoring in alcoholism. Joan & Cici would have had more of a cultural life too - going to plays @ the Alley Theatre & hearing the Houston Symphony Orchestra, which was already trying to become respectable.
Actually, Houston CC was the snob club & not everybody was a nouveau riche parvenu like Glenn McCarthy. There was some “old money” (Galveston before the hurricane) like the Andersons & the Claytons. But I am utterly overwhelmed by how much research Anton DiSclafani must have put into this book. did she unearth a huge cache of ancient issues of the River Oaks Times? I even caught the bartender’s reference to the Fortiers’ locker @ the Cork Club - the Byzantine Texas liquor laws made club membership imperative if you wanted to entertain. I’m not sure the author quite got the liquor laws right either (there was also something called a “liquor pool” - quite appropo for these characters!) Of course then I was too young to drink - legally that is.
I got too caught up in the nostalgia & historical reconstructions to pay all that much attention to the plot or the characters. The narrator Cici is intended as Joan’s fidus Achates living in the shadow of her glamorous but mysterious friend. Had I listened more carefully I should have figured out the story behind the disappearance of the teenaged Joan (something similar would happen with one of us). Neither of them quite reached the tragic level of Thea Atwell in Yonahlossee. (Which reminds me - the Fortiers certainly would have owed a ranch, with horses - maybe cattle - & nobody ever called “the Fat Stock Show” - pronounced as a cretic - “the Houston Fat”!) But my GR friends can do the criticizing. I loved this book for the memories. Next time I read a story set in one of my favorite historical periods such as England in the ‘40s, I’ll be aware of how close an author can get to reconstructing what it was really like to live in that time in the place. So close, but not quite. Thank you Anton DiSclafani for all your hard work. You got it almost perfect!
August 12, 2016
Ok, ok, you can quit thanking me. Yes, I read the book so you didn't have to. There is only one positive thing about the book....it's over!
November 15, 2015
I was a fan of Anton DiSclafani's The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and was very excited to get my hands on this one, which sounded even more interesting to me. Perhaps my expectations were too high, because while there was much I liked about this book, ultimately I was disappointed--although I'm having a little trouble sorting out the source of my disappointment.
The After Party is about two women who become friends in early childhood and stay friends into their mid-twenties, in 1957 (when much of the book's action takes place). Both of these women are named Joan, but when they start school, the teacher decides she can't have two Joans in the classroom and promptly rechristens our narrator Cecilia (her middle name), or Cece for short. This renaming is a neat (maybe too neat?) metaphor for the relationship between the two women: Cece's identity is always subsumed by the identity of the flashier, bolder, more beautiful Joan. What's more, Cece likes it that way.
The novel takes place in the Houston suburb of River Oaks, a high-society place that felt positively claustrophobic and suffocating to me. As with The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, the plot moves slowly, creating a feeling of being immersed in this world and the lives of its people. You have Cece, who wants nothing more than to be a mother and wife and stay in River Oaks forever; she's no ahead-of-her time revolutionary, and she doesn't even chafe under the restrictions the women of her world live with. She just wants her life to be settled. On the other hand, you have Joan, who does chafe under these restrictions and who attempts to rebel against them as much as she can. Joan is also hiding a BIG secret, and Cece's desperation to learn this secret is a large part of the plot's forward momentum.
I was mixed on both Cece and Joan. I could understand why Cece submitted so willingly to the restrictions her culture put on her; as the book makes clear, her childhood was quite turbulent (and some aspects of this were portrayed quite beautifully and movingly), and wifehood/motherhood/conformity clearly represented peace to her. I just didn't quite buy an intelligent character who never once questioned the limits on the lives of the women in River Oaks, and how they might have contributed to both her unhappy childhood and the unhappy life of her best friend Joan. But Joan was equally exasperating to me. She wanted something different from life than what she was getting in River Oaks; she wanted, as she herself put it, to be "where the ideas are"--New York, say, or Los Angeles. But she wasn't willing to work to make that dream a reality. She remained completely tethered to her father's money, was unwilling to be without it, and was therefore totally under her parents' thumb. As a result, her "rebellion" played out as having a lot of male suitors and sometimes making a scene at the River Oaks nightclubs. It was a Miley Cyrus-style rebellion: all reaction to her upbringing, no actual meaning behind anything she did. If she had had a few actual goals or original ideas, I might have liked her better.
Of course, Joan was also concealing the aforementioned BIG SECRET, which I was dying to learn, but which was ultimately a major letdown. Just think of the most soap-operatic secrets you can imagine, discard the most implausible ones, and you'll be left with the run-of-the-mill secret this book eventually reveals.
I do think my own expectations were part of the problem here. High-society women in the 1950s were privileged but had a limited lot in life; that's a fact. For me to expect more modern attitudes from either heroine is not exactly realistic, and the fact that DiSclafani writes within these limits is actually quite interesting and a more difficult task than modernizing her characters and making them ahead of their time. But I don't think I'm at fault for expecting something a little more complex and satisfying from the secret, given the way it was built up throughout the book.
I know there were plenty of people who weren't fond of the slow-moving nature of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, and those people probably won't like this one either. But fans of DiSclafani's first novel should check this one out; for all its flaws, it does have the same beautiful writing and immersive quality as its predecessor. While my experience with this one was mixed, I remain a fan of DiSclafani's writing and will happily check out her future offerings.
I received this ARC from the publisher via Goodreads. Thank you, Goodreads!
The After Party is about two women who become friends in early childhood and stay friends into their mid-twenties, in 1957 (when much of the book's action takes place). Both of these women are named Joan, but when they start school, the teacher decides she can't have two Joans in the classroom and promptly rechristens our narrator Cecilia (her middle name), or Cece for short. This renaming is a neat (maybe too neat?) metaphor for the relationship between the two women: Cece's identity is always subsumed by the identity of the flashier, bolder, more beautiful Joan. What's more, Cece likes it that way.
The novel takes place in the Houston suburb of River Oaks, a high-society place that felt positively claustrophobic and suffocating to me. As with The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, the plot moves slowly, creating a feeling of being immersed in this world and the lives of its people. You have Cece, who wants nothing more than to be a mother and wife and stay in River Oaks forever; she's no ahead-of-her time revolutionary, and she doesn't even chafe under the restrictions the women of her world live with. She just wants her life to be settled. On the other hand, you have Joan, who does chafe under these restrictions and who attempts to rebel against them as much as she can. Joan is also hiding a BIG secret, and Cece's desperation to learn this secret is a large part of the plot's forward momentum.
