After the Rain

by Thomas Christopher Greene

They were brothers and they knew each other better than they had ever known anybody, and when you are like this you can sit in silence and not speak and it is the most comfortable thing in the world. But fate can fracture even the strongest of friendships.

In the lush green countryside of Vermont, Charlie has built a life for himself. He is happy enough running the small family restaurant and his only regret is the absence of his brother, Owen. Once close, Owen and Charlie have not seen each other for many years - the ties of brotherhood torn apart by their father's legacy - and a trail of postcards is all that is left.

Charlie's is a solitary existence until he hires Claire to assist him in the restaurant and suddenly life feels complete. In Claire, Charlie feels he has found his reason for living. But when Owen returns it seems that the past is destined to threaten both brothers' future...

Genres: Literary Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Thomas Christopher Greene is the author of 7 books, six critically acclaimed novels including the international bestseller, The Headmaster's Wife, and the collection of tiny true stories, Notes From the Porch. He is the founder of the Vermont College of Fine Arts and served as president for 13 years. His fiction has been translated into thirteen languages. He makes his home in Montpelier, Vermont and can be found online on instagram and facebook @thomaschristophergreene

Reviews

[♥︎♥︎Sofia♥︎♥︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took awhile because I only read it while in transit to and from work....My lasting impression will be of food; long detailed description of the meals cooked within the resturant at the centre of this novel. Oh and that the heroine (if you can call her that) is a triple A cow......

[Alicia Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. I ended up speed reading it just to get through it. Too much meat and animal killing in it for my liking.

[Rebecca Becker · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the rain reads a little like a Hemingway book - very straightforward in its telling and not especially flowery.Hemingway was forceful in his simplicity, which is an art few can master. Greene nailed it sometimes and completely missed the boat others, sometimes sounding as if a second grader had written the last few sentences. While every author has his/her favorite words and phrases, Greene used "just as it should be" so many times that I wondered how it could get by him, how it got by the editor, how it got by the line editor, and so on. But let me move away from the language and on to the story. I liked it. It was slow moving and really, not much happened, but if you like cooking, you'll appreciate the explanations of the meals and the love the characters had for mixing the perfect ingredients.

What you won't appreciate, if you're a woman, is that this book was so obviously written by a man, and therefore, Claire was never fleshed out. We know very little about her for the entirety of the book, and her sudden rush of love for her husband's brother is both unbelievable and inexplicable. In Greene's world, women are either homemakers or sex objects. They can't be both. And for some reason, a woman who desperately wants to work can't. A fully confident woman who does exactly what she wants suddenly becomes a complacent, passive woman who lets life happen to her. No plot points accounted for her change in personality, so I felt cheated.

But Greene's prose is pleasant enough to help a plane ride go a little more quickly or to lull you to sleep at night.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm studying hard at the mo, so deliberately picked a non-exciting sounding book to read myself to sleep with at night with no danger of getting hooked and having to finish it at the expense of reading about TB. So, I shouldn't really complain that it was boring, but... This was like taking a kayak down a gently flowing river through a beautiful landscape: pleasant and relaxing but you still want a bit of white water to liven it up, but instead you drift into too shallow water and have to drag yourself through an awkward bit to get to the end.
When Charlie & Owen's father treats his own lung cancer with a bullet to the brain, their mother retreats back to the city and Owen takes off, leaving Charlie to take over the family restaurant, which he dutifully does. It consumes his life until another obsessive chef, Claire, appears in their idyllic Vermont village and joins him, first as a cooking partner, then as a wife. They are living happily ever after, except Claire is bored with being an adored wife and mother, when Owen decides to come home. Events take a disappointingly predictable turn.
I liked the foodie descriptions and the writing style, but the characters were not that appealing and it all felt a bit pointless. 2.5, rounded up for nice writing.

[sisterimapoet · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK. I like how Greene writes. A good balance of focus between people and their surroundings. However I found the story a bit plodding and predictable. No real surprises and rather dull for that.

[Caroline Clifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book..........as im a sucka for american continent backgrounds i found it interesting . Last few pages got a bit sentimental writing and sugary. But i enjoyed visualizing the fall...the winter snows..the moutains and all the cooking details.......very visual.

[Jane Bartlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very predictable

[Cheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable but well-written.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predicatable and annoying.

[Kelly Pua · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was...getting really annoying at the end.