AFTER YOU
Julie Buxbaum
The Dial Press
Fiction
ISBN: 9780385341240
We all know that the choices we make now will determine the course of our future. But how does one decide what to do? What if this were to happen to you: Your best friend Lucy is brutally murdered, and her little girl, Sophie, witnesses the whole thing.
Obviously, after the horror of watching her mother’s lifeblood ooze away, Sophie’s needs are huge. Plus, her father is in tatters, opting to retreat into his work and find solace in a bottle. But you have a life, not here in London with Lucy’s family, but in New York. Your husband is waiting for you to come back. In truth, he has been waiting for you to come back for a long time, since your baby died, and that was a couple of years ago. So be honest: Are you helping Lucy’s child because you were Lucy’s best friend, or because you lost your own child and you want to play mother? Are you taking care of Lucy’s bereaved husband because you don’t know how to take care of your own?
Those are the questions Ellie Lerner is facing --- and avoiding. Helping Sophie through each day becomes a comforting habit. When Ellie’s husband, Phillip, breaks the news to her that he has filed for divorce, she feels like she has been run over by a truck. Or, more properly for her location, a lorry. How could she have not seen this coming? Phillip has been pleading with her to rejoin their life together, and Ellie has been absent. Her excuse: Beautiful little Sophie needs her.
Of course Sophie needs her. What child wouldn’t under such circumstances? Sophie makes a conscious decision not to talk anymore. She withdraws from this world to a place inside herself, where it seems safer. And her Auntie Ellie is patient and loving and there for her.
Both Ellie and Sophie need to get beyond this time in their lives. In observing how Sophie copes in her everyday routines, Ellie discovers a wonderful, simple cure: a book, THE SECRET GARDEN. Reading together allows them both to escape for a while, and it begins to work its magic on Sophie. She starts to respond.
But what about Phillip? It may seem unfair to ask Ellie to choose between him and a traumatized child, but Ellie has forced him into that position. She left immediately upon hearing th e news of Lucy’s death, flew to London for the funeral --- and to help out. But Phillip never expected her to stay on. For weeks. Without any promise of coming home. In fact, quite the opposite: She leaves Phillip with a vague sort of statement that she’s likely not coming home.
In AFTER YOU, Julie Buxbaum shows a wonderful talent for probing emotions and examining complicated feelings. She takes her readers deep inside the pain and loss Sophie feels, the sense of desperation Ellie has, and the frustration Phillip experiences. How the characters ultimately come out, well, you’ll have to read for yourself to find that out. You can’t help but sympathize with each of them, but keep in mind, each of them has a choice to make. It will be tough, but that’s what life demands of us.
This is a book absolutely everyone can benefit from. By listening to Sophie and Ellie and Phillip, making our own choices can become less a crippling obstacle and more an interesting challenge. AFTER YOU literally can change your life.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2010, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