I was mixed on both Cece and Joan. I could understand why Cece submitted so willingly to the restrictions her culture put on her; as the book makes clear, her childhood was quite turbulent (and some aspects of this were portrayed quite beautifully and movingly), and wifehood/motherhood/conformity clearly represented peace to her. I just didn't quite buy an intelligent character who never once questioned the limits on the lives of the women in River Oaks, and how they might have contributed to both her unhappy childhood and the unhappy life of her best friend Joan. But Joan was equally exasperating to me. She wanted something different from life than what she was getting in River Oaks; she wanted, as she herself put it, to be "where the ideas are"--New York, say, or Los Angeles. But she wasn't willing to work to make that dream a reality. She remained completely tethered to her father's money, was unwilling to be without it, and was therefore totally under her parents' thumb. As a result, her "rebellion" played out as having a lot of male suitors and sometimes making a scene at the River Oaks nightclubs. It was a Miley Cyrus-style rebellion: all reaction to her upbringing, no actual meaning behind anything she did. If she had had a few actual goals or original ideas, I might have liked her better.
Of course, Joan was also concealing the aforementioned BIG SECRET, which I was dying to learn, but which was ultimately a major letdown. Just think of the most soap-operatic secrets you can imagine, discard the most implausible ones, and you'll be left with the run-of-the-mill secret this book eventually reveals.
I do think my own expectations were part of the problem here. High-society women in the 1950s were privileged but had a limited lot in life; that's a fact. For me to expect more modern attitudes from either heroine is not exactly realistic, and the fact that DiSclafani writes within these limits is actually quite interesting and a more difficult task than modernizing her characters and making them ahead of their time. But I don't think I'm at fault for expecting something a little more complex and satisfying from the secret, given the way it was built up throughout the book.
I know there were plenty of people who weren't fond of the slow-moving nature of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, and those people probably won't like this one either. But fans of DiSclafani's first novel should check this one out; for all its flaws, it does have the same beautiful writing and immersive quality as its predecessor. While my experience with this one was mixed, I remain a fan of DiSclafani's writing and will happily check out her future offerings.
I received this ARC from the publisher via Goodreads. Thank you, Goodreads!
May 31, 2016
It was ok. It started off really grabbing my attention but by the end I was so annoyed by the whole dynamic between Cece and Joan that I just felt "enough already". Joan is a narcissist and Cece is at best a clueless enabler and at her worst a total doormat.
December 24, 2022
3 (possibly 3.5 because of the last 75 pages, which were the best part)
This is a book about 2 women who grew up very wealthy in post war oil-booming Houston. One friend clearly has some mental health issues - my guess is borderline personality disorder - she is washed in wealth and popularity. She self medicates with alcohol and pills and promiscuity.
Her friend lost her mother at 14/15 years old and went to live in opulence with Joan.
This story is told by the “friend”, Cece. It’s 1957 now and they are 25 years old. The author takes you to previous years and back to 1957 again to tell the story. Cece is married with a small child and Joan is still the “wild one” in Houston’s society pages. Cece is swept into Joan’s mental illness as her “watchdog” but she doesn’t realize how Joan’s actions are becoming more important to her than her own life.
I know that Anton DiSclafani wanted to show me a historic view of over the top rich debutantes in mid century Houston. She added some actual night clubs in the story as well. I know she wanted to show me what little choices women had back then - things that we probably take for granted in our lives today.
I don’t think the writing or descriptions were bad but I think the story drones on a bit too much in too many places. I wasn’t captivated by it - it was just okay for me.
This is a book about 2 women who grew up very wealthy in post war oil-booming Houston. One friend clearly has some mental health issues - my guess is borderline personality disorder - she is washed in wealth and popularity. She self medicates with alcohol and pills and promiscuity.
Her friend lost her mother at 14/15 years old and went to live in opulence with Joan.
This story is told by the “friend”, Cece. It’s 1957 now and they are 25 years old. The author takes you to previous years and back to 1957 again to tell the story. Cece is married with a small child and Joan is still the “wild one” in Houston’s society pages. Cece is swept into Joan’s mental illness as her “watchdog” but she doesn’t realize how Joan’s actions are becoming more important to her than her own life.
I know that Anton DiSclafani wanted to show me a historic view of over the top rich debutantes in mid century Houston. She added some actual night clubs in the story as well. I know she wanted to show me what little choices women had back then - things that we probably take for granted in our lives today.
I don’t think the writing or descriptions were bad but I think the story drones on a bit too much in too many places. I wasn’t captivated by it - it was just okay for me.
June 4, 2016
The narrator and narration are ceaselessly banal and shallow; the plot nonexistent.
June 27, 2016
Disappointing kept reading because I thought there would be some better character development. I wanted a better
Explanation of why joan turned out as she did.
Explanation of why joan turned out as she did.
June 1, 2016
The After Party follows the story of a young socialite in 1950s Houston. Cece Buchanan has it all: money, popularity, a husband who adores her, a loving son, and a best friend all women - and perhaps some men - are envious of. Cece has been attached to Joan Fortier at the hip since childhood. When the death of Cece's mother and the virtual desertion of her father leaves her without parents at fifteen, the Fortier family takes Cece under their wing and into their home. Cece and Joan have their whole lives planned, but not everything is as solid as Cece wants to believe. Joan disappears shortly before their high school graduation without a word only to almost just as mysteriously reappear a year later. Fast forward six years and Cece is as devoted to Joan as ever even though Joan - and Cece's husband - doesn't want her to be. Cece soon realizes that Joan isn't the person she has always thought and Joan may just be hiding a few secrets that could destroy her and her well to-do family.
I know that women in the 1950s were not as innocent as I would like to imagine they were, but I was honestly a bit shocked by the looseness of the high class group of socialites in this book. The main objective of these women was to marry men of well standing, which of course was no surprise for the 50s. To Cece, this was a perfectly acceptable goal in life, but to Joan - it was not. Joan wanted something more. She wanted to go where the ideas are. But, I honestly never saw any real effort from Joan. For the majority of the book she seemed liked a spoiled rich girl who was willing to hurt her parents through any means necessary - even if that means sleeping with half of Houston. And her big secret? It was frankly a bit underwhelming and predictable.
Joan's behavior was deplorable, but I honestly found Cece's behavior to be even worse. As mentioned above, Cece had it all. Except Joan. Joan was the one thing Cece could never truly fully grasp, and it drove a wedge between Cece and her husband, Ray.
I know that women in the 1950s were not as innocent as I would like to imagine they were, but I was honestly a bit shocked by the looseness of the high class group of socialites in this book. The main objective of these women was to marry men of well standing, which of course was no surprise for the 50s. To Cece, this was a perfectly acceptable goal in life, but to Joan - it was not. Joan wanted something more. She wanted to go where the ideas are. But, I honestly never saw any real effort from Joan. For the majority of the book she seemed liked a spoiled rich girl who was willing to hurt her parents through any means necessary - even if that means sleeping with half of Houston. And her big secret? It was frankly a bit underwhelming and predictable.
