Before and After | Before and After

At a glance:

Author: Rosellen Brown
First Published: 1992
Type of Work: Novel
Time of Work: The 1990’s
Setting: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Texas
Principal Characters: Jacob Reiser, Carolyn Reiser, Ben Reiser, Judith Reiser
Genres: Long fiction
Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Adolescence, Murder or homicide, New England, West, U.S., Trials, Truth, 1990’s, Texas
Locales: Massachusetts, Texas, New Hampshire

In A Voice of One’s Own: Conversations with America’s Writing Women (1990), Mickey Pearlman points out that one of Rosellen Brown’s major themes is the power of the irrational in the lives of even the most rational of human beings. This theme was evident in Brown’s first two novels, The Autobiography of My Mother (1976) and Tender Mercies (1978). While the crucial events in these early works are simply tragic accidents, the central incident in Before and After is a murder, one that the relatives of the killer would like to believe was in some sense an...

Before and After | Before and After

At a glance:

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