A Year After Henry

A Year After Henry by Cathie Pelletier   268 pages

In the opening line of Pelletier’s novel, the reader learns that Henry Munroe had a fatal heart attacked in the summer of 2002. It’s one of my all-time favorite lines: Henry had been gone a year now, but Jeannie would never forget the moment he dies, how the bed became lighter, his soul floating upward like a white balloon.  Beautiful, isn’t it?

Now it’s the summer of 2003. The story’s focus is where his wife, son, brother, and mistress are in their grief process. Widow Jeannie is stuck.  She’s still furious at Henry for his infidelity, obsessed with his mistress, Evie, who she stalks, and dreading the memorial service his mother insists be held.

Chad, Henry’s fifteen-year-old son, is trying to numb his pain with drugs and alcohol. He’s a relatively minor character, but his appearance and the affect Henry’s death has on him is important. I often wondered why Jeannie didn’t do more to comfort him, or at least acknowledge his existence.

Larry, Henry’s brother, has hit rock bottom. Henry’s death came at the end of a nasty divorce in which Larry not only loses his wife, but also his son and his job. He’s back at home, living with his parents, barely able to get out of bed.

Evie Cooper is the only character now wallowing in grief. Yes, she’s shattered, but her work as a spiritual portraitist gives her comfort. The idea of an occupation drawing pictures of the dead people she sees is unique and interesting.

As time hurls toward the first anniversary of Henry's passing, each of the characters comes to a resolution about life, death, and Henry. Through all of these eyes, the reader not only gets to know the characters, but gets to know Henry. He's not quite the wonderful man that everyone thought he was when he first died, but he becomes a real person again, not a sainted memory.

There are not as many beautiful passages as the first line A Year After Henry, but it an exquisitely written work.