Joan's behavior was deplorable, but I honestly found Cece's behavior to be even worse. As mentioned above, Cece had it all. Except Joan. Joan was the one thing Cece could never truly fully grasp, and it drove a wedge between Cece and her husband, Ray.
August 1, 2016
There really isn't much for me to say about this book besides the fact that it was an okay book, but not one that I would recommend or read again. I think that the synopsis set this book up like a very big mystery, but in the end, everything fell flat. I thought the whole book just limped to the end where I wondered what in the world was I supposed to get out of this book.
Told in the first person by CeCe Buchanan, we have her reminiscing about how she came to meet her best friend in the world, Joan Fortier. Both women's first names are Joan, but when they are in the same grade school as children, the teacher promptly changes our narrator's name to CeCe (cause apparently this is something people do? I don't know. I thought that whole thing was weird. How do you go from a Joan to a CeCe?) and she doesn't even mind, because in her mind, Joan Fortier was born to be a Joan.
The hero worship that CeCe has for Joan is way over the line to unhealthy. Frankly I would have probably given the book more stars if we actually had CeCe learning a thing. But instead, we have CeCe in love with Joan and her parents. CeCe wishes for the life that being a Fortier would entail. And even for a time she gets to live with them and take the place of a runaway Joan.
We are subjected to CeCe's weirdness anytime someone says anything negative about Joan (mutual friends and her husband) and her jealousy if Joan doesn't talk to her and involve her with all things.
I thought the writing was fine, but nothing to really write home about. It got a bit too purple prose for me there in the end. The flow was a drag to the overall book though. I think because there was no good stopping place for anything, the book just kept going and going and going. I really wish that the author had included two POVs one from CeCe and one from Joan. There seemed to be a lot of resentment that Joan was storing up and there also seemed to be mysteries still left unsaid that I really couldn't wrap my head around. Pretty much the gist of the whole book read to me, poor little rich girls and I was ultimately not feeling it.
The setting of Texas in the 1950s does not come alive at all during this book. Maybe because most of the book takes place at clubs, homes, and in CeCe's bedroom? I don't know. There wasn't much there there for all of the commentary on this being about Texas socialites in the 1950s.
The book just kind of ends abruptly. I think readers are supposed to see CeCe as better off now. But instead the book as a whole left me to think that she's still broken and needs Joan way too much.
Told in the first person by CeCe Buchanan, we have her reminiscing about how she came to meet her best friend in the world, Joan Fortier. Both women's first names are Joan, but when they are in the same grade school as children, the teacher promptly changes our narrator's name to CeCe (cause apparently this is something people do? I don't know. I thought that whole thing was weird. How do you go from a Joan to a CeCe?) and she doesn't even mind, because in her mind, Joan Fortier was born to be a Joan.
The hero worship that CeCe has for Joan is way over the line to unhealthy. Frankly I would have probably given the book more stars if we actually had CeCe learning a thing. But instead, we have CeCe in love with Joan and her parents. CeCe wishes for the life that being a Fortier would entail. And even for a time she gets to live with them and take the place of a runaway Joan.
We are subjected to CeCe's weirdness anytime someone says anything negative about Joan (mutual friends and her husband) and her jealousy if Joan doesn't talk to her and involve her with all things.
I thought the writing was fine, but nothing to really write home about. It got a bit too purple prose for me there in the end. The flow was a drag to the overall book though. I think because there was no good stopping place for anything, the book just kept going and going and going. I really wish that the author had included two POVs one from CeCe and one from Joan. There seemed to be a lot of resentment that Joan was storing up and there also seemed to be mysteries still left unsaid that I really couldn't wrap my head around. Pretty much the gist of the whole book read to me, poor little rich girls and I was ultimately not feeling it.
The setting of Texas in the 1950s does not come alive at all during this book. Maybe because most of the book takes place at clubs, homes, and in CeCe's bedroom? I don't know. There wasn't much there there for all of the commentary on this being about Texas socialites in the 1950s.
The book just kind of ends abruptly. I think readers are supposed to see CeCe as better off now. But instead the book as a whole left me to think that she's still broken and needs Joan way too much.
June 23, 2016
I loved the setting of this book - 1950s Houston: the Shamrock Hotel, huge mansions with beautiful gardens in River Oaks, the cocktails, the clothes, the big American cars. It was just so fun to read about that time and place. I also loved the writing. It was crisp and clear, and I was happy to pick up the book and to continue reading. I do wish the author had taken more risks with the plot, though. The tense, secretive mood of the book has you intrigued, but the truth, when you discover it, doesn't seem like such a big deal. In the end, I just wanted a bigger revelation, one which would have matched the mysterious tenor of the first three quarters of the book.
June 19, 2016
This book was perfection. 1950s Houston society, troubled girls, family drama, and fantastic writing.
December 20, 2018
I enjoyed this novel and especially liked the 50's time period. A lot of the book occurred in a Houston, TX hotel the Shamrock and the Cork Club inside. The Author's Note at the end added a nice touch after finishing as she described her connection to the Shamrock and Cork Club after all of her research.
This is a tale of two Joans. Inseperable and the very best of friends since childhood. One of them had a middle name and so she was called CeCe to tell them apart. As they got older, Joan and CeCe's relationship strained, but CeCe held onto the notion that she and Joan would remain friends forever. She started to have an obsession with Joan and always sought her out for recognition as her best friend. When CeCe married and had a child her preoccupation with Joan began to interfere with her marriage. Joan's lifestyle was glamorous and promiscuous and slowly spiraling out of control. CeCe would always be there to catch her fall. But when is enough? Can she save Joan? This a story about friedship and obsession.
This is a tale of two Joans. Inseperable and the very best of friends since childhood. One of them had a middle name and so she was called CeCe to tell them apart. As they got older, Joan and CeCe's relationship strained, but CeCe held onto the notion that she and Joan would remain friends forever. She started to have an obsession with Joan and always sought her out for recognition as her best friend. When CeCe married and had a child her preoccupation with Joan began to interfere with her marriage. Joan's lifestyle was glamorous and promiscuous and slowly spiraling out of control. CeCe would always be there to catch her fall. But when is enough? Can she save Joan? This a story about friedship and obsession.
June 16, 2016
I absolutely loved Anton DiSclafani’s debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, so I’ve been making gimme-hands ever since I found out she had a second novel coming out this spring. And even though The After Party isn’t likely to stick in my mind the way her first book did, it’s still really dang good. In it, narrator Cece has a singular fixation in her life: her best friend since childhood, Joan, who is wild even by MTV’s Real World standards, let alone the standards of her actual world, which is oil-booming 1950s Houston. Cece spends almost all her time thinking about Joan, worrying about Joan, or cleaning up Joan’s messes. Even when she’s grown, with a husband and a baby, Cece’s life is more about Joan than anyone else, even herself or her own family.
