And it’s fair to say that it does describe the basic narrative.
But, because it’s a little more experimental than the standard novel, there’s a lot more under the surface.
Opening with a fire in a ranch before descending into bomb attacks, the city shutting down and a general inferno, After All depicts a city where local law enforcement are out smarted and out gunned on a regular basis, the mental toll on the individual who lives there and the decay of language under such circumstances.
In short, chaos.
Due to the lack of a concrete plot, each segment is akin to a howl from the wilderness. What really struck me reading this is how it matched my own apocalyptic fears during Covid lockdown, the BLM riots in America and the strong sense of heat of that period. Take this quote as an example:
It was roughly 4am when the ground below the city started to rustle like crunched leaves underfoot and then, in a matter of seconds, began to burst into a full-on boil. The concrete structures ad junctions of the city began to crumble and crush into a mush-like solution for several minutes. As this thick, murky mass stirred and churned into humongous lake (sic) of sediment and acid, the ground began to shake all the more violently and the contents of what was once Cincinnati slid deep beneath the surface of the Earth.
I recall many a night with similar visions so it’s nice to see I wasn’t the only one.
The notion of a decaying language increases as the book carries on, with certain words and phrases highlighted, strained and isolated. Some unforgiving types will dismiss this as padding. But, if read in context, it becomes a haunting cry from those struggling to articulate what is going on around them.
The only way you could get your message across was, of course, online. But, of course, such statements are stretched, ripped out of context and deliberately misinterpreted by others. Hence why I related to similar passages in After All as it’s the closest I’ve read to articulating this alienation from not only a society that actively encourages such groupthink, but also language itself.
One particular example of the above will test the reader. For nearly 20 pages, the phrase “All criminals are inherently stupid. That’s why they’re criminals, after all” is repeated incessantly. Although most will gage the obvious point that Michael Gerard is making (if they’ve been following the narrative up to this point), reading a few of the pages allows the reader to experience the novocaine like comfort that such a statement can bring, especially to those who see themselves as decent and law-abiding citizens.
Simple, but bubbling with complex emotions and viewpoints, this is the first great Covid novel.
Michael Gerard, 2023, After All. Sweat Drenched Press. ISBN-13: 979-8377288824
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist.
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