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Before
From the author of God’s Snake (“Passionate…a wonderful book”—Alice Munro), and Fear (“Remarkable, spare, powerful”—Grace Paley), a stunning novel, her first in seven years, that shines a light on what it means to be beautiful, and to be possessed—by oneself, and by others.
The setting is New York City in the 1970s—a time and place of creativity, licentiousness, rebellion—and unforeseen perils. At its center is Beatrice: twenty-five, mesmerizingly lovely and intelligent, at once conventional and different from everyone else, married to Ned, a talented but volatile painter whose obsession with her has turned to hatred.
Beatrice is desired by everyone around her: by Faye, her seductive, bawdy childhood friend; by Cyril, a lonely, charismatic Vietnam veteran; by Colin, an aspiring musician; by Simon, a cynical older man she meets at a bar; by Chris, a young heroin addict. And then there is Perkins, the oddly threatening man next door. A sliver of light from his apartment shines in on Beatrice, a light that in her darkest hours reminds her she is not alone.
Unfolding with the powerful compression of a myth, Before offers a daring portrait of three months in the life of a young woman fighting for her identity—and her survival. It is a combustible cocktail of Eros, longing, and menace, one that captures a dizzying time in America.
The setting is New York City in the 1970s—a time and place of creativity, licentiousness, rebellion—and unforeseen perils. At its center is Beatrice: twenty-five, mesmerizingly lovely and intelligent, at once conventional and different from everyone else, married to Ned, a talented but volatile painter whose obsession with her has turned to hatred.
Beatrice is desired by everyone around her: by Faye, her seductive, bawdy childhood friend; by Cyril, a lonely, charismatic Vietnam veteran; by Colin, an aspiring musician; by Simon, a cynical older man she meets at a bar; by Chris, a young heroin addict. And then there is Perkins, the oddly threatening man next door. A sliver of light from his apartment shines in on Beatrice, a light that in her darkest hours reminds her she is not alone.
Unfolding with the powerful compression of a myth, Before offers a daring portrait of three months in the life of a young woman fighting for her identity—and her survival. It is a combustible cocktail of Eros, longing, and menace, one that captures a dizzying time in America.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published July 17, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 28, 2018
This visceral and beautifully written novel about female friendships has sadly fallen through the cracks. I suspect the unflinching exploration of intimately toxic relationships would appeal to fans of Elena Ferrante, but this was published before those books were translated into English. Upon its release, it was largely dismissed for having "unlikable female characters."
Before is also a haunting evocation of seedy downtown New York City in early 70s. This is Soho when it was dangerous, and these tough characters don't pull their punches as they struggle to navigate turbulent relationships, dead-end careers, and the prospect of art as an escape hatch. One of the best books for capturing this bygone era.
If it were a film, it would be directed by Werner Rainer Fassbinder.
If it were music, it would sound like Nico's "Chelsea Girls."
Before is also a haunting evocation of seedy downtown New York City in early 70s. This is Soho when it was dangerous, and these tough characters don't pull their punches as they struggle to navigate turbulent relationships, dead-end careers, and the prospect of art as an escape hatch. One of the best books for capturing this bygone era.
If it were a film, it would be directed by Werner Rainer Fassbinder.
If it were music, it would sound like Nico's "Chelsea Girls."
January 28, 2018
"Do you want a muffin?"
"Do I look like I want a fucking muffin?"
In the confidence game known as the classic Bait And Switch, something of value is seen or perceived just below the surface; once the deal is completed, the bait has disappeared, and something of lesser value, perhaps even something that is worthless --is revealed. In the course of the transaction, the consumer has been switched.
For this reader, something much like that operation took place with this book.
Sucking In The Seventies
In the evolving Loft movement of the Seventies in New York City, light industry and the warehousing and supply venues required to support it were leaving in droves for more attractive shores. Whether out of the country or to the Sun Belt, manufacturing, assembly and storage businesses were departing lower Manhattan by the block.