Cece’s obsession, while unhealthy and maybe a bit creepy, is at least somewhat understandable—Joan is a fascinating character, elusive and enigmatic even while she’s the center of attention (and she’s always the center of attention). But Cece’s neediness occasionally drives Joan away, and because we’re limited to Cece’s perspective, Joan is always at a frustrating distance. An effective choice, if DiSclafani is trying to invoke in the reader Cece’s own feeling of never having quite as much of Joan as she wants, but decidedly less interesting than hearing Joan’s story from her own mouth.
This method of using a comparatively bland bystander character to narrate the adventures of the main attraction seems to be popular lately, and I can think of several books I’ve enjoyed that employ it (The Girls by Emma Cline and The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor come to mind, though there are others). In this case, though, I would rather have read about Joan without Cece as a lens. One of the aspects I loved most about The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls was Thea, the bold, sexy, risk-taking main character—a character not unlike Joan, in fact, now that I consider it. For my money, DiSclafani is at her best when she gives her most charismatic character the microphone.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
Cece’s obsession, while unhealthy and maybe a bit creepy, is at least somewhat understandable—Joan is a fascinating character, elusive and enigmatic even while she’s the center of attention (and she’s always the center of attention). But Cece’s neediness occasionally drives Joan away, and because we’re limited to Cece’s perspective, Joan is always at a frustrating distance. An effective choice, if DiSclafani is trying to invoke in the reader Cece’s own feeling of never having quite as much of Joan as she wants, but decidedly less interesting than hearing Joan’s story from her own mouth.
This method of using a comparatively bland bystander character to narrate the adventures of the main attraction seems to be popular lately, and I can think of several books I’ve enjoyed that employ it (The Girls by Emma Cline and The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor come to mind, though there are others). In this case, though, I would rather have read about Joan without Cece as a lens. One of the aspects I loved most about The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls was Thea, the bold, sexy, risk-taking main character—a character not unlike Joan, in fact, now that I consider it. For my money, DiSclafani is at her best when she gives her most charismatic character the microphone.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
May 22, 2016
I've been a fan of Anton DiScalfani's since her best selling debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, and have been eagerly anticipating The After Party. DiScalfani did NOT disappoint.
Set in 1957 Houston, The After Party follows the friendship of two women: Joan and Cece, who have been best friends since childhood. These women grew up together. They were there during pivotal moments in their lives from first loves to losing a parent, and through it all Cece places Joan on a pedestal. Joan is the epicenter of Cece's life, and this often conflicts with Cece's married life especially as we see Joan's life spiraling out.
DiScalfani paints a brilliant portrait of female friendships and the intricacies of our relationships. Of the lengths we go to for our friends. Of even the people we try to become for our friends. The After Party begs the question: what would you do if you saw a friend spiraling out? Would you run in and save them? Would you try to get to the bottom of their behavior or would you sit there and watch it all unfold?
The After Party will leave you with the best kind of hangover: a book hangover from reading an emotionally obsessive tale about two friends.
I highly recommend it.
Set in 1957 Houston, The After Party follows the friendship of two women: Joan and Cece, who have been best friends since childhood. These women grew up together. They were there during pivotal moments in their lives from first loves to losing a parent, and through it all Cece places Joan on a pedestal. Joan is the epicenter of Cece's life, and this often conflicts with Cece's married life especially as we see Joan's life spiraling out.
DiScalfani paints a brilliant portrait of female friendships and the intricacies of our relationships. Of the lengths we go to for our friends. Of even the people we try to become for our friends. The After Party begs the question: what would you do if you saw a friend spiraling out? Would you run in and save them? Would you try to get to the bottom of their behavior or would you sit there and watch it all unfold?
The After Party will leave you with the best kind of hangover: a book hangover from reading an emotionally obsessive tale about two friends.
I highly recommend it.
July 5, 2016
Giving two stars because of some well written passages, but really, it's 1 1/2. I did like DeSciafani's first book, but this effort, which promised a reflection of society in Houston of the '50's, did not present either the era or the location with any specificity. Why Cece finds Joan so fascinating is beyond me, since neither character is presented as anything but cookie cutter. If I wasn't reading this to review, I wouldn't have gotten past page 20.
July 13, 2016
Nope, can't do it anymore. Joan is a boring and shitty human being and Cece is a weird, stalkerish doormat. I got to 40% and was too exhausted and annoyed to continue.
April 3, 2016
Goodreads Giveaway. 4 stars.
May 24, 2016
Anton DiSclafani returns following The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls with her latest, THE AFTER PARTY - a world of glitz, power, glamour, privilege, and wealth in 20th century Houston—from past to present, a story of shifting identity, secrets, obsession, and at the heart –a timeless female friendship.
Set in the 1950s, in Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood (one of the wealthiest in the country), The After Party is centered around Texas socialites, frequenting the Shamrock Hotel’s Cork Club, Houston, Texas.
We meet two leading women, best friends as very young girls and growing into a complex relationship: CeCe Buchanan and Joan Fortier. Both with names “Joan”, until CeCe began using her middle name. Each taking a different path.
CeCe grew up wanting nothing more than a family, a stable marriage, a nice home and attend parties at the Shamrock Hotel (Cork Club), where the elite gathered in their finest (Think Gatsby). Nice touch with the "green" on the cover, to coincide with many shades of green for the famous hotel décor, and ongoing theme of money throughout the book. River Oaks was the place to be. Joan thought otherwise.
From past to present we flash to 1957 CeCe as an adult, married to Ray, with three-year-old son, Tommy. To the single, wild, rebellious, and free self-destructive, Joan. Told from CeCe’s point of view.
From 1937, a young girl, CeCe has always been in awe of Joan, starting as early as kindergarten. Joan had the looks, charm, and wealth. Boys flocked to her. Enigmatic.
After CeCe’s critical mom dies, while she is in high school, CeCe moves in with the Fortiers for a few years. Cece only wants to remain in the town, marry, and be a mother. She is looking for stability; something, she never had growing up, and craves it. She cannot imagine anyone desiring anything different. CeCe, a loyal subservient friend.
Joan is the complete opposite. “Houston’s most famous socialite.” Tall, blonde, bold, wild, and gorgeous. She is out for herself. She uses her looks and money to be as daring and provocative—she seeks independence; however, always relying on others to pay her way. Joan always wants something different. Rebellious. Visions of Hollywood? What would take her away from her controlling parents? She wants New York or a larger city. To spread her wings.
