What's Left Afterward - Orsini, David

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Résumé :

In David Orsini's novel WHAT'S LEFT AFTERWARD, the protagonist's privileged background engenders his daredevil approach to life. Adventurous and life-loving, he imagines that the Fates are his reliable advocates. When a tragedy in which he is implicated overwhelms his life, he loses his proper bearings. He becomes guilt-ridden and conflicted because of the auto accident that killed his best friend. He struggles to recover what he has lost and to move with confidence toward the next chapters in his life. At a crucial point in his struggles, he returns to an agrarian landscape to reconnect with the environment that he and his wife shared with the ill-fated friend whose death has left him shaken and uncertain. During this visit to his friend's widow, he realizes that an environment that had always brought him solace will now and always be anchored to the loss of his best friend.

Because of his remorse and his alcoholic addiction, his life as a successful novelist and praiseworthy husband spirals away from him. His violent, drug-addicted scenes with his loyal wife destroy their marriage. Only after a lengthy withdrawal to a medical center and to psychiatric counseling does he recover some of his best capacities. By this time, his wife (a successful careerist) has begun her own journey as she tests herself in a life without the protagonist and with a new partner. The troubled protagonist also begins his new journey as he struggles to resolve his conflicted relationship with his wife, to initiate a promising relationship with another woman, and to make something worthwhile out of what has remained after the death of his best friend and after the loss of his early happiness.