“After Visiting Friends” by Michael Hainey – The Great Fear of the Unknown
The latter was thirty-five years age at the time of his demise, and had apparently succumbed to a heart attack while near his car in the North Side of Chicago. At the time, he was on a prominent rise in the world of journalism and had the family life most people can only dream of.
And so, the years that followed left Michael with plenty of questions about his father’s suspicious death, and he decided to enter the world of newspapers himself to open up his own, personal case file. When he turned thirty-five, the same age as his father died, Michael began a full-blown investigation into his father’s death, finding plenty of vague inaccuracies and a swarm of people all too keen on keeping their mouths shut. Slowly but surely, he plods his way through the dark world of journalism, finding out many interesting truths in the process, about his father as well as his mother.
And so, the years that followed left Michael with plenty of questions about his father’s suspicious death, and he decided to enter the world of newspapers himself to open up his own, personal case file. When he turned thirty-five, the same age as his father died, Michael began a full-blown investigation into his father’s death, finding plenty of vague inaccuracies and a swarm of people all too keen on keeping their mouths shut. Slowly but surely, he plods his way through the dark world of journalism, finding out many interesting truths in the process, about his father as well as his mother.
First of all, if you are looking for some sort of groundbreaking read which ends up in the unraveling of a real-life conspiracy Chinatown -style, then I am sorry to disappoint you, but this story is grounded in reality, and as is often the case, it isn’t nearly as glamorous as it appears on the silver screen.
However, that does not mean that it isn't an interesting book; after all, it does tell a pretty surrealistic story that is a heck of a lot more exciting than what most of us will experience in our lives. There are plenty of dramatic elements to keep the reader interested in it, including romance, violence, betrayal, conflicting loyalties, all complemented by a solid and emotional mystery.
On the downside, it did feel as if the book was a bit more long than necessary, dragging on in certain parts with the author talking without really having anything to say, trying to scrape content out of thin air. It could have been a better read if it was simply shorter, though of course that doesn't detract from the book all that much.
On the downside, it did feel as if the book was a bit more long than necessary, dragging on in certain parts with the author talking without really having anything to say, trying to scrape content out of thin air. It could have been a better read if it was simply shorter, though of course that doesn't detract from the book all that much.
Also, once again I have to repeat that the resolutions to the questions in this book are hyped as being more than they are. In other words, the denouement will seem rather disappointing if you were expecting this to go like a fiction novel.
If you truly want to enjoy this book, and in my opinion you should because it’s a pretty enthralling one, I suggest that you simply approach it with no expectations, and see it for what it really is: a man on a quest to find out what kind of man his father really was, for they weren't together for all that long.
 | Michael HaineyMichael Hainey is, at the moment at least, a rather unknown author who seems to have been flying under the radar for some time. However, with his first published book, After Visiting Friends, Hainey gained a fair amount of success and should become much more visible in the near future. |
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