In Joan’s senior year of high school something changed. She left and moved away without any warning. CeCe was heartbroken, and never stopped worrying about her best friend. CeCe was always there to clean up Joan’s messes (there were plenty)! She was never envious or jealous, she liked Joan getting the attention.
However, CeCe's obsession, carried over through her married life. Joan was always at the top of her mind. She was determined to help her reckless friend find her way back. Why did she disappear without a word?
Mysteriously, Joan returns a year later. She is different. She is wilder than before. Sleeping around with multiple partners, drugs, alcohol, making scenes at social functions—Self-destruction. She did not care or give a thought to what others thought. CeCe does not understand Joan’s behavior.
What lurks behind this no care attitude and tough façade? What is she hiding? CeCe is determined to find answers to her friend’s secret. Joan continues to spiral downward with her scandalous behavior.
In the meantime, CeCe is trying to hold on to her marriage and family, with a husband who wants more children, and torn with worry over her friend. Her obsession with Joan’s happiness clouds her own world. DiSclafani, slowly unravels the mystery of Joan, the secret ---a complex woman in the eyes of CeCe, and how the news will affect her.
From burdens we carry, and burdens we place on others, the power and perils of female sexuality. In a time when women had little identity. They were to marry, be the wife and mother. Joan wanted to break free; however, she relied on her parent’s money or a man to break away, versus making her own way. However, she was met with obstacles which changed the course of her life. Joan has her own secret. A part CeCe is kept in the dark.
CeCe also had her own regrets and Joan was always a part of it. There was an act between them in high school, and this is something which will always bond them. A dark secret. CeCe feels an overwhelming need to protect Joan, no matter the consequences. An eighteen-year-old girl; when a girl stops being a child.
Choices, heartbreak, chances, regrets, secrets, failing to live up, or be enough. From motherhood, strong bonds of friendship, and self, which carries you through the most turbulent times. Does your life experiences define you? Guarding your heart, putting up walls. A perfect example of how people can judge, when they do not know the individual person’s road traveled. Not all people want the same things.
I listened to the audio version and Dorothy Dillingham Blue delivered an outstanding performance. Some of her sex scenes were hilarious, and found myself laughing out loud while running errands.
Entertaining and absorbing, a look at sexuality and struggles of women in this era; nice research. An exploration into the intricacies and emotions of friendship, society, and family pressures. From two extremes: Motherhood the traditional way, and the bold society rebellious roaring 50’s.
Looking forward to reading more from the author! I enjoyed reading about the inspiration (River Oaks) behind After the Party. I am always intrigued, further enhancing the overall reader experience. I must be on a kick, reading historic fiction of the glamour years- My third in a row!
JDCMustReadBooks
Set in the 1950s, in Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood (one of the wealthiest in the country), The After Party is centered around Texas socialites, frequenting the Shamrock Hotel’s Cork Club, Houston, Texas.
We meet two leading women, best friends as very young girls and growing into a complex relationship: CeCe Buchanan and Joan Fortier. Both with names “Joan”, until CeCe began using her middle name. Each taking a different path.
CeCe grew up wanting nothing more than a family, a stable marriage, a nice home and attend parties at the Shamrock Hotel (Cork Club), where the elite gathered in their finest (Think Gatsby). Nice touch with the "green" on the cover, to coincide with many shades of green for the famous hotel décor, and ongoing theme of money throughout the book. River Oaks was the place to be. Joan thought otherwise.
From past to present we flash to 1957 CeCe as an adult, married to Ray, with three-year-old son, Tommy. To the single, wild, rebellious, and free self-destructive, Joan. Told from CeCe’s point of view.
From 1937, a young girl, CeCe has always been in awe of Joan, starting as early as kindergarten. Joan had the looks, charm, and wealth. Boys flocked to her. Enigmatic.
After CeCe’s critical mom dies, while she is in high school, CeCe moves in with the Fortiers for a few years. Cece only wants to remain in the town, marry, and be a mother. She is looking for stability; something, she never had growing up, and craves it. She cannot imagine anyone desiring anything different. CeCe, a loyal subservient friend.
Joan is the complete opposite. “Houston’s most famous socialite.” Tall, blonde, bold, wild, and gorgeous. She is out for herself. She uses her looks and money to be as daring and provocative—she seeks independence; however, always relying on others to pay her way. Joan always wants something different. Rebellious. Visions of Hollywood? What would take her away from her controlling parents? She wants New York or a larger city. To spread her wings.
In Joan’s senior year of high school something changed. She left and moved away without any warning. CeCe was heartbroken, and never stopped worrying about her best friend. CeCe was always there to clean up Joan’s messes (there were plenty)! She was never envious or jealous, she liked Joan getting the attention.
However, CeCe's obsession, carried over through her married life. Joan was always at the top of her mind. She was determined to help her reckless friend find her way back. Why did she disappear without a word?
Mysteriously, Joan returns a year later. She is different. She is wilder than before. Sleeping around with multiple partners, drugs, alcohol, making scenes at social functions—Self-destruction. She did not care or give a thought to what others thought. CeCe does not understand Joan’s behavior.
What lurks behind this no care attitude and tough façade? What is she hiding? CeCe is determined to find answers to her friend’s secret. Joan continues to spiral downward with her scandalous behavior.
In the meantime, CeCe is trying to hold on to her marriage and family, with a husband who wants more children, and torn with worry over her friend. Her obsession with Joan’s happiness clouds her own world. DiSclafani, slowly unravels the mystery of Joan, the secret ---a complex woman in the eyes of CeCe, and how the news will affect her.
From burdens we carry, and burdens we place on others, the power and perils of female sexuality. In a time when women had little identity. They were to marry, be the wife and mother. Joan wanted to break free; however, she relied on her parent’s money or a man to break away, versus making her own way. However, she was met with obstacles which changed the course of her life. Joan has her own secret. A part CeCe is kept in the dark.
CeCe also had her own regrets and Joan was always a part of it. There was an act between them in high school, and this is something which will always bond them. A dark secret. CeCe feels an overwhelming need to protect Joan, no matter the consequences. An eighteen-year-old girl; when a girl stops being a child.
Choices, heartbreak, chances, regrets, secrets, failing to live up, or be enough. From motherhood, strong bonds of friendship, and self, which carries you through the most turbulent times. Does your life experiences define you? Guarding your heart, putting up walls. A perfect example of how people can judge, when they do not know the individual person’s road traveled. Not all people want the same things.
I listened to the audio version and Dorothy Dillingham Blue delivered an outstanding performance. Some of her sex scenes were hilarious, and found myself laughing out loud while running errands.
Entertaining and absorbing, a look at sexuality and struggles of women in this era; nice research. An exploration into the intricacies and emotions of friendship, society, and family pressures. From two extremes: Motherhood the traditional way, and the bold society rebellious roaring 50’s.
