After the Fire

By J.A. Jance

Book Overview

New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance's heartrending collection of poetry and essays recounts a dark chapter of her own life, her first marriage to an alcoholic a powerful look at the emotional cost of addiction and an inspiring story of courage and triumph in the wake of crushing defeat Before she found fame as a bestselling mystery author, Judith Jance wrestled with the anguish of being married to an alcoholic. For years she channeled her pain into words, composing the poems in this moving volume, first published in 1984, a year before her debut novel. In searing and direct language, After the Fire chronicles the collapse of Jance's first marriage under the weight of her husband's addiction and her own unwitting denial and codependence while she struggled to find herself. "I will not be the price of your redemption," she wrote then. "I will not pay my life to ransom yours." An intimate, deeply personal look into a wrenching time in Jance's life, After the Fire is a portrait of addiction and its insidious effects on lives and love. It illuminates universal truths about unbearable loss and finding the courage to carry on, and offers inspiration and profound insight into the heart and work of a beloved bestselling author. "

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062293974
• ISBN13: 9780062293978
• Release Date: September 2013
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Powerful

The author talks about each of the poems before she reads them. In that way we get a kind of autobiography of J.A. Jance's early years, focusing especially what she went through while in a disastrous marriage to a hardcore alcoholic (9 rehab stints in 7 years!). Still, she never makes it clear why she stayed for so many years, and there is nothing new in her experiences or revelations.

An anthology of brief poems supplemented by prose insights

After The Fire is an anthology of brief poems supplemented by prose insights. Composed to express author J. A. Jance's anguish at being married to an alcoholic, they chronicle her realization that her unwitting denial and co-dependence was only serving to further condemn herself and her spouse. After The Fire is an insidious portrait of addiction and its terrible costs, hard-hitting to the core, and each page further draws the reader into the experience. Fog: I walk in fog / Its velvet touch caresses me / And hides the hurt. / Beyond the fog, the sun / Shines clear and bright. / I must keep moving, / I have earned the light.

Rattlesnake Crossing

I loved this book. It took me to places that I have visited and would like to return to. I really enjoyed the characters. This writer describes her people well.