After You'd Gone

I was very impressed with Maggie O'Farrell's writing style, being her debut novel. It is hard to pull off a storyline that jumps back and forth between different characters and time lines, and although some did not seem to care for it, I think she pulled it off wonderfully. I was so involved in these characters, particularly Alice and her mother. I truly cared about what happened to them and couldn't wait to read more. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the "shocking event" that Alice experiences and sets the whole story moving back and forth across generations and countries. What she experienced was shocking in itself, but because the reader must wait until the last 1/4 of the book to find out what it is, it just didn't seem to deliver on the level I was expecting. Not to mention most readers will have figured it out by then, as well. Despite this, I would still highly recommend it and am very much looking forward to reading Maggie O'Farrell's later works.

Without wanting to give anything away, I read this and wept. For many years, I didn't read novels, preferring to skim through tomes on ancient history. They were thrust into my hands by friends, who thought that I might start. I never took any notice, until someone told me to look at page 38. `After You'd Gone' is partly set in the Scottish town where I grew up, so I devoured the pages for familiar points of reference. I also got pulled into the tale. A love story oft told, but stunningly written by Maggie O'Farrell, it twists time as it's heroine drifts in and out of consciousness after an accident. It's hard to believe that this isn't her story, it's so well described. Happily for her, it isn't.
MO'F plunges the depths, if you'll excuse the cliché. But her watery references are what make it for me, being a girl who grew up next door to a beach (the same one in this book to boot!) And any esoteric knows that water equals feeling. A first novel that made me pea green with envy, yet excited to find out what's next from her pen.

If someone decides they want to experiment with the structure of the novel, they should pay me to read the resulting mish mash. I got this at a used book store and feel totally ripped off. Unreadable.

this book in short, made me very jealous. I know that is a funny thing to say, but it's true. The love that Alice and her boyfriend share is very realistic and comes with pitfalls just like in real life. At times it was as though this book was a biography because that's how real it seems.
The book takes place in the UK, and you become introduced to Alice, a wild, strong and independent woman who calls you on your faults if they offend you. Basically she is someone you would love to be friends with.
The fault of Alice is she is used to being hurt. And when she lets someone in and they leave for whatever circumstance she takes it really really hard.
i'm not going to say anymore, but let me just tell you that there is isn't just one clean cut conflict like most of the novels out there today. This book contains many subplots and the author weaves them together with beautiful prose.
This book left me wanting more, and many times you will cry because like another of my favorite, summer sisters by judy blume, O'Farrell weaves the different viewpoints together.
it's a marvelous book. READ IT!!!

This novel has definately made my list of new favorites. A fantastic piece of writing, the author's got a uncanny ability to evoke emotion like few I have ever read. If you have ever been deep in the throws of love, or had your heart broken, Ms. O'Farrell's writing will touch you deeply. This is not a happy story, but it is a superb one and ultimately redeeming on many levels. Books this good are rare, you will not be disappointed.

This was an amazing first novel. The author must have suffered both severe loss and a near death experience to have written with such feeling. So, is it a happy or a sad ending???? I'd vote for happy' what do you think?
P.S. I've just bought her second novel,My Lover's Lover, available in UK already (published 2002) and I'm told it's just as good!

This was an interesting concept for a book, but frankly, I found the style very annoying & confusing. You do somewhat get used to it during the book, but I felt it took away from the story having to constantly work out who was talking & which timeframe you were in etc. Personally, I found Alice quite unlikeable & couldn't really relate to her at all. Not an enjoyable read for me.