Looking forward to reading more from the author! I enjoyed reading about the inspiration (River Oaks) behind After the Party. I am always intrigued, further enhancing the overall reader experience. I must be on a kick, reading historic fiction of the glamour years- My third in a row!
JDCMustReadBooks
May 18, 2016
What it's all about...
Joan and Cece have known each other since they were in Kindergarten...practically. Joan...wealthy...not necessarily beautiful but outrageous in her behavior. Cece...the friend who needs her. Cece is sometimes referred to as Joan's "handmaiden". They kind of need each other but Cece always feels needier than Joan. If I started to analyze their relationship...it's weird...yes...it's a weird one. Cece tries to protect Joan but Joan doesn't seem to always need Cece's protection. When they were seniors in high school Joan just disappeared for nearly a year...while Cece lived with Joan's parents and lived out her senior year the way they...Cece and Joan...had originally planned...the only difference is Cece did it without Joan. And Cece has always wanted to know about the year Joan disappeared.
Why I wanted to read it...
The era and location of this book is so important to this book...Texas, the 50's, a
everyone incredibly wealthy due to oil. In my head the style and era evoked a sort of Texas style Mad Men...lots of gin cocktails and lots of proper dressing and lots of cigarette smoking. And everyone everywhere ate rare big steaks.
What made me truly enjoy this book...
I just loved every word of this book. It was a slow and delicious tale. I started by being fascinated by both women but about halfway through this book I didn't like either of them...Joan especially.
Why you should read it, too...
Readers who love books like Bittersweet and June and A Hundred Summers...should love this book. It's a leisurely yet intense book. Fascinatingly flawed characters, interesting situations and the most beautiful writing...I loved reading this book.
June 28, 2016
I'm not sure why I finished this book other than I can't bear to put a book down. The clinginess of the narrator was extremely off-putting.
May 27, 2016
This is a wonderful coming of age story about two young girls growing up in the opulent, oil era in Houston, Texas. It chronicles their lives from early childhood through mid-twenties. You have the beautiful, troubled Joan Fortier who everyone envies and adores but can't read enough about her latest escapades in the morning papers gossip page. She has always lived by her own set of rules which was quite scandalous in the 1940's and 50s. Where women were best seen and not heard, they were to marry well and follow in their mother's hard-won footsteps down the golden path.
CeCe Buchanan who has been Joan's best friend since their nannies took them to the same park as toddlers. They were inseparable growing up, making plans as how they were going to live their lives together with their well to do husbands and children. CeCe always put Joan's welfare and demands over her own happiness for as long as she can remember. She's fiercely devoted to Joan and took great pains to hide the facts that her best friend was on a path of destruction at a very early age.
CeCe always felt she owed Joan and her family a great debt for stepping in to help her through a tragedy that she suffered through as a young teenager. But did Joan's parents do this to help CeCe or basically exploiting her love for Joan to their advantage by having the respectable CeCe around to try to keep their wild child in check?
The lines get pretty blurred for poor CeCe when it comes to her relationship with Joan. Is she her caretaker or best friend? She's heard the snide comments between the other's in their little clique, she know's how foolish she must look to everyone else, but they don't understand the Joan she thinks she knows. She will never be able to control Joan's erratic behavior no matter how hard she tries. She's got a life of her own now, one that she's precariously close to losing if she doesn't untangle this unhealthy obsession with Joan for once and for all.
This has to be one of my favorite books to have read this year. I loved the rich characters and I lost myself in the Ms. DiSclafani's description of that beautiful era where everything was just so perfect. I've not read her first novel, "The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls" even though it's been on my TBR list but after reading this one it's certainly moved itself to the top of my list. This is an intriguing, mysterious novel that you can't put down.
I would like to thank www. firsttoread.com for providing me with an e-galley of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
CeCe Buchanan who has been Joan's best friend since their nannies took them to the same park as toddlers. They were inseparable growing up, making plans as how they were going to live their lives together with their well to do husbands and children. CeCe always put Joan's welfare and demands over her own happiness for as long as she can remember. She's fiercely devoted to Joan and took great pains to hide the facts that her best friend was on a path of destruction at a very early age.
CeCe always felt she owed Joan and her family a great debt for stepping in to help her through a tragedy that she suffered through as a young teenager. But did Joan's parents do this to help CeCe or basically exploiting her love for Joan to their advantage by having the respectable CeCe around to try to keep their wild child in check?
The lines get pretty blurred for poor CeCe when it comes to her relationship with Joan. Is she her caretaker or best friend? She's heard the snide comments between the other's in their little clique, she know's how foolish she must look to everyone else, but they don't understand the Joan she thinks she knows. She will never be able to control Joan's erratic behavior no matter how hard she tries. She's got a life of her own now, one that she's precariously close to losing if she doesn't untangle this unhealthy obsession with Joan for once and for all.
This has to be one of my favorite books to have read this year. I loved the rich characters and I lost myself in the Ms. DiSclafani's description of that beautiful era where everything was just so perfect. I've not read her first novel, "The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls" even though it's been on my TBR list but after reading this one it's certainly moved itself to the top of my list. This is an intriguing, mysterious novel that you can't put down.
I would like to thank www. firsttoread.com for providing me with an e-galley of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
December 28, 2018
This was my final selection for my self-created 2018 challenge to read a book a month from the last 12 years of my TBR lists. I have mixed feelings about it. I absolutely loved this author's debut novel, <>The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. This second novel, though it mines similar themes, did not quite measure up to the wonder of the first one.
Set in the 1950s uber-rich Houston, TX, neighborhood of River Oaks, it is almost a psychological thriller. Joan Fortier and Cece Buchanan have been best friends practically since birth. When Cece's mother dies, she is taken in by the Fortier family at 14 years of age, since her father had abandoned his wife and daughter and remarried.
As they move through high school, Joan becomes stranger and wilder every year while Cece becomes obsessed with their almost sister-like relationship. Thus the plot revolves around why these two act the way they do and whether or not Cece will follow her friend into self-destruction or take advantage of her good fortune to create the life she wants.
It is also a story about the truly horrible things mothers do in trying to keep daughters "pure" and "acceptable" and, truth be told, safe. An age old problem that is always made more tricky when the daughter is into sex and rebellion and not at all interested in being pure or acceptable. The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls was another version of that story.
I can't quite put my finger on why I liked The After Party less. The plotting was tight and good, though the characters were less well drawn. The atmosphere of oil wealth and privilege was clearly well researched but this time the author seemed more removed from the scene and her research overwhelmed the emotion. I found the ending weak and not completely believable.
