After the Parade by Lori Ostlund — A Review

A meandering story that goes between past and present in the narrators' life. A story of love and loss, family and dysfunction and learning to understand yourself by accepting your past. It's a book for a quiet, contemplative moment, a book you want to devour when you feel most introspective.

I think I read it at a very appropriate time, so it went well.

Aaron Englund is forty and leaving his boyfriend of 20 odd years, leaving the Midwest and setting out to San Francisco, the destination chosen because of a casual acquaintance, Taffy, who said she would help him find his footing. Aaron is leaving because he has never been alone, never had freedom of self, and knows he cannot continue to live a half-life, and not find himself.

Peace does not come easily, and he must come to terms with his small-town past, his mother, his father, the strange and the mundane, all those parts and pieces that help form your psyche when you are very young. Chance encounters and purposeful decisions lead him on his way.

Wonderfully, powerfully written, in the right moment, After the Parade will grip you and you'll want to linger. The prose is powerful, sparse when needed, descriptive without being flowerly, giving you a little light when needed, letting you discover the substance of the book on your own.

I'm a sucker for this depth, this feeling and confrontation of your past. If that's your thing as well, you'll enjoy this book.

*(this ARC was received for free via GoodReads -I think?...- for review.)