JoAnne Tompkins

“Humans are forever picking their heroes and villains in waves of reversing fashion. Though at times—and this has happened not only with some pit bulls but with all manner of people and entire countries—we name our villains and then treat them in such a way that they prove us prophets.”

Isaac Balch, a high school teacher in the seaside town of Port Furlong, finds sixteen-year-old Evangeline McKensey alone and sheltering in the yard behind his home and takes her in. Evangeline, abandoned by her mother, is homeless having previously lived in a decrepit trailer with her mother and is pregnant and has had to resort to desperate means and measures to support herself. Isaac, a Quaker in faith, sees in her a lost young girl who needs help and out of the goodness of his heart decides to assist her in every way possible. Isaac whose wife left him a year ago is still reeling from the recent death of his teenage son Daniel who was recently murdered by Jonah, their friend and neighbor Lorrie’s son who was Daniel’s school friend and who later committed suicide. We also find out that Evangaline was no stranger to Jonah and Daniel – a fact that she initially keeps to herself. As the story progresses we get to know more about Isaac, Jonah and his mother and sister and the community they shared. We see how Isaac, Lorrie and her daughter Nells, Evangeline and Rufus (Daniel’s pet dog) deal with the aftermath of the horrific tragedy, accept the irrevocable changes in their lives and their relationships and learn to co-exist in the best way possible - learning to live with the guilt and pain of their shared loss and forging new bonds from forgiveness, compassion and acceptance.

What Comes After by Joanne Tompkins is an incredible debut novel that revolves around family, grief, guilt, acceptance, kindness, faith and forgiveness. The author touches upon issues such as child and sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and suicide with the utmost sensitivity. The prose is elegant, the narrative is engaging and the characterizations are absolutely brilliant. The narrative is shared in chapters alternating between Isaac’s and Evangeline’s PoVs with a few chapters from Jonah's final days narrated in his voice. Isaac’s grief, reflections on what he perceives as his shortcomings as a parent, and his kindness towards Evangeline were beautifully written as was Evangeline’s story as she shares her distrust, confusion and the pain of adjusting to life with a child on the way while adjusting to a new town among strangers she whose kindness she is forced to accept. Jonah’s narrative was simply heartbreaking with his complicated friendship with Daniel, his dysfunctional family dynamics and his guilt over his crime that pushes him to take his own life. Each of these voices is distinct and congruent with the profile of the characters crafted by the author. However, I felt that Lorrie’s character should have been explored with more depth and though we get to know some details through Jonah’s narrative,the author could have given a voice to Lorrie and her struggles with her abusive late husband, Jonah’s crime and subsequent suicide, her guilt over her son’s actions and the ensuing strain in her friendship with Isaac. This is a complex and powerful story that will evoke strong emotions and though it might not be the easiest read, it is well worth the time invested.

“You can see the crimes that people commit, see them in their clear brutality, and yet someday, somehow, forgive. It might be the only way. How is forgiveness of what is not acknowledged forgiveness at all?”… (mehr)

What Comes After is a novel both heartbreaking and filled with hope. Following a tragedy that leaves two families and a community devastated, a broken teenage girl emerges from the woods and into the lives of those who are grieving the unimaginable loss of their sons, Daniel and Jonah. Evangeline is a girl who has been abandoned by a mother who chose drugs and men over her. Evangeline has lived a near-feral life scavenging for food until she is evicted from her ramshackle home. Knowing both Daniel and Jonah, she heads toward Daniel's home seeking refuge where Daniel's father and his dog live. Knowing she is pregnant adds an urgency to her quest for food and shelter.

Issac is a devout Quaker, a man of few words and few expressed sentiments who wife left him prior to Daniel's death. His near neighbor is a single mother, who is left with a daughter, Nells, after Jonah's death. The neighbors' lives become entwined after Evangeline's arrival, and both suspect that one of their sons is the father of her baby. As the relationships grow, their profound grief is replaced with grace and understanding.

One of the most powerful moments in this book is the death of Issac's dog, Rufus, who has an uncanny understanding of the human heart. Ironically, his death corresponds with the onset of Evangeline's labor. This is a novel that I will remember for its depth of the ultimate love these people and this dog had for each other.… (mehr)