A Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020 A Most-Anticipated Book of the Year: O, The Oprah Magazine * The New York Times * The Washington Post *Vogue * Bustle * BuzzFeed * Ms. magazine * The Millions * Huffington Post * PopSugar * The Lily * Goodreads * Library Journal * LitHub * Electric Literature The first adult novel in almost fifteen years by the internationally bestselling author of In the … Literature
The first adult novel in almost fifteen years by the internationally bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the GarcÃa Girls Lost Their Accents
“A stunning work of art that reminds readers Alvarez is, and always has been, in a class of her own.” –Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller The Poet X
Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves–lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack–but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.
Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including–maybe especially–members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?
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A beautiful story of grief, and sisterhood, and doing the right thing even when it makes you sad or uncomfortable, and how loss shapes us all. Julia was also a guest of A WORD ON WORDS and it was a joy getting to know her.
As one of four sisters, I could so relate to these sisters. Micro level view of immigrant experience in Vermont. An important read.
Julia Alvarez’s Afterlife was beautifully written and easy to get through. I can’t say it was my favorite book, but it kept me reading. The main character, Antonia is struggling with the death of her husband, the person everyone thought was a great man. She feels a loss without him as do all the people around her, and she doesn’t quite know what to do with herself. When she helps a man and his girlfriend who were illegal in the country, you saw her struggle to be like her husband, but she wasn’t quite comfortable with that image. The rest of the characters were well thought out and Antonia’s relationship with her sisters was realistic and interesting.
‘A sunburst of a novel’ is what one reviewer called Afterlife and the description is perfect. Julia Alvarez has outdone herself in this book. It’s a gem.
In a nutshell: Antonia Vega, 66, is newly retired and newly widowed. Into the void of what-comes-next thuds a double whammy: a crisis with the oldest of her three sisters, and the challenge of an undocumented, pregnant teenager who arrives at a time of governmental paranoia. As Antonia struggles to find the right path, the different options that unfold reflect the many contradictions of our current world.
Pros:
Afterlife is well-paced, suspenseful in a grown-up way, and written with the exquisite skill of Julia Alvarez at her best.
The book is set in Vermont, where the author lives. Without quite being a character in the book, the area is perfectly described.
The main character’s memories of, sometimes obsession with her late husband are both positive and negative, rendering the marriage thoroughly realistic.
“The Sisterhood.” I loved this theme. Antonia is one of four sisters, fondly known as “the sisterhood” in both their native Dominican Republic and now the US. Depictions of the four women and their interactions with each other are alternately hysterically funny, poignantly sad, and ultimately victorious.
Though Antonia and her sisters came to the US from Dominica years before and are all acclimated citizens, they take pride in their origin. Through this lens, the plight of the undocumented immigrant is seen in subtle, realistic, and sympathetic ways.
Afterlife is short, but as filled with thought and emotion as a novel twice as long.
Cons:
Are there any? If I were to nitpick, I might suggest that the title, while fitting the story, is quieter than titles are nowadays. But then, in its quiet too, it fits the book.
Final word:
Afterlife is a contemporary take on life, death, family, and hope. It’s a winner. Go for it!
“You, who quite truly knew him, can quite truly continue in his spirit and on his path. Make it the task of your mourning to explore what he had expected of you, had hoped for you, had wished to happen to you…his influence has not vanished from your existence…”~from The Dark Interval by Rainer Maria Rilke
Reading about the death of a loved one during the time of Coronavirus is difficult. I feel the cold blade of fear which I daily push back down into my subconscious, then “tie my hat and crease my shawl” to perform my tasks and obligations.
Afterlife is the story of Hispanic retired literature teacher Antonia who mourns the loss of her husband Sam. She struggles to understand how to now live. Her sisters are calling her to join them in confronting their sibling’s bipolar illness. An illegal immigrant employed by her Vermont farmer neighbor implores her to help him bring his girl to join him.
All these demands! Antonia just wants to tend her own garden and live with her sorrow. But knowing Sam has changed her. His compassion remains an example of how to live in this world. Sam”seems to be resurrecting inside her,” and she wonders, “is this all his afterlife will amount to? Saminspired deeds from the people who love him?”
Antonia’s mind is filled with the books she loved and taught, including Rainer Maria Rilke. Last year I had read The Dark Interval which shares Rilke’s letters of condolences. Alvarez’s novel embodies Rilke’s philosophy.
Against her nature and inclination, Sam leads Antonia to risk becoming involved in the lives and problems of other people. “Living your life is a full-time job,” a sister justifies. Isn’t that the truth? Then, a therapist reads Rilke to the sisters: “Death does not wound us without, at the same time, lifting us toward a more perfect understanding of this being and of ourselves.”
Antonia’s students always responded to Rilke’s poem ‘Archaic Torso of Apollo” which ends, “you must change your life.” It is a line that has haunted ever me since I first read it. The question, Antonia wonders, is how and when do we change it?
It is a question to be asked over and over. There is no end to such a consideration. We read a book and what we learn reminds us that we must change our life. We see a work of art, Rilke his Greek torso, Antonia Landscape with The Fall of Icarus, or when hear a symphony, or observe a beautiful spring flower or a deep woods filled with birdsong–
All the world is life-changing if we allow ourselves to truly live and open our senses and hearts and minds. To be alive is life-changing. To die is life-changing.
Antonia accepts the challenge to be Saminspired.
Alvarez is a brilliant writer who has combined a deep reflection on existence with timely questions. There is no better time for this message.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
A stunning work of art that reminds readers Alvarez is, and always has been, in a class of her own.
The queen is back with the exact novel we need in this fraught era. A powerful testament of witness and humanity written with audacity and authority.
Ravishing and heartfelt, Afterlife explores the complexities of familial devotion and tragedy against a backdrop of a world in crisis, and the ways in which we struggle to maintain hope, faith, compassion and love. This is Julia Alvarez at her best and most personal.
From the very beginning, Julia Alvarez has proven herself a wise and funny writer with a sharp eye and ear for the joys and obligations of love and family. Now, in Afterlife, she applies her gifts to last things, as her Antonia struggles to move beyond the consolations of poetry and embrace the buzzing, blooming confusion of the world again.
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez is a wonderful piece of literary fiction. This is the first book I have read by Ms. Alvarez, but as I enjoyed this so much, I am going to be sure to read more.
This book brings into play a lot of family and social dynamics: sisters/relationships with siblings, family death, death of a spouse and soulmate, mental illness, and balancing one’s needs while also addressing other’s needs.
This book also addresses a lot of emotional issues as well: love, loss, and acceptance in the abrupt passing of Antonia’s husband Sam, hope and belief that a life can be better lived that takes shape from the situation of undocumented immigrants that is placed on Antonia during the course of the novel, love and fear and frustration and compassion in regards to Antonia and her sisters in the situation with Izzy’s mental issues and temporary disappearance. And finally: optimism, acceptance, and perseverance in the ability for Antonia to overcome the all-encompassing loss and change to her life from losing Sam and creating a new existence to the years she has hereafter. I love that she is creating a way to keep Sam “alive” and with her by always considering what he would have done if he were still alive, and in that keeping a part of him always with her in her path forward. That is a lot to say in such a small story, but the author was able to weave all of this together in a beautiful tale full of characters, imagery, and fabulous text and quotes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
5/5 stars