After Annie: A Novel

by Michael Tucker

An irresistible tale about love and the theater, After Annie is an astonishing first novel. Herbie Aaron is one half of a celebrity marriage. He and Annie have been famous, nobodies, and mingled with the rich and crazy. Through it all, they've been passionate lovers and fast friends. But when Annie dies of cancer, Herbie is lost.

If you think this is going to be a tragic tale about grief, think again. Herbie is too cantankerous, sly, and charming to keel over. Enter Olive, a beautiful bartender who just might be a great actress; Candy, Herbie and Annie's neurotic daughter; and a woman named Billy, the tough-talking golf pro who teaches Herbie more about his psyche than about his lousy swing.

After Annie is a hilarious and beautifully rendered novel about a man off the rails, battling through the middle-aged wilderness days he hoped never to face alone. It is a book that examines the inevitable passing of time with clarity and wry brilliance, and a story of surprising power.

Genres: Fiction

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. Then I started reading it and I didn't think that was going to happen. First of all, I didn't much like Herbie or the lifestyle he described. The sex and booze we all suspect is indulged in by theatrical types is very much in evidence. And, of course, since the author (and his wife) are well-known performers, we assume the book is built on their relationship and lives, whether that is true or not. But something happened after a few pages and I fell in love with the characters. All of them. Even Herbie.

This is the first book in a long time that has made me truly laugh and cry. It says something like that on the cover, but for once it's true. You'll want to hang out with these people. You'll think about making changes in your life and relationships. And because theater has been my life long passion, I can attest to the fact that the advice about acting and how to approach a role is truly insightful. After all, Herbie is unique and seeing through his eyes makes you rethink the way you understand your own struggles.

Although this is Tucker's first published novel, he has written three other books of nonfiction about food and family. His bio says he is a writer and an actor. Both are more than true.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I managed to read this entire book without ever deciding whether I liked it or not. I guess this review is mixed. I enjoyed the insights into the world of acting and theatre. I'm not interested at all in golf or the narrator's personal/family life. I probably spent too much time pondering how much of this book might be autobiographical since it was written by one of the stars of LA Law.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The wry dialogue was some of the best I've read in some time. Add to this that this is a book written from inside the mind of a "real" guy. Nothing sugar-coated, nothing adjusted to be more PC. This is a guy going through life after losing his wife. Loved it!

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 5 out of 5]

Die Geschichte einer Liebe, die zu Ende geht. Seit Jahrzehnten lieben sich Annie und Herbie. Sie teilen nicht nur das Leben, sondern auch den Beruf. Sie sind Schauspieler und gehen ganz in dieser Künstlerwelt auf. Als Seelenverwandte bezaubern sie ihre Umwelt, doch selbst ihre Tochter Candy kann nie in die Welt der beiden eindringen, die eine undurchbrechbare Symbiose darstellt. Gelegentlich nehmen sie sich gemeinsam Liebhaberinnen, manchmal auch alleine - der Sex mit anderen kann ihrer Verbindung nichts anhaben. Doch nun droht der Krebs diese tiefe Innigkeit zu zerstören und Annie aus der Welt zu reißen. Kurz vor ihrem Tod macht Herbie die Bekanntschaft mit Olive, einer verunsicherten Barfrau, die davon träumt als Sängerin zu arbeiten. Annie nutzt ihre letzten Stunden, um Olive vorzubereiten - auf die Zeit nach ihrem Dasein. Und dann ist Herbie plötzlich alleine. Er flüchtet aus New York, doch trotz seiner Suche findet er nicht das, was er mit Annie hatte. Olive hält zum ihm Kontakt, sie braucht ihn und seine Tipps, denn dank seiner Hilfe hat sie ein Engagement in einem Theaterstück. Doch was ist Herbie für sie? Väterlicher Ratgeber, potentieller Liebhaber, guter Freund, gar Familie? Die wichtigste Rolle - das Leben - ist zugleich die schwerste nachdem Annie nicht mehr ist.