Still, I do admire the author's unflinching ability to take on the disastrous results when mothers fail to help their children navigate puberty. That is how we end up with the whole ridiculous scene we still have when it comes to sex. Patriarchy is the more guilty party but Matriarchy follows close behind. OK, I said that, though I also think an enlightened matriarchy could solve the whole thing in a few generations.
July 4, 2016
First, what I enjoyed:
The setting- 1950's Houston, Texas, land of big oil money
The social scene- competitive men and their wives partying extravagantly
The beverages- gimlets, Manhattans, dirty martinis, champagne, aged scotch
The homes- extravagant modern structures with swimming pools, bars and hired help
The cliques- whose currency was based on the latest gossip on each other, especially valuable if about those behaving badly outside their group, and their surprisingly uncomplicated support of each other
The fashion- fulsomely described, from outrageously expensive dotted Swiss sundresses to satin evening wear and Ferragamo shoes
But, not so much:
The story of the two Joans, the best friends-one so beautiful, blonde, entitled and the other renamed by their first teacher to avoid confusion to CeCe(ceecee), pretty, so eager to please.
The sl..ow...ly... unfolding suspense, or lack thereof, while CeCe drifts between the girls' pasts and the secrets trickled at a meltingly sparse rate in the women's present lives, under the hot and humid Houston weather.
The ongoing, passive and oblivious acceptance of utterly dysfunctional relationships and the resolution, equally passive (in my opinion).
After the Party is aptly titled. Once the superficial high of the enjoyable bits sate you, the remaining slog of a tale is not so much a lesson but a hangover.
Unfortunate, because I enjoyed the author's debut novel The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls immensely.
The setting- 1950's Houston, Texas, land of big oil money
The social scene- competitive men and their wives partying extravagantly
The beverages- gimlets, Manhattans, dirty martinis, champagne, aged scotch
The homes- extravagant modern structures with swimming pools, bars and hired help
The cliques- whose currency was based on the latest gossip on each other, especially valuable if about those behaving badly outside their group, and their surprisingly uncomplicated support of each other
The fashion- fulsomely described, from outrageously expensive dotted Swiss sundresses to satin evening wear and Ferragamo shoes
But, not so much:
The story of the two Joans, the best friends-one so beautiful, blonde, entitled and the other renamed by their first teacher to avoid confusion to CeCe(ceecee), pretty, so eager to please.
The sl..ow...ly... unfolding suspense, or lack thereof, while CeCe drifts between the girls' pasts and the secrets trickled at a meltingly sparse rate in the women's present lives, under the hot and humid Houston weather.
The ongoing, passive and oblivious acceptance of utterly dysfunctional relationships and the resolution, equally passive (in my opinion).
After the Party is aptly titled. Once the superficial high of the enjoyable bits sate you, the remaining slog of a tale is not so much a lesson but a hangover.
Unfortunate, because I enjoyed the author's debut novel The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls immensely.
May 2, 2016
I really wish I had liked Anton DiSclafani's new novel, "The After Party", better than I did. Set in the 1950's in Houston's tony River Oaks area, the story of of two socialites, both named Joan at birth. But dark-haired Joan Beirne's name was changed in school to Cece (her middle name) because the other Joan - Joan Fortier was blonde and beautiful. It wasn't that Joan Beirne wasn't good looking - it's just that Joan Fortier was an "it" girl. The girls grew up together and the Fortiers sort of adopted Cece when her mother died of cancer and her father moved away. For the next 15 years, Cece lived in Joan's shadow.
Joan Fortier was an almost classic narcissistic. The world - family, friends, and people in her wake - looked on as Joan flew carelessly and destructively through life. Cece and Joan's parents enabled Joan, cleaning up her messes as she went along. And so the story of Cece and Joan went on. However, at what point does Cece - who by her thirties had married a good man and had a child - say "no more, Joan"? That's what the book took a while to get to. DiSclafani really gives little reason why a relationship should be so one-sided as Joan and Cece's was. The question should be asked does love or responsibility for another's life actions is enough a grounding for a relationship? I suppose DiSclafani does answer those questions, but it takes a while for her to do so.
I'm giving the book three stars but I am not at all sorry I read it. I'm also very interested in reading other reviews of the book. This book could engender a lot of discussion.
Joan Fortier was an almost classic narcissistic. The world - family, friends, and people in her wake - looked on as Joan flew carelessly and destructively through life. Cece and Joan's parents enabled Joan, cleaning up her messes as she went along. And so the story of Cece and Joan went on. However, at what point does Cece - who by her thirties had married a good man and had a child - say "no more, Joan"? That's what the book took a while to get to. DiSclafani really gives little reason why a relationship should be so one-sided as Joan and Cece's was. The question should be asked does love or responsibility for another's life actions is enough a grounding for a relationship? I suppose DiSclafani does answer those questions, but it takes a while for her to do so.
I'm giving the book three stars but I am not at all sorry I read it. I'm also very interested in reading other reviews of the book. This book could engender a lot of discussion.
April 1, 2016
I got a digital ARC of this book from the publisher, and was excited to read it as I quite enjoyed The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by this author several years ago. This one was a bit of a disappointment, though. Both books were a pretty fast, fun read, but this one is much less involving, ultimately.
Joan, Joan, Joan-- I got pretty sick of hearing her name, honestly. The narrator, Cece, grows up with her friend Joan, and is completely obsessed with her for reasons that aren't really that apparent to the reader. She's one of those people who have a lot of glamour, the person in the room everyone finds themselves looking at, but she's erratic, immoderate in her appetites, and doesn't seem to care much about most of the people around her. I was interested in the setting, Houston in the booming with oil 1950s. There are lots of people with a lot of money, and it was fun reading about the clothes, the parties, the terribly elaborate unwritten rules that everyone-- especially women, but not Joan-- must follow. Joan has a secret, and you do find out about it by the end of the book, but it's kind of anticlimactic. None of the characters in this book seem to have much life in them, I'm sorry to say, although I did sort of like Ray, Cece's long-suffering husband, but maybe just because he really likes to dance?
Joan, Joan, Joan-- I got pretty sick of hearing her name, honestly. The narrator, Cece, grows up with her friend Joan, and is completely obsessed with her for reasons that aren't really that apparent to the reader. She's one of those people who have a lot of glamour, the person in the room everyone finds themselves looking at, but she's erratic, immoderate in her appetites, and doesn't seem to care much about most of the people around her. I was interested in the setting, Houston in the booming with oil 1950s. There are lots of people with a lot of money, and it was fun reading about the clothes, the parties, the terribly elaborate unwritten rules that everyone-- especially women, but not Joan-- must follow. Joan has a secret, and you do find out about it by the end of the book, but it's kind of anticlimactic. None of the characters in this book seem to have much life in them, I'm sorry to say, although I did sort of like Ray, Cece's long-suffering husband, but maybe just because he really likes to dance?
