After Light a Nuanced Unfolding of Family History

There are novels that resonate and novels that linger. Canadian writer Catherine Hunter’s haunting "After Light" not only accomplishes both but also does so with a nuanced beauty befitting its title. Spanning nearly a century and four generations, the story of the Garrison family is an artfully woven tapestry of family dynamics unfolding against a backdrop of unspeakable heartbreak and, in the end, abiding love. Hunter’s beautiful book is a finalist in the High Plains Book Awards Women Authors category, sponsored in part by the Billings Public Library.

At the heart of the tale is Siobhan "Von" Garrison, fiercely independent and hardened by disappointment and guilt. When Von’s estranged sister, collage artist Roisin Dubh (Rosheen), dies unexpectedly in Amsterdam, Von is called upon to leave the family greenhouse in Winnipeg and journey to Europe to complete the research necessary for Rosheen’s final art show in Brooklyn. Rosheen’s collages are deeply personal fragments from the past, and as Von completes her sister’s final request, she comes to understand Rosheen’s artistic expressions and the solace she found within them.

It is the unfolding of the family history that marks the tale. The book contains three chapters: "Deirdre," "Frank," and "Von and Rosheen." Deirdre Quinn is County Galway born, headstrong and fierce and nearly torn asunder by societal expectation of women and true love lost. “Too much sacrifice,” observed poet W.B. Yeats, “can turn the heart to stone,” and so it seems of Deidre who makes the decisions she must in order to escape to America with her young son Frank. For it is Frank she loves most, and it is Frank she ultimately drives away. Yet love moves in mysterious ways as it is Frank’s daughter Rosheen with whom Deirdre nurtures a special relationship and saves through Frank’s legacy.

Frank Garrison is complicated — darkened by expectation and duty, lit from within by artistic talent and sensitivity. Unable to pursue his true passion, Frank enlists to serve in the Canadian Black Watch during World War Two. Blinded in an enemy attack, he returns home to marry, to work, and to father two daughters. “There is only one thing a blind person cannot do,” declares Frank. “He cannot see.” Yet the mantra rings hollow — Frank cannot control the terrors at night; he cannot raise daughters spared his emotional abuse. And he can no longer create art.

Rosheen is the least developed of the four characters and understandably so as she is the most enigmatic, even to those who love her most. Once beautiful but horribly disfigured in a childhood accident, Rosheen copes by creating a private world of introspective art and a public world of substance abuse and desperate needs for affection and validation. It is sister Von she loves most, and it is Von she drives away. Rosheen’s final art exhibit is entitled Afterlight, and in this afterlight of all that has passed, redemption and hope coalesce for the Garrison girls, Dubh and Siobhan.

If there is any criticism to be levied against this engaging read, it is that the transitions from character to character across great expanses of time are often abrupt and in the beginning of the book, jarring and a bit confusing. As the novel unfolds, the reader acclimates. Otherwise, the story and characters triumph. “In the greenhouse,” the author observes, “all living things bent toward the sun.” And in "After Light," all things bent toward not what appears to destroy the Garrisons but rather what would once again make them whole.

Sue Bach is a retired English teacher who works with Friends of the Billings Public Library and serves on the Library Board of Trustees.