Belva Plain - After the Fire

For anyone else this would really be a three-star novel, but I'm going to go ahead and give it four-stars because I, personally, am hooked on Belva Plain books, despite her somewhat staid and antiquated writing style.

The topic matter, that being a mother living apart from her growing children, is really poignant and sad, although the writing is somewhat sappy and wordy.

PLOT SUMMARY: Hyacinth marries Plastic Surgeon-to-be, Gerald, despite her mother, Francine's, urgings not to. Mother knew best. Dr. Gerald cheats on Hyacinth and Hyacinth, in a rage, goes to Dr. Gerald's clinic one night and does some damage. But how much damage, is the question. The clinic catches fire and Dr. Gerald (the husband) uses this as grist for the divorce mill and also to take custody of their two young children.

Hyacinth swears she was angry and threw a few papers around, but she did not torch the clinic. Or did she?

The relationship of Hyacinth and Gerald has shades of "Gaslight" a 1940's film with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, where the husband tries to make his wife think she is going insane.

So, Gerald tries to "Gaslight" Hyacinth saying he will keep his silence about her being at the clinic that night in exchange of Hyacinth's signing over the children to Gerald. Otherwise, Hyacinth would surely go to jail or mental instituion for arson. The rest of the book is about Hyacinth agonizing and suffering her decision to give over custody of her kids, although to cure her loneliness, she decides to occupy her time with work and becomes a smashing success in the fashion design world. However, no measure of success makes up for the pain and agony of this mother's not being able to see her two children grow up.

MOTHERS VS. FATHERS: Don't expect any complex political pronouncements on whether fathers do better parenting than mothers and the state of child-custody in general. Belva Plain is more of a "storyteller" than a societal theorist. The "mothers without custody theme" comes off more as sorrowful, rather than socially relevant.

COULD THIS REALLY HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE? Belva Plain is obviously caught in a time-warp. I think the days when a husband , who has another girl waiting in the wings, can have his wife declared "mentally unbalanced" and sent off to the looney bin, are long past.

WONDERFULLY SYMPATHETIC SITUATION AND CHARACTER: What makes up for the lack of believability in the plot is that Belva Plain does a fabulous job of getting the reader to empathize with Hyacinth. Why?

Because from the very start of the book, Hyacinth is presented as someone who is timid, naive, and otherwise wet behind the ears.

Ordinarily, you might be fed up with a character who refuses to get some sense and take action. Several Amazon readers are angry that Hyacinth would just abandon her kids and not fight for them. But, right from the get go on Page 4 no less, Hyacinth's mother, Francine, admits: "Hyacinth is 21 going on 12."

I'm fed up with authors who try to describe and present so-called clever and sharp characters up front, only to discover later that these characters through their dumb actions are really stupider than ever. So, I give a lot of credit to Ms. Plain for never trying to make Hyacinth more than what she was from the get-go.

Right from the beginning you know what you are in for. Hyacinth is sort of a Lily-of-the-Valley/Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, doe-eyed pup who just isn't worldly-wise to the ways of the world. Because this is presented up front, right at the beginning of "After the Fire," you are able to feel a lot of sympathy for the character of Hyacinth throughout her story.

There are many tearful, sorrow-filled scenes of her two children crying out for their mother and Hyacinth having to send her childen back to their father even though they don't want to go. Heart-breaking, especially since Hyacinth can't reveal the true reason why she had to give them up.

WHO ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT READ THIS: Anyone who needs a lot of action, car chases, and the like. Actually anyone who wants lots of twists and turns will not like this either. There are not twists other than the initial fire. But the plot does seem fast-moving in the sense of Hyacinths day-to-day struggle to live a life without her children. It seemed page-turning to me in the sense that you wanted to read through to see if Hy ever got her kids back.

This is a very sympathetic three-hankie tear-jerker about a woman's (Hyacinth) agonizing day-to-day struggle to live her life without her children that she aches for. You've got to be like me and be a sucker for a good sob-story to love this.

ANTIQUATED 1950'S STYLE WRITING: Yes the time period is now, but the characters, as in all Belva Plain books, talk like they are living in another age.

For instance so and so is "....a trifle embarrassed.." as opposed to "very" embarrassed. And, "......They were so light and unfettered!" As opposed to ....they were "carefree."

Belva Plain seems to put more words into a sentence than is necessary, and she writes a lot in the passive voice. But these are issues of style and it's a writer's prerogative to adopt the style she sees fit. That, plus the whole thing being narrated in the third person, then immediately jumping to the first person when the characters are having private thoughts, may put off some readers; but I happen to like Belva's goofy, somewhat uneven, but sort of formal style.

THE HAPPY ENDING: A sappy, happy, sort of goofy-sweet ending. Everybody is happy, and even Dr. Gerald (the scheming husband) turns out to be not such a Cad after all. And, why not? After all the despair, I'd say both Hyacinth and the reader could use a break.

Reading Belva Plain is like sitting at Grandma's knee while Grandma weaves an intricate tale in Grandma's somewhat formal and goofy manner. This is nothing too thought provoking, even though the subject matter of a mother giving up her children is sad.

"After the Fire" is just that sort of sappy Grandma's Fable: heartbreaking in the middle, but very feel-good happy ever after at the end.

The Belva Plain reader who isn't looking for too much action and nothing too brain taxiing, but a lot of suffering, in a sort-of "all's well-that ends well" tale, should be very pleased.