May 18, 2016
Was not expecting that revelation at all. This was such a quick and wonderful read. What length would you go to for a friend? How would you try to save her when she didn't want to be saved?
June 10, 2016
This is the worst book I have ever read and I want the last two days back.
July 15, 2016
Life's too short to read bad books. There are very few books I can't finish but this is one of them.
May 26, 2016
Full review at: http://everydayiwritethebookblog.com/...
The After Party is a buzzy book this spring, one that I've seen on a few "Summer Must Read" lists, and I jumped at the chance to get the audio version a few weeks ago. I never read DiSclafani's earlier novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls, but had heard great things about it.
The After Party takes place in the mid-1950s in Houston, and it is about two women: CeCe Buchanan, the narrator, and Joan Fortier, her best friend. CeCe and Joan grew up together, inseparable. CeCe always admired Joan's wealth and beauty, but felt she fell short on both counts. When CeCe was fifteen, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. Her father had moved out of the house earlier to be with another woman, so CeCe moved into Joan's huge house and was supported by Joan's parents until she reached adulthood and married.
The After Party is about the strange, tortured relationship between CeCe and Joan, which followed a similar pattern: Joan acted out, CeCe tried to tame and protect her, Joan pushed CeCe away, Joan left for some significant period of time, Joan returned without warning and Joan kept CeCe at arm's length but permitted just enough closeness to keep CeCe in her life, but always wanting more. This pattern continued for years. CeCe got married and had a son, but Joan was always a looming presence - or absence - in her life. The book is about CeCe's coming to terms with this imperfect friendship, and her ultimate understanding of why Joan acted the way she did.
So here are my issues with The After Party:
CeCe was frustratingly inconsistent. She'd insist that she didn't care about Joan anymore, that she was through with her, and that she loved her husband and son more than anything, and then a paragraph later she'd contradict herself. I understand that this was DiSclafani's way of conveying Joan's power over CeCe, but it was frustrating as a reader.
I didn't buy into the Joan Fortier mystique. She was self-centered and not a particularly supportive friend. I did understand why CeCe felt so indebted to Joan (I won't spoil that here in the review), but why she was so enthralled, I don't know. This is the type of friendship that runs its course when people grow up.
The book needed more editing. There were certain phrases that were repeated over and over. Aside from my eventual fatigue with hearing the name "Joan" so many times, I also grew tired of hearing CeCe say the same things. Perhaps she was trying to convince herself that she was happy in her life? Whatever the reason, the book needed another good read-through with a red pen.
That said, I do think DiSclafani is a good writer, the repetition aside. She expertly conveyed CeCe's loneliness and her anxiety about her young son, who had not spoken a single word well into his 3s. There were two chapters that I found incredibly moving: when CeCe's mother was dying, and when CeCe meets up with her childhood nanny, ten years later. Those two chapters were excellent. I also liked the author's depiction of high society Houston in the 1950s, and how it trapped women into certain roles and expectations.
But I was angry by the time I finished The After Party - angry at CeCe and angry at the book.
The After Party is a buzzy book this spring, one that I've seen on a few "Summer Must Read" lists, and I jumped at the chance to get the audio version a few weeks ago. I never read DiSclafani's earlier novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls, but had heard great things about it.
The After Party takes place in the mid-1950s in Houston, and it is about two women: CeCe Buchanan, the narrator, and Joan Fortier, her best friend. CeCe and Joan grew up together, inseparable. CeCe always admired Joan's wealth and beauty, but felt she fell short on both counts. When CeCe was fifteen, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. Her father had moved out of the house earlier to be with another woman, so CeCe moved into Joan's huge house and was supported by Joan's parents until she reached adulthood and married.
The After Party is about the strange, tortured relationship between CeCe and Joan, which followed a similar pattern: Joan acted out, CeCe tried to tame and protect her, Joan pushed CeCe away, Joan left for some significant period of time, Joan returned without warning and Joan kept CeCe at arm's length but permitted just enough closeness to keep CeCe in her life, but always wanting more. This pattern continued for years. CeCe got married and had a son, but Joan was always a looming presence - or absence - in her life. The book is about CeCe's coming to terms with this imperfect friendship, and her ultimate understanding of why Joan acted the way she did.
So here are my issues with The After Party:
CeCe was frustratingly inconsistent. She'd insist that she didn't care about Joan anymore, that she was through with her, and that she loved her husband and son more than anything, and then a paragraph later she'd contradict herself. I understand that this was DiSclafani's way of conveying Joan's power over CeCe, but it was frustrating as a reader.
I didn't buy into the Joan Fortier mystique. She was self-centered and not a particularly supportive friend. I did understand why CeCe felt so indebted to Joan (I won't spoil that here in the review), but why she was so enthralled, I don't know. This is the type of friendship that runs its course when people grow up.
The book needed more editing. There were certain phrases that were repeated over and over. Aside from my eventual fatigue with hearing the name "Joan" so many times, I also grew tired of hearing CeCe say the same things. Perhaps she was trying to convince herself that she was happy in her life? Whatever the reason, the book needed another good read-through with a red pen.
That said, I do think DiSclafani is a good writer, the repetition aside. She expertly conveyed CeCe's loneliness and her anxiety about her young son, who had not spoken a single word well into his 3s. There were two chapters that I found incredibly moving: when CeCe's mother was dying, and when CeCe meets up with her childhood nanny, ten years later. Those two chapters were excellent. I also liked the author's depiction of high society Houston in the 1950s, and how it trapped women into certain roles and expectations.
But I was angry by the time I finished The After Party - angry at CeCe and angry at the book.
April 9, 2017
I received a copy of The After Party by Anton DiScalfani from Edelweiss a few weeks ago but due to their terms I had to hold off on telling you about this book until the month it releases. Now that I can talk about it - go read it! The friendship between the two Joan's (one who was called by her middle name Cecilia) is so intense, it borders on obsession and stalking. Joan Fortier is a beloved socialite and CeeCee, wealthy in her own way, takes it upon herself to be Joan's constant companion, protector, and everything.
When Joan returns to Houston after a year away in Hollywood, CeeCee becomes obsessed with learning every single thing that happened while Joan was gone. She continually prioritizes Joan over her husband, her child, and her friends. It was both extremely sad, and annoying. Her obsession with Joan was destroying everything around her and she couldn't see it. The whole time I was reading this book I was just pleading with CeeCee to let Joan destroy her life and go home to her family. In those final pages of the book I just...wow CeeCee. Just, wow.
It's just a great book. The big secret was kind of predictable but still, the way it unfolded I loved. It seemed so fitting and I love having that intimate moment in that intense friendship. You really should read this one.
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