When I finishing The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, I felt compelled to read After You'd Gone. Maggie O'Farrell is an incredible writer who is able to capture human emotion in a magnificent and poignant manner. What I really liked about this book is the way in which O'Farrell dealt with complex issues without over dramatizing them. The book packs a soft punch of wisdom regarding love, betrayal, grief and forgiveness

I'm an avid reader, an oftentimes jaded reader, and a book has to be nothing short of remarkable to make me visibly emotional. But Maggie O'Farrell's book made me both laugh and cry out loud, and kept me up all night until I finished.
After You'd Gone is a series of flashbacks, written from different perspectives, that together form a highly emotional family portrait.
You can't help but be drawn in by the characters. You feel for them, you understand them, and you ultimately care what happens to them. Oftentimes, British novels with British characters are a little more difficult for American readers to relate to. But this is not the case with O'Farrell's book.
Male or female, young or old, everyone can appreciate this story. It is an easy read, full of humor, romance, and grief - a unique combination that will stay with you long after you are finished.

what a sad book, it was nearly impossible to read about Alice grieving for John. I'm not 100% sure what happened at the end, did Alice begin to wake up? I re-read it a few times and I still don't know. Very haunting, this will stay with me a while.

~ Great opening scene, keeps you wanting to know "why?" The story has many layers and tells the love story flawlessly through various perspectives. Reveals many hurtful truths about why families are the way they are and why we want something totally different from the type of family we come from. Mysterious yet a relevant read.

~ Great opening scene, keeps you wanting to know "why?" The story has many layers and tells the love story flawlessly through various perspectives. Reveals many hurtful truths about why families are the way they are and why we want something totally different from the type of family we come from. Mysterious yet a relevant read.

I borrowed this book several years ago, but still remember it as one of my all-time favorites (and therefore I'm ordering a copy for myself to re-read). Check out the detailed reviews on the hardcover edition, and you'll see it has a very favorable 4.7 rating. Did the ending leave me hanging? No, it left me hopeful. ps: I'm also hoping for more Maggie O'Farrell novels like this one ...

Maggie O'Farrell's first novel is certainly the most impressive novel I have read in the past year. Recommended to me by a friend, I have not stopped urging others to read this beautiful meditation on memory, family, love and loss. O'Farrell has you hooked from the opening pages, and you will not want to leave it aside until you have finished the journey with Alice, her protagonist. She is a wonderful stylist, never cluttering her language; she writes about feverish love and desire with both elegance and verve. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, except to say read it; you will not be disappointed.

This was definitvely the most touching book I've read in 2001.
The tragedy of life and love presented in an unbelievable well written way. actually words fail to describe what I felt by reading this book. It's about a rare and true love, ending in a tragical way. However this book is not sad, nor hard to read, it made me melancholic in a positive way. I finished it in one night and can hardly wait for Maggie O'Farrell's second book...

This book stole my heart - I cried with it, smiled with it, laughed. O'Farrell truly creates characters that the reader identifies with, she develops them and makes you feel as though they are real people. Her exploration of the subject was better than others I have read, and it wasn't toned down or softened - this book will make you hurt, and that is the beauty of it.

Yes, there certainly are aspects of this novel that are worthwhile. But in my opinion the author is trying 'way too hard to do something - since I can't see inside her head and psyche, I don't know exactly what. But I get certain impressions.

It feels as though Ms. O'Farrell wrote her story, then took scissors and cut it up into pieces and randomly rearranged it. Reading my way through the book, I got motion sickness. I felt manipulated by an adolescent game, a silly disrespectful caper. I could visualize the author in a mental ward with all the teenage bad language and apparent fascination with injuries to hands in the early part of the book, and breaking writing rules. I could also picture her having gone to writing school and aping earlier authors. For example Sherwood Anderson also has some kind of fascination with hands. But as I said, really, this is only a guess - it is just how it makes me feel.

Having shifting points of view is one thing but adding to that moving from third person to first person narrative is quite another. And the author tries to capture life's minutia and I keep getting just that: she is TRYING - self-consciously, trying too hard to be a smarty. Let the river flow, baby, don't try to push it.

There were places where there was good, insightful writing but basically I thought this book quite horrid as the author sullied her better writing with poor judgement. Sorry.