Familiar story, and we all know of the Scene that took up the vacuum. The many industrial spaces left vacant became loft-spaces with art studio or galleries for the bohemian and artistic set. Who, for the price of some undercover renovation and (initially) rock-bottom rents --were deliriously happy to find wide-open space in old New York. The scene was still post-psychedelic, the mood secretly celebratory, and the arts kind of clandestine and coded; part of the secret-culture allure was that landlords, code-inspectors or the city could shut down the whole adventure at any time. So a downtown underground began.
What hooked me on Spanidou's book was her first paragraph, wherein a common downside to quickly-renovated loft culture is revealed :
Just that week, unable to force open the police lock on the door of a loft, the robbers had taken an ax to the adjoining wall, hacking a four-by-five hole...
She leads with this little detail, no doubt, not because it is at all relevant to the plot, but because it is specifically true of this time and place; quite often loft renovations and subdivisions were impromptu, substandard attempts to show boundaries or home grounds in a larger floorspace. Once the groundfloor windows had bars, the rest of a building might be a polite system of closed doors and minimum security. Burglars had a field day (and I know because of an exact re-enactment of the above-- door locked, so wall removed-- that took place in my own lower Ny loftspace). If this was to be the level of detail and period atmosphere the author was bringing to the tale, I was in; hook, line, sinker.
Ab-Fab In Loft Land
It wasn't to be. Apparently the hook and the bait were seen to be so good that author Spanidou didn't even bother to use the reel. A kaleidoscopic, multi-character exploration of a fascinating subculture where we find -- no. We trudge directly into the most narcissistic, self-entitled exploration of Self that I've read in eons. I suppose the problem there is that once most of us stumble onto this kind of hopelessly confessional book of whine, we toss the book. Ordinarily, it would have flown out of my window, but with the Location, I was still hooked. I thought there was some redemption possible, some conflict concerning Era and Place that would prompt ...some kind of... no.
"... You don't really know till the next man comes along and makes you feel less passionate, or more... Whatever it is, you're pretty as a picture and sexy as all get-out. You have nothing to worry about..."
Beautiful Beatrice, good girl who sleeps with every single other character in the book --okay, maybe I missed one she hasn't bedded by the end-- is extraordinarily beautiful (everyone agrees), independently wealthy (just enough) and the center of everyone's attention. Most notably, her own. What's diabolical here is the paragraphs blending the thoughts and willful whimsies of our poetic lead character with the story; there is just a pinch of narrative thrown in to keep us in the picture, but we are reminded of the Many Moods Of Beatrice every few words. There is actually one Mood Of Beatrice, and that is best described as: moody.
One very startling aspect of Beatrice is that, as an undergraduate, she read all of Simone Weil, in French, and also, "every word [Soren] Kierkegaard had written, including his letters and journals, several essays on him and a biography". By my count that's-- quite a few books, and rather dense ones. Hard to align with, "months into her freshman year at Barnard, Beatrice had gone in a single leap from virginity to free love, carried away by the time's current of rebellion and drugs". But this is fiction, after all.
Bea's best friend Faye is the other half of the AbFab pair here, a bad girl, who is nearly as beautiful and has only slept with about two-thirds of the characters in the book. They have a love-hate relationship and have probably slept with each other, as well. Faye, at least, is apt to turn up with a couple bottles of champagne. The other characters occupy a kind of Food-Group-Pyramid for starfucking loft-land starlets; painters, musicians, writers, junkies, etc-- so we really don't need to go into them.
Self Absorption That A Sponge Would Envy
No real need to go on. This was interminable, stifling, and even at only 212 pages, lame, half-baked, unrevised, annoying--- but deeply self-aware. If this is chick-lit, somewhere Margaret Sanger is vaporizing into exploding nuclear particles.