Das Buch ist voller Liebe - zwischen Herbie und Annie - und Verlust nach ihrem Tod. Man spürt regelrecht die Verbindung der beiden und welche Wirkung sie auf andere haben, denn sie lieben nicht nur sich, sondern die Menschen. Die Figur der Olive ist in ihrer Unsicherheit, Selbstentdeckung und am Ende der Stärke wunderschön gezeichnet und kann die depressiven Phasen von Herbie konträr spiegeln. Dieser, etwas eigen und verschroben, lässt den Leser mit dich leiden und suchen nach dem neuen Halt im Leben.

Das Buch ist nicht nur traurig, wie man vermuten könnte, sondern hat durchaus auch einige amüsante Momente zu bieten. Für mich unverständlich bleibt jedoch, wieso man der deutschen Ausgabe einen englischen Titel gibt, der vom Original abweicht und gleichzeitig die Aussage völlig kaputt macht. "After Annie" beschreibt exakt worum es geht im Buch, "So it goes" ist nichtssagend, belanglos und dämlich. Das gleiche ist beim Cover passiert. Schade.

[Amos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply beautiful :)

[Connie Glasgow]

SAD

[Mariaiuzvac · Rating 3 out of 5]

O dată cu pierderea unei persoane importante din viața noastră, fiecare din noi suferă diferit. Cineva este în depresie și nu vede rostul vieții fără acel om, neavând puterea să se scoale din pat, să lupte mai departe, neavând dorința să accepte pierderea, poate a celei mai importante ființe din viața sa. Iar altcineva caută în permanență să fie în mișcare, să își consume timpul cu tot felul de nimicuri, doar ca să nu aibă timp să se gândească la moartea omului drag.
În ambele situații fiecare trebuie să își dea timp, pentru ca lucrurile să se liniștească chiar dacă durerea nu va dispărea niciodată.
Personajul din această carte face parte din cea de a doua categorie. Fuge de realitate și de locurile, care îi aduc aminte de persoana dragă, se ascunde sub o mască și nu acceptă adevărul. Își dorește niște lucruri, dar se simte vinovat chiar să se gândească la ele. Se simte obligat să păstreze iubirea și amintirile frumoase față de acel om, care l-a făcut fericit și împlinit. O carte cu umor, pe alocuri plictisitoare, dar care ne învață să fim mai puternici.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly charming, very genuine, sweet story.

I don't know where I found this book and its premise seemed depressing. It's about a man coming to terms with his wife's death. Well, this book is so much more than that! The writing is like hearing someone speak. The characters, while being maybe a tad *too* New Yawk quirky, are well-developed and genuine. There might be too much innuendo or hat-tip to unconventional sex, but that's what made this seem so real to me. It felt like a real person's life with real-life foibles, quirks, and kinks. I was really charmed by this story and cannot wait to read more by this author.

If you like Richard Russo or Larry McMurty, I think you'll enjoy this one.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am awestruck that he captured how wise, funny people, talk, think, feel...
usually the first pages of a book are hard going til i get the rhythm, start to know a character. from word one,it was easy, i was let in, drawn in, ready for it all.
annie, as you guessed, is dying. herbie, as you'd imagine, is grieving. they have had lived lives, the good lives,been great lovers and friends. the people around them have been let in, many friends, many admirers.
it's about an hour since i finished the last page. i can't think of anyone i know who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.
it was written by the guy who was on l.a.law, who was/is married to jill eikenberry. i loved him/them then and i love him/them more now.

[Jennifer Feld · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The actor who wrote it is a natural writer. Such an interesting style. I wish he would write more fiction. Reading it was like having coffee with my grandfather. The only thing I didn't like were the sex scenes. They served no purpose in the story.

[Mary Ann Rashid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I reserved this book accidentally. (I meant to reserve another book with the same title.). I loved LA Law and so decided to read it anyway. And it is short. Indulgent writing is my take by an older man who loves women. He wants to be this character and maybe parts of him are.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Move it to 4 3/4 stars. The ending wasn't devastating but it left just enough to be desired to make me stop shy of 5.

[Ray Cooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike anything I have ever read. Sometimes philosophical, sometimes utterly straightforward.
It’s laugh-out-loud funny in spots. And every once in a while it smacks you in the face with a sudden turn.
I highly recommend it.

