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After the Reunion
THE WAY WE WERE...THE WAY WE ARE NOW...
Emily, Chris, Daphne, and Annabel. They left college with their hearts full of radiant hope, their heads full of impossible dreams. They married "perfect" men, expected to have "perfect" children, found exciting jobs and glamorous careers. Yet heartbreak lay hidden behind the illusions of perfection. Life would force them to confront the mistakes of the past and the betrayals of the present...to create powerful new visions...to meet the irresistible challenge of the way we are now.
Emily, Chris, Daphne, and Annabel. They left college with their hearts full of radiant hope, their heads full of impossible dreams. They married "perfect" men, expected to have "perfect" children, found exciting jobs and glamorous careers. Yet heartbreak lay hidden behind the illusions of perfection. Life would force them to confront the mistakes of the past and the betrayals of the present...to create powerful new visions...to meet the irresistible challenge of the way we are now.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
28 people are currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
Rona Jaffe
23 books143 followersRona Jaffe established The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards program in 1995. It is the only national literary awards program of its kind dedicated to supporting women writers exclusively. Since the program began, the Foundation has awarded more than $850,000 to a total of 92 women.
Ms. Jaffe was the author of sixteen books, including Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Road Taken, and The Room-Mating Season (2003). Her 1958 best-selling first novel, The Best of Everything, was reissued by Penguin in 2005.
Ms. Jaffe was the author of sixteen books, including Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Road Taken, and The Room-Mating Season (2003). Her 1958 best-selling first novel, The Best of Everything, was reissued by Penguin in 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 8, 2023
I read mostly e-books these days but I keep some old, well-loved paperbacks to red while I brush my teeth or dry my hair. After The Reunion is one of those books. I first read it almost 40 years ago and it never lets me down. This is the sequel to Class Reunion, another old favorite, and it follows up on what happens to four women following their 20th Radcliffe class reunion. Rona Jaffe created interesting, complex characters with great backstories. (you can learn more about them all in Class Reunion.) Always a fun read!
February 24, 2010
After having read Rona Jaffe's best novel,"Class Reunion", which has been translated into German (Die Schulfreundinnen), I wanted to read the sequel, too, but the German publishing house was not willing to have this one translated and published as well claiming it was not a successful book in the US.
In the winter of 1989 I read my first book in English, William Bradford's "History of Plimoth Plantation" in Old English (from 1638), but it went quite well.
Encouraged by this positive reading experience, I finally ordered a paperback copy (those were the pre-Internet years) from "After the Reunion" at a big bookstore in Hamburg.
After 8 weeks and the triple price of what it would have cost me if I could have bought it in the US, I started reading this sequel during the summer of 1991 during my breakfast & lunch breaks at the movie archives.
At first I needed to check my English-German dictionary up to 20 times per page, but fortunately it got better with every chapter :).
Once I had finished it, I could tell that the German publisher of Jaffe's books was full of BS and that this actually is a very satisfying sequel to an excellent novel.
In the meantime I got a hardcover copy on amazon.com and reread it.
In the winter of 1989 I read my first book in English, William Bradford's "History of Plimoth Plantation" in Old English (from 1638), but it went quite well.
Encouraged by this positive reading experience, I finally ordered a paperback copy (those were the pre-Internet years) from "After the Reunion" at a big bookstore in Hamburg.
After 8 weeks and the triple price of what it would have cost me if I could have bought it in the US, I started reading this sequel during the summer of 1991 during my breakfast & lunch breaks at the movie archives.
At first I needed to check my English-German dictionary up to 20 times per page, but fortunately it got better with every chapter :).
Once I had finished it, I could tell that the German publisher of Jaffe's books was full of BS and that this actually is a very satisfying sequel to an excellent novel.
In the meantime I got a hardcover copy on amazon.com and reread it.
July 12, 2021
It would have been nice if Class Reunion and after the reunion were tied together in one book. Ism sad that some issues were not worked out. Who knows if it could be resolved. I feel that Kit, Peter and Emily needed some counseling. Kit was a lot like her dad. The focus was more on the woman from Radcliffe. I enjoyed this book better than the first. I am glad I didn’t feel discouraged by the first book. It is sad that a college would discourage women for seeking their own dreams. They were advised to focus on the MRS degree. I guess my dad was ahead of his time. My dad wanted me to have a degree and career so if my husband dies or leaves me, I can take care of myself. I loved how these women in the story had major struggles but was able to persevere.
June 19, 2020
For all of you who have no idea what things were like for us women in the fifties, you will never really understand how well Rona Jaffee captures those times. I love her stories and continue to re read all of her wonderful books.
June 15, 2015
That was so cliche and schlocky. Chit-lit at its worst and most demeaning to women.
