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Afterthought
Afterthought takes us on a journey along the roughest outback track in Australia with Lilly, a forty-five year old New Yorker, her newly-found father, Cameron, rogue and legendary explorer, his son, Grant, highly desirable platypus professor, and Jen, Grant’s twenty-something Sartre-loving daughter.
Lilly, smart and sensual, her own moral code waving in the wind, finds herself out of her element in a place where night comes on “like a door slamming shut," her former husband, artist and general all-around drunk, never far from her mind as she recalls her life before being enveloped in sand and heat.
This is a story of the power and destructiveness of secrets, of taboos and the thrill of transgression, of love lost and found and lost again; reminding us of the mistake of forgetting our good luck and the naiveté of assuming we are ever exactly where we think we should be in the world.
Lilly, smart and sensual, her own moral code waving in the wind, finds herself out of her element in a place where night comes on “like a door slamming shut," her former husband, artist and general all-around drunk, never far from her mind as she recalls her life before being enveloped in sand and heat.
This is a story of the power and destructiveness of secrets, of taboos and the thrill of transgression, of love lost and found and lost again; reminding us of the mistake of forgetting our good luck and the naiveté of assuming we are ever exactly where we think we should be in the world.
133 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 2, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 20, 2019
Odd tale about a woman who finds out the man she thought was her father really wasn't. She travels to Australia to meet him and finds out she has a half-brother and niece as well. A subsequent trip through the bush gives the new-found family a chance to bond - or drive each other away.
December 22, 2021
Totally unlikable characters and a boring plot. I loved the Outback but it wasn't enough to hold this novel.
March 7, 2013
At forty-five years old, Lilly’s life as a divorcee in Manhattan is far from what she expected. Haunted and unfulfilled by the memory of her ex-husband, a torrid artist with more passion for drinking than painting, Lilly lives day to day, contented by her tepid relationship with a stoic businessman. When her mother Ida calls her home with the confession of a long-kept secret Lilly finds her world turned upside down, and soon she’s traveling to Australia to meet the father she never knew. A scoundrel and legendary adventurer, Cameron is a bold man with a brash exterior, but underneath his spirit is grizzled by a secret. As Lilly sets out across the Australian outback with Cameron, his alluring son Grant, and Grant’s twenty-something daughter Jen, she finds herself unraveling the twisted web of secrets and deceptions that surround her newfound family, and stepping into a web of her own.
Afterthought, Janet Clare’s debut novel, is a skillful examination of the power of secrets and our flawed belief that we can control them. Reading the novel, it’s almost difficult to remember that it is, in fact, a debut; so assured is Clare in her prose. Her ability with words is deeply evident in the creativity of the novel’s construction, and she approaches Lilly’s narrative with a nakedness that captures the protagonist’s personality – and her somewhat bleak view of love and life – very well. Lilly’s attitude and her actions – including an attraction, more or less incestuous, to her half-brother Grant – will work either for or against the reader, depending upon the audience, as all books do. For me, Afterthought represented a creative triumph, a journey through life’s non-beauties set against the backdrop of an otherwise enchanting place, and I appreciated the depth and clarity of Clare’s story. The themes the novel explores are all bold, and they require equal boldness in order to capture them: Clare demonstrates this exceptionally well.
While it could likely be expected that a story of a father and daughter uniting for the first time would be a heartfelt journey to familial love rediscovered, Afterthought puts its heart into a far less idyllic place, but a place that’s just as real. In its efforts, the novel achieves a uniquely observant contemplation of life’s challenges and the way our choices can affect its fragility. Beautifully rendered and engagingly paced, Afterthought is a novel I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.
(Review © Casee Marie, originally published on March 7, 2013 at LiteraryInklings.com. I received a copy of the book for the purpose of review.)
Afterthought, Janet Clare’s debut novel, is a skillful examination of the power of secrets and our flawed belief that we can control them. Reading the novel, it’s almost difficult to remember that it is, in fact, a debut; so assured is Clare in her prose. Her ability with words is deeply evident in the creativity of the novel’s construction, and she approaches Lilly’s narrative with a nakedness that captures the protagonist’s personality – and her somewhat bleak view of love and life – very well. Lilly’s attitude and her actions – including an attraction, more or less incestuous, to her half-brother Grant – will work either for or against the reader, depending upon the audience, as all books do. For me, Afterthought represented a creative triumph, a journey through life’s non-beauties set against the backdrop of an otherwise enchanting place, and I appreciated the depth and clarity of Clare’s story. The themes the novel explores are all bold, and they require equal boldness in order to capture them: Clare demonstrates this exceptionally well.
While it could likely be expected that a story of a father and daughter uniting for the first time would be a heartfelt journey to familial love rediscovered, Afterthought puts its heart into a far less idyllic place, but a place that’s just as real. In its efforts, the novel achieves a uniquely observant contemplation of life’s challenges and the way our choices can affect its fragility. Beautifully rendered and engagingly paced, Afterthought is a novel I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.
(Review © Casee Marie, originally published on March 7, 2013 at LiteraryInklings.com. I received a copy of the book for the purpose of review.)
May 25, 2012
Mother confesses to love affair; daughter goes to Australian Outback to find father; off they go on the trail of tough really hot and dry trip to find answers re: eachother, themselves, and all of life's deepest questions.
October 29, 2012
Great plot, great characters, great writing! A terrific, lucid, moving story!
October 29, 2012
Janet Clare always captures the sensibility of the moment with unique details and the emotional life of her characters.
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August 25, 2013kindle cloud
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February 25, 2016kindle 133 Australia (to read soon)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews