After: A Novel, by Marita Golden, begins with the shooting of a young African American teacher for brandishing a cell phone in the dark after being stopped for speeding at night with his headlights off. Ironically, the officer who shot him was an African American father of three. Profiling? Patrolman Carson Blake panicked and fired his weapon after shouting at the younger man to drop whatever was in his hand, but instead the suspect brought that hand up in front of him, as if to aim it at the officer. Carson was immediately sickened when he saw the cell phone and that the young man was dead. Why didn’t the patrolman wait for backup before getting out of the patrol car? Why did the teacher, beloved only child of an upper middle class Black family not “remember Rodney King,” as he had been told so many times since he first learned to drive? Placed on administrative leave, as is routine police procedure, Carson is tormented by idleness, guilt and fear. Golden’s powerful portrayal of this good man, his beloved wife and children, the parents of the man he killed, and life after the “justified” discharge of a police weapon is a dark, but satisfying read.
I heard about After because it won the BCALA (Black Caucus of the American Library Association) award for best novel of 2006. The story is about a police officer who shoots an unarmed man in the course of a traffic stop. Whenever I read about events of this type in the paper, I'm always appalled, but I never took the time to think about how all the different people involved in an event of this kind might feel. That's what this book examines. It's well written and thought-provoking, and it reaffirmed my belief that there are just way too many guns floating around in this country!
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This book had been on my to read list for awhile after I saw it at our library one day. I must have been reading other stuff at the time because I didn't pick it up at the time. Then someone else checked it out and didn't return it for so long that it went to lost status, which I discovered after I had a renewed interest in it after seeing the author speak at this year's Maryland Library Association conference. A few weeks ago I noticed it was back on the new books exhibit so I checked it out. The book is about an African-American police officer in DC who winds up shooting a young man during a traffic stop thinking he was armed when in reality it turns out he was holding a cell phone. The "after" is what happens to him, his family, and his life after this incident occurs. I enjoyed the book and will be looking into Golden's backlist titles as this is her most recent book.
—Danielle