I've always taste-tested books that I was unfamiliar with by reading the first paragraph. If the first paragraph didn't set off any alarm bells, I'd buy the book or take it out of the library to read. This opus in irrelevance-- after that tempting first paragraph-- is a total refutation of that system. Time to start judging them by their covers again, I guess.
March 25, 2007
Eh. SoHo in the 70s. Empty streets, junkies, pimps, artists, alcoholics and the most unrealistic portrait ever of an editorial assistant. However, something about this book really stuck with me. I loved the way the author crafted each chapter even if I didn't care for the characters or their conflicts.
July 17, 2011
A captivating look at a self destructive young woman living in New York City in the pregentrification 1970s, when Soho was still a place of danger. Spanidou, however, ends the story without resolving the characters' conflicts with one another. I can't help but hope that she is planning a follow up to the story entitled After.
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September 24, 2007I couldn't get through this, which is unusual for me. I don't like being told a character is smart and beautiful when I see no written evidence of this. Book centers aroud a woman loved my many — didn't so much agree.
March 5, 2022
This was so Gatsby, if it had been set in the 70s. Incredibly atmospheric, toxic relationships, analysis of beauty, money, and super unlikeable and unhinged characters. All the characters are so mentally ill. The entire time I was reading, I kept having to remind myself that this was the 70s- give it leeway, thats why its aged so badly. Then I come on here to find out it was published in 2007. Now I know I can’t forgive some of the horrible things in this book.
There a lot of sexual violence and marital rape, on page. Then at the end, the main character, who’s 25, fucks a 16 year old boy. Its those things that really put me off. The domestic abuse I can understand, since its such an important plot point, but Bea’s downward spiral could have culminated in something other than having sex with a child. And its such a shame, because I honestly really liked the book otherwise.
The plot was character driven in a good way. All the characters are bad people, but they’re all entertaining in their own ways. Very Gatsby except they actually like do drugs and have sex. The prose was really, really beautiful. I don’t know what it is what about it but I connected to it so much. It was rich in detail and pretentiousness in a way that worked because it was easy to read. It’s such a shame that it has those glaring plot problems- I feel like this was a really good portrayal of mental illness, domestic abuse, and the pressure of beauty.
There a lot of sexual violence and marital rape, on page. Then at the end, the main character, who’s 25, fucks a 16 year old boy. Its those things that really put me off. The domestic abuse I can understand, since its such an important plot point, but Bea’s downward spiral could have culminated in something other than having sex with a child. And its such a shame, because I honestly really liked the book otherwise.
The plot was character driven in a good way. All the characters are bad people, but they’re all entertaining in their own ways. Very Gatsby except they actually like do drugs and have sex. The prose was really, really beautiful. I don’t know what it is what about it but I connected to it so much. It was rich in detail and pretentiousness in a way that worked because it was easy to read. It’s such a shame that it has those glaring plot problems- I feel like this was a really good portrayal of mental illness, domestic abuse, and the pressure of beauty.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2018
“You want her broken with her mouth wide open ‘cause she’s this year’s girl” Elvis Costello
Gauzy novel showing the hatred that lies beneath desire. The book centers on the “It Girl” Beatrice, who is desired but not loved by pivotal characters in the book. Everyone seems to want her yet bears malice towards her for “making” them want her, even the ones who “get” her. The only compassionate act done towards this girl is by the one man who doesn’t want her, a rough homosexual ex con dealer who beats and pimps out the young boys to whom he sells heroin. Oddly enough, he is the only character who is portrayed as menacing yet he is the only one who doesn’t act viciously towards Beatrice. Her damage is done by those in the guise of husband, friends, and hook-ups.
I personally found the description of Soho life in 70’s NY alone worth the read. Think Valley of the Dolls on Prince Street.