[Joe Palermo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Michael Tucker's role in LA Law. I also loved this book and didn't want it to end. It was a lot of fun. The dialogue was spot on and funny.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herbie Aaron, the main character in Michael Tucker’s book After Annie, is not a likeable guy. He drinks, he smokes pot (while driving), he swears, and he fooled around on his dying wife Annie. Herbie and Annie are actors. Years ago, they starred in a hit television series together. Annie is now in the hospital, dying of cancer.

Despite the fooling around, Herbie and Annie are soul mates. Their daughter Candy thinks, “Her mom and dad have always inhabited a world unto themselves. When she was a little girl, it was like they were surrounded by a protective circle, a magic bubble that she could never penetrate.” The book opens as Herbie stops in a bar to drown his sorrows. He meets a girl – an interesting girl. Olive is an actress, bartending to make a living. When he visits Annie in the hospital, he tells her about the bartender. Annie insists that he ask Olive to come see her. Annie and Herbie have that kind of relationship.

Once Annie dies, we follow Herbie, Candy, and Olive as they deal with loss and changes in their relationships. Each struggles to find a path forward. Herbie decides to perfect his golf game. Olive gets a part in a production of Uncle Vanya. Candy works on her relationship with her boyfriend Maurice, who is the same age as her father.

After Annie is the first novel by actor Michael Tucker. They say you should write what you know, and Tucker appears to have done that. He and his wife Jill Eikenberry starred in the television show L.A. Law in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Eikenberry successfully battled breast cancer. This is an actor’s novel, and it shows. The situations feel real and the dialog rings true.

After Annie is a short book and a quick read. It’s not profound, just a brief glimpse over a few weeks into the lives of several people learning how to cope after a great loss. Readers of straight fiction are likely to enjoy this book.

[Ilona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I found the ending a bit weak, but hopeful, and the beginning was so strong I was willing to forgive a less powerful ending.

The scenes in the hospital were among my favourite parts of the book. They ring so true to a long, loving relationship. This couple has been together decades, they have loved each other for decades, and it shows.

They're not a conventional couple, mind you. Other reviewers have complained that Herb was 'cheating' on his wife as she lay dying in hospital. First, he flirted, he didn't have sex. And second, having lovers was obviously well within the parameters of their marriage -- for both of them. If both parties agree that there can be outside lovers, then it's not 'cheating'. It's simply a different kind of marital arrangement, one that has worked well for them for decades.

In counselling his daughter's long-time boyfriend, Herb says, "Don't pretend anything. Just accept it all. You have to take the whole package. If you say, 'I really love this girl except for this one thing -- if I could just change this one thing, then everything would be perfect,' then you've already lost her. Don't try to change anything. accept the whole deal -- her mood swings, her little neuroses, her fears -- not only accept them -- you have to love them rejoice in them. You've got to say, 'there's my girl; there's my girl being herself.' Then you're a lover."

This brought tears. Absolutely beautiful.

[Lori Paximadis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. On one level, I liked this unusual story of a man learning to cope after losing his wife to cancer. Life goes on, and all that. On another level, none of the characters reached out and grabbed me, and I didn't feel like any of them other than the main character, Herbie -- and he only more so in comparison -- were particularly well developed. And he wasn't all that likeable or charming to me -- I had a hard time figuring out what about him was so compelling.

And still feel like there ought to be a law that jacket copywriters actually *read* the book they're writing about, rather than skimming the first twenty pages. Granted, I tear up at Hallmark commercials, but to say that this *isn't* "a tragic tale about grief" is BS. Annie doesn't die until a quarter of a way through the book, and it was a bit of a sobfest for me throughout that bit and a while after.

It had its funny parts, and it was interesting to read about some of the behind-the-scenes workings of theatre, but overall, not one of my favorites.

[John Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently finished After Annie by Michael Tucker. The novel centers on the intersection of two people: Herb Aaron and the beautiful bartender, Olive. The two are at polar opposites. Herb is decades removed from his success as an actor, such that when people recognize him he is merely "that guy who played on that show." Olive is a young actress who needs Herb to be there for her in order to make in the business. Problem is Herb is exhausted, cantankerous, and in mourning over the loss of his wife and lover, Annie. One evening, while Annie is fading away, Herb tells her about meeting Olive and Annie insists that she meet her. The two connect deeply and when Annie passes Herb becomes Olive's surrogate mentor. Annie serves as the tether that holds Olive and Herb together even though Herb does his best to escape. He soon learns that his final memory and connection to Annie is in Olive. Often funny, sometimes bizarre, Tucker creates a fun story in which two characters learn there is so much more to life after Annie.