July 6, 2018
Really enjoyed learning what happened to everyone after they went home from the reunion and beyond.
December 6, 2018
Enjoyable
It's not a complex story by any means but it was nice to finish the story of Class Reunion. It's a quick read and a cozy novel.
It's not a complex story by any means but it was nice to finish the story of Class Reunion. It's a quick read and a cozy novel.
February 17, 2019
4 graduates from Radcliffe in 1957 live their lives totally different from what they expected. After their 25th reunion things begin to change for all of them.
July 31, 2019
Read this years ago...
June 11, 2020
Started out interesting, but the second half became a cheesy story that was sub par.
I’m only sorry that I ordered another book by this author.
I’m only sorry that I ordered another book by this author.
June 20, 2022
I enjoyed the book more than its’ precursor (Class Reunion) - it was set in the 1980s and the characters weren’t bound by the social restrictions of the 1950s.
October 27, 2023
A little more trite that the predecessor...OK just not great!
unfinished
February 4, 2024Passing along for now.
July 28, 2025
Really liked it against all odds. In spite of it being extremely anachronistic - a very fun read.
January 30, 2023
Rona Jaffe's Class Reunion and After the Reunion, published in the 1980s, are a precursor to the more strongly realised feminist novels that have become an important part of the fiction landscape of the 1990s and, now, 2000s. They use a comfortable premise to draw the reader into thinking about the ways in which women in the 1950s were settled into a familiar lifestyle, in which it was demanded they flourish. Some did. Many did not. Betty Friedan wrote about the latter, the women who knew that something was missing in their lives, and, because of the women's movement, eventually realised that their feelings were valid and reciprocated by many other women.
Jaffe's first novel begins with a reunion at Harvard in 1977. Four women who had met at Radcliffe in the 1950s meet at the reunion: Daphne 'The Golden Girl'; Emily, one of the few who was allowed to attend as part of the Jewish quota; Chris, evading her alcoholic mother; and Annabel, ahead of her time. Of course, these short statements do not do justice to the four. The young women who met at Radcliffe, and whose time there is described in Class Reunion, were far more. The expectations they had of themselves, their education, other women and men were complex. Their individual attempts to move beyond 1950s expectations provide four initially intertwined stories and their eventual resolution. For a 1950s young woman, graduate of Radcliffe, academically bright, interesting and capable this resolution was marriage. This has not turned out to be the fairy tale the women have been led to expect, and, after their meeting at the reunion, each leaves with a resolve to take back for themselves some of the dreams with which they began their years at Radcliffe.
In After The Reunion it becomes clear that some of these cherished plans and hopes for the future are difficult to realise. Where The Reunion takes the reader through the 1950s, After The Reunion is set in the late 1970s and 1980s. Marriages have collapsed and the women need to become financially independent. None has really been educated to take up a profession, so, although they are certainly not poor, they have to use their wits and innate abilities to survive. Unlike their male counterparts and husbands whose education at Harvard made them professionals such doctors or lawyers, their education fitted them to be wives and hostesses to professional partners. Their role was to contribute to the marriage in a supportive capacity, and when the marriage ends it is clear that men were indeed educated to have careers; and women to have jobs until marriage and children.
Each of the women has married and had children. Each has fulfilled the role that the 1950s led them to expect that they should. The children provide additional story lines, contributing to understanding the parents, as well as a 1980s understanding of changes in male and female education and expectations.
The feminist themes are there, and, to the reader who wants something more than a romantic story, compelling. However, remarriages in most cases do push a romantic theme, which often outweighs the ideas about women's role and the limits imposed by their upbringing, education and societal expectations. At the same time, the women's successful resolution of the problems that were far larger and more ingrained than they realised in the first volume, do provide strong women characters who have overcome the full impact of the 1950s.
Rona Jaffe has written two novels that continue to resonate with women who expect more than a romantic story, but provide a comfortable happy ending for Daphne, Annabel, Chris and Emily.
Jaffe's first novel begins with a reunion at Harvard in 1977. Four women who had met at Radcliffe in the 1950s meet at the reunion: Daphne 'The Golden Girl'; Emily, one of the few who was allowed to attend as part of the Jewish quota; Chris, evading her alcoholic mother; and Annabel, ahead of her time. Of course, these short statements do not do justice to the four. The young women who met at Radcliffe, and whose time there is described in Class Reunion, were far more. The expectations they had of themselves, their education, other women and men were complex. Their individual attempts to move beyond 1950s expectations provide four initially intertwined stories and their eventual resolution. For a 1950s young woman, graduate of Radcliffe, academically bright, interesting and capable this resolution was marriage. This has not turned out to be the fairy tale the women have been led to expect, and, after their meeting at the reunion, each leaves with a resolve to take back for themselves some of the dreams with which they began their years at Radcliffe.
