After / Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Widowers--Fiction.

Widowers.

Loss (Psychology)--Fiction.

Loss (Psychology).

Grief--Fiction.

Grief.

Genre:

Fiction.

Psychological fiction.

Physical Description:

371 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Soho Press, [2003]

Summary:

Her absence is as affecting as her presence. Harry is never not aware that she is gone, that the planet is spinning onward, time and matter hurling forward, and that she is not. Half of him has gone with her. To where, he doesn't know. The part of him left behind with the aching loss of her, is trying to reengage with the living world. Given the gravity of this aftermath, his attempts at normality are disarming and amusing.

His grown daughter reverts to a rebellious stage and questions their earlier relationship. He has become, he realizes, a single parent in his fifties. Unattached women evince a new found interest in his well-being and a young woman develops designs on his spare bedroom. In fact, she moves in. The relationship is strictly platonic for about two minutes, until they're torridly involved. Neighbors are scandalized, the guys at the barbershop are delighted and maybe a little envious, and Harry is bereft and revived both as he struggles with the newfound knowledge that their vows were wrong. They may be parted but remained joined in defiance of time, cosmically and completely. And that it is the natural order of things for the joy of their love to inform his life.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's writing career spans decades, starting with her candid memoir of coping with her husband's mental illness, including bestselling young adult fiction and wonderfully received novels for adult trade audiences. She is a popular speaker and has addressed countless gatherings of readers.

ISBN:

1569473544

OCLC:

52214816