Gauzy novel showing the hatred that lies beneath desire. The book centers on the “It Girl” Beatrice, who is desired but not loved by pivotal characters in the book. Everyone seems to want her yet bears malice towards her for “making” them want her, even the ones who “get” her. The only compassionate act done towards this girl is by the one man who doesn’t want her, a rough homosexual ex con dealer who beats and pimps out the young boys to whom he sells heroin. Oddly enough, he is the only character who is portrayed as menacing yet he is the only one who doesn’t act viciously towards Beatrice. Her damage is done by those in the guise of husband, friends, and hook-ups.
I personally found the description of Soho life in 70’s NY alone worth the read. Think Valley of the Dolls on Prince Street.
August 14, 2022
3.5 stars. More an extended slice-of-life vignette than a complete story. The book tells 0f the feminine angst experienced by Beatrice, a bohemian-dilatant, over three months in the early 1970's. A worthwhile read if only for the pathos of the final portion.
July 26, 2018
This was painful.
A story about a bunch of losers living in Soho in the 70’s. - Sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll.
What could be worse? A book about “successful” investment bankers, bond traders and accountants living in Manhattan today.
A story about a bunch of losers living in Soho in the 70’s. - Sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll.
What could be worse? A book about “successful” investment bankers, bond traders and accountants living in Manhattan today.
August 26, 2008
My grade school teacher, Mrs. Scalia, had an anthem: “If you’re bored, read a book”. A fine axiom, I’d always thought, but didn’t it presuppose that all books mimicked the vivacity of life?
Spanidou’s Before is primarily a story about Beatrice – the pretty, twenty-something protagonist living on a modest trust fund in 1970’s SoHo, New York. She is married to Ned, a struggling artist emotionally manacled with intimacy issues, but is pursued by Faye: a bi-sexual girlfriend from her childhood. Of course, one cannot neglect to mention Colin, an odd taciturn character that lives in Beatrice’s building. Like Faye, Colin also pines for Beatrice until she offers herself to him – an offering he responds to by turning on his heels and marching away; thereafter to avoid her like clumped rice. There are other personalities in this narrative that want Beatrice, but the most intriguing is the austere though fleeting presence of Perkins – the ex-convict to whom Beatrice has an attraction and who lives in the adjacent loft. Sadly for Beatrice, Perkins has a penchant for rough sex with adolescent boys – a taste Beatrice manages to acquire to lesser degree once Ned moves out. Apparently, whoever said New Yorkers never get to know their neighbors had never met Beatrice.
Before is a work that introduces no questions nor offers any answers. It provides no food for thought nor does it attempt to quench the thirst instigated by an active imagination. No ideas, new or existing, are examined. No concepts visited. It is on every level in the genus of he did this, she felt that prose. Spanidou has underused her talents in producing this work.
© Joel Glenn, Book Critic –The NYLS Book Review, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Spanidou’s Before is primarily a story about Beatrice – the pretty, twenty-something protagonist living on a modest trust fund in 1970’s SoHo, New York. She is married to Ned, a struggling artist emotionally manacled with intimacy issues, but is pursued by Faye: a bi-sexual girlfriend from her childhood. Of course, one cannot neglect to mention Colin, an odd taciturn character that lives in Beatrice’s building. Like Faye, Colin also pines for Beatrice until she offers herself to him – an offering he responds to by turning on his heels and marching away; thereafter to avoid her like clumped rice. There are other personalities in this narrative that want Beatrice, but the most intriguing is the austere though fleeting presence of Perkins – the ex-convict to whom Beatrice has an attraction and who lives in the adjacent loft. Sadly for Beatrice, Perkins has a penchant for rough sex with adolescent boys – a taste Beatrice manages to acquire to lesser degree once Ned moves out. Apparently, whoever said New Yorkers never get to know their neighbors had never met Beatrice.
Before is a work that introduces no questions nor offers any answers. It provides no food for thought nor does it attempt to quench the thirst instigated by an active imagination. No ideas, new or existing, are examined. No concepts visited. It is on every level in the genus of he did this, she felt that prose. Spanidou has underused her talents in producing this work.
© Joel Glenn, Book Critic –The NYLS Book Review, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
December 9, 2007
Wonderfully written but somewhat annoying account of a few months in a young woman's life in SoHo in the seventies. In a nutshell: Beautiful trust fund baby Bea is married to Ned, a boorish painter, who seems to be the only one in her social circle who isn't secretly (or otherwise) in love with her. The writing is so strong -- poetic, muscular, shrewdly observant -- but the ideas about beauty (It fades!), self-love (It comes from within!), and personal crisis (It passes!) are sort of trite by the end. All in all, though, an interesting read, especially if you're interested about this particular time period in New York.
December 16, 2007
The only redeeming thing about this book was the characterization of Ned - and it's a shame it wasn't explored further in the book. As far as the "protagonist", Beatrice, I am hard-pressed to feel any sympathy or connection to her. She is ineffectual, annoying, and bland; mainly as a result of her martyr-ish "poor me" attitude. The author succeeded in one thing: creating a persona that has absolutely no redeeming value or interesting aspects whatsoever, aside from her apparent outer beauty. No motivations, no interests, no personality. Maybe that was the point. But it made it nearly agonizing to read.
September 28, 2009
Wonderfully written book about unlikable characters with a depressing story line and a predictable ending. I'm not sure I would have stuck with it if it hadn't been such a quick read. I loved her phrasing in so many ways, telling the story of Bea, who is used to people only loving her for her looks. As they get to know her, not many like her. She turns to the wrong people for help and turns away from the ones who are actually interested in her well being.
December 14, 2009
I would give this book a 3 for the writing style. It was definitely well written and kept me interested. I would give it one star for the completely depressing story!! I guess I was expecting a happy ending, but there was not one to be had. The whole thing is just depressing and awful. I just closed it at the end feeling MISERABLE and so mad that I spent any time reading this book. Ugh. Don't read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 2, 2011
I think this book is often misunderstood, and better then it's reputation. It's sparse, drugged, desperate and confused vibe puts off some readers. For instance, the NYT reviewer called the book a failure, saying that Beatrice never feels alive or psychologically deep, but I think that is actually the strength of the book. She lives the void, empty but for destructive drives and desperate sexuality.
January 4, 2017
This is a depressing book about screwed up depressing (and depressed) people. I found I had no sympathy whatsoever for anyone, which made for a difficult read. Everyone was self-centered and made poor choices. They were mean to one another with regularity. I don't need sunshine and roses all the time but I do like to hang on to a glimmer of hope at least. This book didn't have anything to give me.
April 3, 2008
About NYC in the 70s, the then new SoHo art scene. I thought I'd like it more than I did. There was too much bland summary, the main character, who I take it I was supposed to care for, was annoying. And yet I didn't want to see her life go the way it did. Anyway, not great.
January 1, 2020
On my Amazon list to read...
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September 25, 2007This was a tough book to read..not a long book but very grave and sad
February 4, 2008
Couldn't even get half way through this one. Pretentious, annoying twenty somethings loafing around Soho in the 1970s...they're like some sort of precursor to the hipsters or something.
April 9, 2010
dark and painful in parts. but a raw look at life in soho in the 70's. I thought I would have wanted to be there, but i think this shows the other side of the magic.
June 20, 2008
No idea why everyone in the book is in love with the pouty, annoying main character. I just wanted all involved to shut the hell up and get a real job.
July 9, 2008
This is about 3 months in the life of a young woman in nyc in the 1970s.
July 26, 2008
My favorite writing teaching in undergrad wrote this. So far it's super sexy.
July 29, 2008
I wanted to like this, because it started out pretty nicely, but then it descended into Manhattanese, lack of imagination, and blahness. Sorry, I can't recommend it.
September 13, 2011
Such a waste of money and time.
September 14, 2012
A slight, precious novel. 200 pages and couldn't wait for it to end.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews