Tex and Molly in the Afterlife: An Epic Tale of Love and Memory Beyond Life Itself

by Richard Grant

A breathtaking flight of the imagination, Richard Grant's Tex and Molly in the Afterlife is a major Dionysian/literary event; a poignant, endlessly inventive, and hilariously provocative novel of invigorating power and mystical absurdity. It concerns the unusual odyssey of Tex and Molly of Dublin, Maine - two aging hippies whose sudden and accidental deaths grant them the opportunity to brazenly reinvent their own realities while communing with various ancient forsaken deities and down-and-out woodland spirits. Like a raucous pagan dance in Thomas Pychon's garden, it is a novel rich in intelligence, wit, and serious strangeness - a supremely literary adventure of despoilers, witches, wolves, outlaw hackers, suits and rabid survivalists running wild through a soon-to-be corporately mutated Great North Woods - written with style and heart by an author whom The Washington Post once proclaimed "either a genius or a madman."

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural, Spirituality

496 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

RICHARD GRANT was born in Norfolk in 1952, attended the University of Virginia, and served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He lives in Rockport, Maine, where he has been a contributing editor of Down East magazine, chaired the literature panel of the Maine Arts Commission, and won a New England Journalism Award for his column in the Camden Herald.

After a 20-year career writing science fiction and fantasy, he turned to historical fiction.

Reviews

[apwebb83 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reread this wacky story over and over because I enjoy the journey. I like Tex. I like Molly. I like the boat. I like the woods. I like the players. I love the facts of afterlife. I like laughing about eternity every once in a while.

[Melanti]

Picked this up a few years back due to its inclusion on the Endicott Mythic Fiction list and have been questioning my choice ever since.

What on earth was the author smoking when he wrote this?? (A couple other reviews imply pot, but I haven't gotten far enough to judge adequately.)

I'm not a huge fan of "quirky" books and my sense of humor doesn't seem to fall in the same area as the author's. And it's a little too colloquial for my tastes.

Just a few pages read, but this is getting tossed in my give-away pile.

[J. Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an uncertain era, there is room for a sweet and complicated love story that hits so many resonant chimes: environmentalism, anachronism, community theatre activism, they're all here. The technology mentioned is quaintly just-past-current, and yet the politics are timeless (unfortunately). This is one of my favorite go-to comfort books. It makes me want to get a houseboat in an unfashionable part of Maine.

[Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets 5/5 - not because it's a literary masterpiece - but rather because of how much I connected with it.

There were moments where the story was a bit slow and cluttered - but there were other moments where the author explored such profound concepts - especially death - in such a beautifully playful way that it deeply moved me. It's so hopeful and in some moments daringly captures what I imagine the afterlife is like.

And even better that the personalities and dynamic between Tex and Molly reminded me of the partnership I have with my lover.

And it has ecological consequences with glimmers of nature spirits and magic. Definitely my kind of book! Thank you Richard Grant!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool book. Very hippy dippy. One of my favorite reads of all time.

[Junoimelda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of Richard Grant's books to be set in what is (more or less) an approximation of our world - a small town in Maine, to be exact. This is a much lighter read than some of his other books. I would classify it as magical (non-preachy) eco fantasy. As usual, his characters are likable, humble, slightly awkward people. I suppose I would characterize it as an inspiring, daydream inducing flight of fancy.

[Robert Nolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A doober-induced romp involving a mishmash of Native American and pagan mythology, corporate greed run amok, and hippies to the rescue. Probably his funniest, most enjoyable novel. And yes, it's like old Tom Robbins, minus the pseudo-hippness. A second read for me after twenty years, very enjoyable.

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book more than I though I was going to. Somewhat Tom Robbins-esque, though not quite as graphic or provocative as his writing tends to be. Kind of predictable, a little bit preachy, but clever and fun enough to keep the pages turning.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite possibly one of my favorite books ever.
I have read it more than once. I love the characters. All realistic, all passionate, and the story is a tale about love, life, and, well, diversity! A laugh out loud ride.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off strong, but gets a little lost in itself toward the end. Still, the author's imagination is quite vivid, and the characters (alive, dead and supernatural alike) are enjoyable to follow.

[Kaleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rad stuff.
Big Lebowski crossed with Beetlejuice in the woods monkeywrenching & living on a houseboat.
The Dude abiding in the spaces between life & death.

[Kristi Lamont · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so disappointed in this book. I had it on my Priority Read list for a good long while. When I finally realized that I wasn't going to be able to get it from any of the libraries to which I have access, and that it wasn't available in electronic format, I actually _bought_ a used copy of it. That was how important it was to me to be able to read it--I very rarely buy books. (Long story about a little book buying binge that just about did me in financially about 100 years ago.....pretty much went cold turkey after that.)

Started Tex and Molly one day last week, and found it slow going. Figured I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. Picked it up again yesterday afternoon and tried, hard, to get into it. But it was ponderous and charmless, and quite, quite boring. Yep, as in pass out while stone-cold sober boring.

I gave up at p202. Life wasn't getting any shorter and I wasn't getting any younger.

I did take the time to go back through my Goodreads account looking for clues, so to speak, as to why I was so hot to read the book. Other than the obvious, of course--the subject matter is right up my alley. I finally figured out that I put it on my Want To Read list the same day I finished Master of the Revels: A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O. by Nicole Galland, which I really, really liked. I must've been looking for something else to satisfy my need for time travel and Everywhen whimsy. Also, I have to wonder if I thought the author was another author by the same name, because I did read a book by "the other" Richard Grant in the spring of last year, and enjoyed it. Likely.

