After the Parade

Sean Runnette empathetically narrates this debut novel about Aaron Englund, a sympathetic gay man who has been with his older partner, Walter, for many years. Aaron has always felt isolated and different from everyone else, and his story demonstrates how relationships and personalities are shaped by the various events in people's daily lives. After Aaron leaves New Mexico, and Walter, for San Francisco, flashbacks describe Aaron's childhood, especially his relationship with his mother after his father died in a freak accident. Slow and sad, the story unfolds at its own pace, and Runnette reads in a fluid cadence with steady pacing that pushes it forward. He only slightly differentiates characters in the rare dialogue. The small moments revealed in Aaron's life enable listeners to make sense of who he is and what's happened to him. Listeners will easily follow the detailed plot with its surprising humor and compelling minor characters, all aided by Runnette's thoughtful presentation. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

July 6, 2015
Written over the course of 15 years, Ostlund’s debut novel (after the Flannery O’Connor Award–winning collection The Bigness of the World) follows a broken and empty man who embarks on a six-month journey to make sense of his past, in hopes of comfortably inhabiting his present. After 20 years cradled in the care of the older, stifling Walter, 40-year-old Aaron strikes out from the Midwest for better horizons in San Francisco. Yet when he settles into his new routine—teaching ESL to a ragtag group of foreigners and living in a studio apartment inside a garage owned by a perpetually squabbling couple—he finds it’s as unfulfilling as the one he left behind in New Mexico. On a sentence-by-sentence level, Ostlund’s prose is unmatched—smart, resonant, and imbued with beauty. But the book’s structure doesn’t always support the weight of two dueling stories competing for the reader’s attention—Aaron’s growing pains during his first few months in San Francisco and, via prolonged flashbacks, his difficult childhood in smalltown Minnesota after the accidental death of his father in a parade and the slow deterioration and eventual disappearance of his mother. Still, explorations of each character’s grief and regret, calcified resentment, and gnawing loneliness are vividly rendered.

Starred review from January 1, 2016

At the age of 40, ESL teacher Aaron is living alone for the first time. A newcomer to San Francisco, he is teaching his quirky students, listening to his landlords fight, and trying to come to terms with his life. Aaron grew up in Mortonville, MN, and marks his life before and after a significant event: when his abusive police officer father fell off a parade float and died. Even though his mother moved from the town and seemed to start over, she never really moved past these events. And, one day, she just left...with the pastor, no less. After living with friends for a time, Aaron is rescued by Walter, an older man who shepherds him through college and introduces him to what the world has to offer. But, as Aaron matures, this relationship begins to feel controlling, and Aaron strikes out on his own, finally confronting his past. Woven throughout this touching debut is Ostlund's gentle humor. Sean Runnette captures perfectly Aaron's voice in this introspective tale. VERDICT Highly recommended. ["A thread of melancholy runs through this affecting novel": LJ 7/15 review of the Scribner hc.]--Judy Murray, Monroe Cty. Lib. Syst., MI

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