In After The Reunion it becomes clear that some of these cherished plans and hopes for the future are difficult to realise. Where The Reunion takes the reader through the 1950s, After The Reunion is set in the late 1970s and 1980s. Marriages have collapsed and the women need to become financially independent. None has really been educated to take up a profession, so, although they are certainly not poor, they have to use their wits and innate abilities to survive. Unlike their male counterparts and husbands whose education at Harvard made them professionals such doctors or lawyers, their education fitted them to be wives and hostesses to professional partners. Their role was to contribute to the marriage in a supportive capacity, and when the marriage ends it is clear that men were indeed educated to have careers; and women to have jobs until marriage and children.
Each of the women has married and had children. Each has fulfilled the role that the 1950s led them to expect that they should. The children provide additional story lines, contributing to understanding the parents, as well as a 1980s understanding of changes in male and female education and expectations.
The feminist themes are there, and, to the reader who wants something more than a romantic story, compelling. However, remarriages in most cases do push a romantic theme, which often outweighs the ideas about women's role and the limits imposed by their upbringing, education and societal expectations. At the same time, the women's successful resolution of the problems that were far larger and more ingrained than they realised in the first volume, do provide strong women characters who have overcome the full impact of the 1950s.
Rona Jaffe has written two novels that continue to resonate with women who expect more than a romantic story, but provide a comfortable happy ending for Daphne, Annabel, Chris and Emily.
April 19, 2020
What a great sequel! This book flows so seamlessly with its predecessor 'Class Reunion', that it's difficult to remember where that book ended, and this one started. We pick up almost right where we left off in 'Class Reunion'...5 years after the girls 20th reunion from Radcliffe.
This book also has some new voices too! We hear Kat's (Emily's daughter) narrative, as well as Emma's, who is Annabel's daughter. Also, Teddy, Daphne's youngest son, starts up a journal that we read...but that, I thought, was a bit out of place. In the whole book, there were only about 4 entries in the journal...and while it was nice because it gave you a different point of view into the Caldwell family, I think I would have liked to have seen it a little more developed.
Regardless, the book was great. I was bummed when I finished because I'd gotten so used to picking up a book, and reading about the lives of these four women, whom I've come to feel like I know personally. I just received two more of Ms. Jaffe's books in the mail, and can't wait to start on them...I'm so glad I discovered her books, they've quickly become my all-time favorites!
This book also has some new voices too! We hear Kat's (Emily's daughter) narrative, as well as Emma's, who is Annabel's daughter. Also, Teddy, Daphne's youngest son, starts up a journal that we read...but that, I thought, was a bit out of place. In the whole book, there were only about 4 entries in the journal...and while it was nice because it gave you a different point of view into the Caldwell family, I think I would have liked to have seen it a little more developed.
Regardless, the book was great. I was bummed when I finished because I'd gotten so used to picking up a book, and reading about the lives of these four women, whom I've come to feel like I know personally. I just received two more of Ms. Jaffe's books in the mail, and can't wait to start on them...I'm so glad I discovered her books, they've quickly become my all-time favorites!
September 30, 2011
I hate reunions, because they are always the place for people to flaunt their success even if it's clear that they have fallen short of the dreams and ambitions they aired while on campus or in high school.
When I read this book, I had to set aside that attitude and go with the flow and I'm pleased to say it was rather honest and funny!
When I read this book, I had to set aside that attitude and go with the flow and I'm pleased to say it was rather honest and funny!
February 25, 2008
This is the sequel to "Class Reunion". It picks up not long after "Class Reunion" ends and follows the same four women. This time, there is much more included about the lives of their children.
This book is also an excellent read...though I still prefer the first one.
This book is also an excellent read...though I still prefer the first one.
August 18, 2008
This was a sequal to 'Class Reunion'. I read this in large-print. It follows all five? of the women and what happened to their lives. You have to start with Class Reunion first. And both have large-print editions !
September 5, 2010
I definitely recommend reading the first one 'Class Reunion' first to understand the depth of the characters. But this one was better.
March 18, 2012
Read back in the 1980s
January 26, 2014
Quick read.....started and finished while getting an oil change.....probably something I would have never read but was given to me....
May 6, 2014
Again, thoroughly enjoyed it in 1987 when I read it. Sequel to "The Reunion" so hanging on to it for a few more years.
May 11, 2020
Decent sequel to "Class Reunion" by Rona Jaffe.
Unfortunately they don't write novels like this anymore, that's why I reread my older books.
Unfortunately they don't write novels like this anymore, that's why I reread my older books.
May 1, 2019
Gute und unterschiedliche Lebensgeschichten von Frauen. Das Ende ist mir schon ein bisschen viel happy end.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews