After Darke

by Rick Gekoski

Released from prison after serving his sentence for the assisted death of his wife, his health failing and his chronic impatience exacerbated, Dr James Darke self-isolates. But on his return he understands that he is now a displaced person, lost in a new world for which his education and inclinations have not prepared him.

Irascible, misanthropic, intensely bookish, fastidious in his tastes and rich enough to indulge them, Darke is a happy shut-in, busily writing oppositional pamphlets and composing a literary hoax. But his daughter and the Bulgarian housekeeper she hired to look after him have other ideas.

After Darke is a moving, witty reflection on grief, ageing and love in all its forms, and James Darke is one of the most memorable, exasperating yet loveable characters of contemporary fiction.

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 7, 2022

Reviews

[Bryan Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt somewhat let down by this, the final volume in the Darke trilogy (which entertained me enough to read all three books over the span of about 15 days). James Darke, after being convicted of assisting his wife's death and spending nearly 4 years in prison because of it, is released early due to the pandemic and his relative infirmity/low risk of re-offending.

While I did appreciate, in general, the way Gekoski handles a narrative around the early days of Covid, what felt trite was how easily Dr. Darke basically relished in becoming a stereotype of an old, white, overeducated man, inveighing against "woke" culture and the new world order regarding sexuality. And I realize that perhaps the author was highlighting his character's ignorance, and not his own, per se, the book still reads like the journal of a crotchety old man, full of piss and vinegar on his way out, because, well, that's literally what it is.

To fill the time between his release from prison and his much-awaited demise, Dr. Darke mends somewhat the relationships with his daughter and grandson, which is good (albeit not wholly in concordance with the character we've grown to know over the first two books of this series). However, he also pens two missives, one a "De Profundis" in which he mocks the incarcerated observations of other famous thinkers, and the other a truly juvenile prank in which he endeavors to call out the absurdities of "wokeness" by penning a first-person narrative by a fabricated trans African author and attempting to get it published, and then, when that fails, by self-publishing a pamphlet in which he laughs (alone) at the world as he outs himself for his prank and what he feels it says about the world in which he is all-too-glad to soon no longer enduring being a part of.

In the end, any sympathies the reader may have developed for james Darke have largely evaporated in the whirlwind of ill-will he seems to delight in creating around him on his way out. I suppose most of us will exeunt Stage Death without much pomp or fanfare, either, but after reading nearly 1000 pages devoted to this character, I was left wanting a little more from the resolution here.

[Megan S · Rating 2 out of 5]

The back of this little novel sounded compelling. I love a snarky hero - I even pretend I am one in my Main Character Syndrome moments. But unfortunately this author's style just didn't make any sense to me. I cannot understand a narrative when there are so many tense changes, time jumps and italicized fonts. Unfortunately I gave up on this one. My brain hurt just trying to figure out where and when the protagonist was half the time.

[K C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darker, closer to current events (covid, state of wokeness) this last book was more philosophical and political commentary than the satirical curmudgeon-ness of the first two. Subsequently it was a bit less enjoyable but more provoking.

[John Hitchcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this one hard to read. I didn't like the main character, nor, really, the others. He seems such a miserable git. So I gave up on him. Sorry. Not that he'd care.