I'm sorry this might be okay but I just can't with the narration on the audiobook any more

Merged review:

I'm sorry this might be okay but I just can't with the narration on the audiobook any more

This novel - poignant, wry, and beautifully written - lets us in on what it felt like to be a gay man in the 80s, when the AIDS epidemic started devouring young lives. The three principle characters have all lost their lovers, and have come together to support each other. Each of them is also living with a death sentence. They are all riveting characters, and they handle the situation very differently. One seeks revenge on an uncaring society, one seeks spiritual redemption, and one tries again (most terrifyingly) for love. This is a powerful novel, well worth reading.

I was so enraptured by Becoming a Man and Borrowed Time, that I moved right into Monette's fiction, starting with his first book, and then ground to a halt. This is his first fiction work I've picked up since then, I'm saving Last Watch of the Night for some unknown time in the future where I can savour it.
Monette's writing got better with AIDS, the books had a focus and that trend continues here, though for much of the first half of the book he struggles to overcome his old writing style, that of a privileged man writing from a pedestal and casting only half an eye at his subjects. Its especially difficult to write a book with all men, all white gay men, and be able to keep the characters separate. One supposes they're all friends due to their similarities but for the first half of the book I had no idea who was who, and I suppose I didn't really care. The second half of the book the action picks up and at the same time the story becomes more focused on just two people, rather than the confusing eight at the beginning, and the book became good. I was surprised, I was all set to give it a negative review but I'm glad I stuck with it.
The book details a life lived in between the falling bombs of the AIDS epidemic. There is desperation, such as when a character "called the Federal Building, demanding release of a drug that people were smuggling in from China." I understand the frustration, but actions like this led to the over-prescribing of AZT and the death of early patients.
As the novel continues Monette loses most of his detachment from the characters and once they become real this novel becomes the heart-felt AIDS crisis snap-shot it should be. It just takes a little too long to get there.

Engrossing and touching. Fascinating to read something from this period (it was published in 1990) and see how it compares to life today. I remember and related to all the feelings the characters go through and especially that blind rage and debilitating hopelessness. Thankfully Monette writes beautifully what makes humans survive -- specfically trust in other humans and love for them, even when sometimes there's absolutely no reason too. And sex. This would make a great TV series, would be great to show people today what this time was like since there's essentially a generation all but missing in our collective history.

After reading Paul Monette's poetry, I was eager to check out some more of his fiction. Afterlife has been sitting on my shelf for far too long and I'm so glad I finally got to it. The first Monette I ever read was Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll. I found that novel to be brimming with beautiful writing but the improbable actions of the characters and the even more implausible results of those actions made it difficult to buy into. Thankfully, I had none of those issues with Afterlife. It is the intimate and unforgettable story of three friends who are all "widows" after having lost their significant others to the rampant rise of AIDS as it is ravaging the gay community during the late eighties.

Monette lived through these times himself and so he imbues his novel with authentic depictions of grief and hopelessness while also capturing the vibrancy and solidarity that carried the Gay community through this horrific time. Not only were these men suffering and dying left and right, but they also had to endure it all while being misunderstood, degraded and viscously hated through the whole experience. They had death wished on them publicly and were told they even deserved to die. Monette specifically highlights how the church used God to condemn the sick to hell and justify the negligence of society to do anything about the disease except to weaponize it. It is so imperative that we read stories like this to honor their deaths and to keep the memory of the atrocities they endured fresh in our mind so we hopefully will never disregard human beings that are suffering in this way again. It's truly unforgivable what happened to these sons, daughters, brothers, and friends that just wanted to live and love openly and honestly like the rest of the world.

The brilliance of Afterlife is in its defiant persistence to celebrate gay love in the face of unthinkable bleakness. The novel itself doesn't shy away from the joy these men find in each other's arms and the comfort they find in their bodies despite the impending doom that pervades every waking moment. In the midst of this taboo epidemic they somehow manage to glean a sense of community, found-family, and a reason to live, no matter how briefly. However, these characters definitely do struggle to get up and brave the insurmountable odds and heartless society that they face every single day and Monette doesn't let the dire stakes at hand recede from the reader's consciousness for a second. But the sheer strength of these characters to go on and find some semblance of hope and love at all is a true miracle and it's inspiring to witness.

I would be remised not mention the dated and offensive language Monette sometimes allows to pollute his poetic prose. This is so disheartening and upsetting because the overall message the author is clearly aiming for is one of inclusivity and community but he undermines that notion when he uses derogatory terms for lesbians, teeters on antisemitism, or outright ignores many members of the very community he endeavors to unite. In this way, Afterlife is a relic of a very specific time in all its glory and gracelessness. The lack of Trans representation is, at best, just plain inaccurate and should be noted and used a teachable moment on the glaring blind spot in the ethos of the entire gay rights movement of this time before the more inclusive LGBT era.

If you can get past or, rather, learn from the mistakes of the time, Afterlife contains lots of beautiful examples of Monette's tender prose. There are a plethora of quotable and highlight-worthy passages within its pages...

"Every single night before he went to sleep, he had to be finished with the world, in case he woke up too sick to go on. All he knew was this: before he went he would do what he had to, whatever it was, to let them know his people wouldn't go quietly anymore."

Monette is exceptionally gifted in expressing the beauty and the beast of the lives that these characters fought for daily. It was empowering and exhilarating to see each of them overcome so much to make the most of each moment they have. They squeeze every last ounce of joy, love, and hope out of their cruel circumstances. I immediately fell in love with Steven, in all of his broken-hearted despondency. I can definitely relate. I grew to love Mark and Dell was probably my favorite. His complicated response to his situation was devastating and raw. I also really enjoyed Linda and Margaret as they injected much needed and appreciated feminine energy into this boy's club. They all have great growth as characters and interesting arcs in the story.

Though not a perfect novel, Afterlife is like it's three main protagonists. It's transgressive (for its time), emotionally complex, relentlessly hedonistic, and tragically human in its fallibility. I've read some ignorant reviews by younger generations that lament the pervasiveness of AIDS in the world that these characters inhabit but these reviews only underline how necessary and important books like this are. We need to keep in mind that the author lived through these times, lost many loved ones during this epidemic and even died from the disease himself. AIDS truly WAS pervasive. We should honor the generations who lived with our "trauma-porn" fiction as their cold reality and be nothing but grateful that a world like the one in Afterlife seems so inconceivable to us now.

This is one of those books that makes me wish that Goodreads allowed half-stars-- I feel very 3.5-starry about it. I love all of Monette's nonfiction and I feel ambivalent about all of his fiction, but this is my favorite of his novels. When it's good, it's really good, and I get very emotionally invested.

3.5 stars but worth your time