Us in the Before and After

Jenny Valentine’s novels offer an experience like no other. Never at a loss for an arresting phrase or an original insight, she takes her readers as far as they could wish to go and perhaps, for some, a little further than they might feel comfortable with. This present story of an ultimately doomed friendship between two very bright American teenage girls around forty years ago or so also weaves in theories drawn from the study of quantum physics. But at other moments her characters express themselves with all the mundane narcissistic self-absorption typical but also forgivable at that age. Parties, trips to the beach and boyfriends figure too, but only as background to a main plot involving one of the girls transforming into a ghost. If this sounds complicated, that is because it is.

Death plays a major part in this story, with the loss of a beloved grandmother leading the way for more outpourings of grief. Yet most of this intriguing if demanding story is told in dialogue replete with wry comments and high-order repartee. Elena, one of the two teenagers, also has a genius 5-year-old brother, and there are moments when the intensity of all the relationships involved almost becomes too much. But this is a novel to be read twice, with the second experience finally making sense of what initially was sometimes puzzling the first time round. Not every reader may get this far but those that have become truly hooked may relish the chance to savour once again the brilliance of the author’s prose now they know what is really going on. Intense female friendship with all its ups and occasional downs has seldom been brought to the page more memorably.