Book Review: "Before and After" by Alison Wilson

At nineteen I was a romantic, immersed in books, poetry, dabbling on the edges of philosophy, dreaming of beauty, truth, goodness and above all, love - but only real love would do - eternal, unbreakable, prepared to suffer all the anguish without which love would not be love...

If you are anything like me then you have probably also binge-watched the series Mrs Wilson. If you are also anything like me, that said 'binge watch' would have taken you about a week and a half even though there are only four episodes. I don't know how people watch so many episodes in one night, this is pretty good for me. Mrs Wilson was a compelling series about a woman who goes out to find who her husband really was after he dies and a woman comes to the door claiming to be his wife. Both women have children with this man and it does not even stop there. Secrets on top of secrets unfold and from jail to a Cathedral in India, there is something really fishy about the legacy of a dead man who can no longer confirm or deny anything.

One thing I did like about the book is that it starts long before the TV show does. The TV show begins with the death of Alexander Wilson whereas, the book starts with Alison learning about how bad dishonesty is at school. We learn about her life feeling bad that she wasn't born a boy and how she stood up for herself against neighbourhood bullies. We learn about how she was told off at school for having contraband lemonade powder and how she felt awful for being dishonest about it.

We also learn about her unwavering faith in God, which she states had always been there. All of these add to the theme that will come along when she needs to learn about who her husband was. Oh, and all that is just the first chapter. So if you've watched the show, then you probably want to read the book. There is a lot to learn about Alison. I like the fact that the book pays more attention to her and her life rather than to her in perspective to her husband.

The second chapter of the book is also different to the TV show because Alexander Wilson keeps stating that he is waiting for the annulment to his last wife to come through even though in the show, Alison does not know that Alexander has a previous wife or anyone else for that matter. I find the book to be a lot more detailed, honest and incredibly deep than the show even though I have to admit that I love them both. I would have never found the book without the show anyway. After this, the third chapter converges more with the TV show in the fact that it deals with the weird 'arrest' that is made of Alexander Wilson and, when his wife comes to see him she tells him she's leaving him but he begs her not to. Eventually, she gives birth to Nigel and has to believe Alexander is in some sort of way with the secret service. She is finding it hard to believe yes, but she is also finding it hard to leave him when he clearly needs her most.

The entirety of the 'before' part of the book goes on like this where it deals with the secrecy in the marriage between Alexander and Alison with many threats made by her to leave him without coming to any fruition whatsoever because he keeps pulling her back in. He is much older than she is and is clearly manipulating her to stay with him. This is against the advice of her mother who very clearly does not like nor trust Alexander. When Alexander dies, you can only imagine how much crap hits the fan with Alison.

The second half I have to admit is not as strong as the first half as there is more talk about how Alison herself is coming to terms with not being resentful towards her husband and therefore, has to forgive him. When she finally does forgive him, she enters the church in order to get back to her faith and even though this section is more to do with her own personal struggles, I think that this is greatly shown in the TV show, especially at the end where Alison must decide actively against hatred despite going through what she has already been through.

All in all, I would recommend anyone who loved the TV Show to read this book. It is a deep and incredible story about a woman's desire to know who the hell her husband was after he is no longer around to tell his own story. It is also one woman's desire to tell her own story about rising up against hatred and adversity in a world that was constantly trying to tell her what to do and how to do it. Sometimes, we have to make and learn from our own mistakes. I do love the fact that she ended up having no hatred for her husband because she entered the church. She comes to terms with it in her own way.