‘Astonishing’ novel fails to make impact

AFTER THIS. By Alice McDermott, Bloomsbury, €16.15.

In an essay in the New York Times some months back, journalist and author Joe Queenan speculated on the odd liking reviewers increasingly appear to have for using fawning, bombastic adjectives to describe novels, when less flattering descriptions might, in truth, have been more appropriate.

These days, Queenan said, with his tongue presumably firmly in cheek, he wouldn’t even bother to buy a novel unless it ...