[Dana Schroeder · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Annie is a novel about Herbie who loses his wife, Annie. Annie's death is difficult for Herbie because despite his various life choices as an actor, he is totally devoted to her. One night after leaving the hospital Annie is in, Herbie goes to a nearby bar and flirts with Olive, the bartender, as he nurses his dread about Annie's impending death with vodka. Herbie brings Olive to the hospital to meet Annie and they become quick friends. After Annie's death, Herbie helps Olive break into the acting business.

This was a very easy to read book and it has enough, for lack of a better work "shocking" material about the life of two actors to make it interesting. However, by the end of the book, I asked myself why I continued reading and how it could have ended better. Overall, I thought the book was terribly predictable, anticlimactic and not nearly as funny as the jacket cover suggested.

[Beth Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me more curious about the author and how much of this book was taken from his life. The author is an actor in theater and TV, just like the main character in the book. He's married to an actress (Jill Eikenberry), who had breast cancer - just like the main character's actress wife in the book.

The book spans the last few days of the wife's life to a few months afterward. There's an interesting angle just before the wife's death that I find a bit...unusual that continues throughout the book. That angle makes me extremely curious about the author's and his wife's personal lives.

[Reid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I didn't think this was going to be a 'look at how badass my character is' type of book. That kind of stuff gets boring real quick. There are some decent parts in this book, but overall it's forgettable. It could have been much better if the emphasis was on what the characters were going through rather than how the protagonist 'ordered another drink, and then another then some stuff happened and then he got some more drinks...'

[Kaitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautiful read. The relationships are really well-drawn, everything is believable, and it's touching without being overly depressing.

My favorite part of the book was the part before Annie died. After that, the book slowed down. I lost interest with the golf scenes. It picks up then, and there are movements in time so we see Annie again later, but the start of the book is by far the most compelling part.

I likely will read this again and will look forward to other books by Tucker.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Michael Tucker's book about living in Italy, but this one did not hook me at all. In fact, it kind of skewed me out b/c it talks about the main character and his wife engaging in threesomes with other women. I have heard that the author and his real life wife (Jill Eikenberry, both of LA Law fame), used to practice tantric sex, so the threesome action hit a little close to home for this prude. Mostly, though, I just didn't find it compelling after a few chapters, so I set it aside.

[Janice Cafarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book did not realize who the Author was but once I did I could see he most likely drew some of the ideas in his book from his personal life. This book is an offbeat look into what the life of an actor both at the start of a career and end of one could be like and what being an actor can do to your family life. I enjoyed the book but wished it had gone on a bit further and explore the actors life deeper

[Cindy Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know who Michael Tucker is, I don't have a television and I don't follow Hollywood who's who.
I should have stopped after reading the dedication. It pretty much tells you the whole story...
This will appeal to some, but it didn't to me. I gave it a two because it does have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

[Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really, really good. The characters were so multi-faceted and real. For me, the storyline hardly mattered, because the characters were so interesting. But it was good, too. As someone with many friends involved in theatre, the story was fascinating. It's a bit deeper than what I usually read, but it was magnificent.

[Annie O · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it!!

The depth of the characters in just a couple hundred pages is outstanding.

I love Herbie. And Annie. And Olive. And Billy
Herbie's take on life and all these people in his life. Plus the way they interact and give you a glimpse into their past and present. I could go on reading this and knowing more.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprise find for me. I loved the voice of the characters in this book, and the story made me want to laugh and cry. Annie is a beautiful character and her family's loss rings so true it hurts. This is a short book and a quick read, but it would be worth it at twice of both.

[Mary Letterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a love story in which one of the couple, the wife, dies early on in the book. How the husband learns to go on with his life is both touching and funny though there are times that I don't think that much of his lifestyle. It passed the time, but I won't put it in a friend's hands.

[Stacey V · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about reality in the aftermath of a loved one's death. Told from an omniscient point of view, switching back and forth between the two main characters, Herbie and Olive. Poignant yet not pretentious and while still maintaining a sense of comedic wit. That's not easy to do.