Back to mysteries for a little while, I think.

[Rebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I wasn't sure why I liked this book so much; I can't even describe it very well. But, I realized I fell in love with Tex and Molly. I could see them in my mind's eye; imagine what they would look like, how they would sound, how it would feel to sit and talk with them. The book overall was mostly just sweet: not saccharine (and fake), but sweet like honey, kind of heavy and sticky.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. A bit of its time (over the hill counter culture types aren't the leads of many books these days), but intriguing characters and story. Ending's a bit weird, but it seems to fit. I'm surprised Mr. Grant seems so low profile (maybe it's just me).

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - Dang, I really, really, REALLY was excited to read this book! The synopsis just pullled me in but I just can’t. It has so many elements of a book I’d love but for some reason I just can’t connect with the characters or the story. :(

[butterflygloss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh this book took me everywhere. What an amazing journey. I wouldn’t read many books twice, but I’d read this book again and again if I had the time. I loved.

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

On page 208 & wanted to like this. It seemed like something I’d like…

[bookspider · Rating 5 out of 5]

This soared onto my favourites list like a crafty erstwhile Raven deity taking it's rightful place in cultural relevance. The characters genuine, idiosyncratic and relatable, but they're also likable in their realistically flawed personalities. Even the "villains," or the ones with more dubious morals are compellingly human, their motivations and driving forces are clear, and the reader is even made to empathize with them. Perfect pacing, there is always something interesting happening, and something even more interesting imminent.

This book's portrayal of female personalities is gratifyingly good. There is a passage in which the titular Molly observes a scene of chaos and conflagration, and remarks that it is just so "patently male," which I found both accurate and hilarious. While I disagree that anything can be "patently male" (because gender is a passe social construct), the idea behind the quote is clearly that "a violent fire around which people are running like headless chickens is a typical patriarchy-produced mess." This resonated with me on such a deep level when I read it that I actually had to put the book down, laugh, and restock my mental store of respect for male-identifying folk who truly understand the often boorish nature of their fellow men.

Beyond a solid theme of strong women with excellent ideas in leadership positions, this book deals with magic and the supernatural in a wonderful way, touching on it but never fully articulating the details (soft magic system rather than hard magic system, if you're familiar with Brandon Sanderson's First Law of Magic Systems (http://brandonsanderson.com/sanderson...). The method can be tricky, but Grant executes it perfectly. Tex and Molly simultaneously invokes the school of "well of course there are naiads and elves and Sun and Moon God(ddesse)s" as well as the attitude that "hard facts, science, Laws of Nature are my God," complete with detailed scientific interludes about the biological makeup of trees and slime mold DNA!

[Bill Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by a friend ( to whom I'm grateful). The writing style often, and from the start, took me back to that of Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus trilogy and even, somewhat, to that of Ken Kesey's two novels - Sometimes a Great Notion and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ( especially the former). I was also reminded of the theme of Richard Matheson's ( one of my heroes) novel The Incredible Shrinking Man and can't help but suspect that Grant is familiar with it. I've been very much in a "everything is connected" and time ( and everything else) is relative - no beginning and no end - mode, which is why she led me to this book. Grant certainly was foreseeing global warming as the big threat which every day becomes more irreparable, and the budding internet jargon was interesting, considering that in the mid 90's I and most people I knew were just becoming literate. I very much related to one of the main four characters, a guy named Gene. It's a sprawling tale with many, many characters - human and animal - and I would have liked to see a few of the other characters given more room to grow, in particular a minister nicknamed "Hoot" who I grew to like, and a Native American named Jesse. It was a real enjoyable read for this old hippie type.

[Geoff Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't looking forward to re-reading this book: I was in a very serious mood, and didn't want to spend time with Grant's last comedic novel. But, once again, the book exercised its charms, and I was captivated all over again.

Many, many authors have tried to echo A Midsummer Night's Dream, but Grant's effort is exceptional: the characters are real and full, the plot keeps moving, and the love stories at the heart are too fun to stop reading.

It's a fun book, and an appropriate way for Grant to finish his three or four book meditation on trees and growth fields, as well as being a great introduction to his Dublin, Maine trilogy.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a sufficiently decent period of time since I read this book, that I get to reread it as though it were a first time. ("Like a Virgin" keeps popping into my head, for some reason). I do remember that they have a fool-proof way of hiding their stash; put it in the fridge in a tupperware labeled "organic tofu". Guaranteed, no one touches it.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came highly recommended by an acquaintance but 'stoner' literature is not really my thing. It did have its moments, however. It was definitely redeemed by some priceless lines: after giving money to an AIDS charity, 'There was no figuring Christians, Tex thought. With Witches, at least, you knew where you stood.'

[MarkB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever and quirky romp by a bunch of activists and misfits in the woods of coastal Maine. Focuses on mortality, living in the moment, exploitive corporations and redemption. Unusual writing style makes for a challenging and interesting read.

[Amy Buringrud · Rating 5 out of 5]

The afterlife in this book is fascinating - and the characters are hilarious.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old hippie couple dies... and then???!!!

[Molly]

A gift due to having the titular name. Will try again one day.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goofy, fun book...a great, light read. It gets a little draggy in the end, but not enough to ruin it.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible read. Sad but not oppressively so.

[Karen Munroe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quirky...but NO Tom Robbins comparison. Cute and interesting to see where the author was going to take it.

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite part of this book are the death factoids.