After the Strawberry

by Kathryn Pope

Lydia Poole wants to be a good person—the kind of person who does everything right and deserves to be loved. To accomplish this, she eats only one cup of Cheerios per day and lets her weight drop below ninety pounds. When Lydia’s sister introduces Jesse, a new friend and filmmaker, Lydia agrees to be the subject of his documentary.

Jesse’s camera follows Lydia as she’s hospitalized for anorexia, as she walks the line between hoping for death and wanting life, as her weight continues to fall. With the camera running, Lydia shifts from the viewfinder’s object to the eye behind the camera. In doing so, she discovers how she wants to see her world.

After the Strawberry is a novel about a girl who disappears while trying to be seen.

Genres: Mental Health, Mental Illness, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Contemporary, Novels

520 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2009

About the author

Kathryn Pope teaches creative writing at Antioch University Los Angeles, where she is also director of The Bridge Program. Kathryn is author of the novel, After the Strawberry, as well as editor and co-founder of the independent digital press, Seedpod Publishing.

Reviews

[Deborah Lott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes the interior world of a young woman struggling with an eating disorder completely comprehensible. Like all good books, it carries the reader into a brand new universe and changes the way everything looks and feels afterward. Now I find myself seeing food through the protagonist's eyes. For her eating and not-eating have taken on symbolic meanings far beyond the physical. As the author's vivid and compassionate descriptions illuminate the protagonist's interior landscape, the reader also comes to a new realization not only of this world, but of the way we each compose layers of symbolic meaning over our experience, and act out emotions through the body. The greatest conflict in the book comes when this girl's mode of psychological survival threatens to actually kill her. The writing is gorgeous and there's lots more here -- about the ethical conflicts that come with being an artist, about how the swirling tensions in a family can manifest themselves in one girl's disordered behavior, in how mysterious change and cure really are. I highly recommend this book.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engrossing, enlightening read! Sheds enormous light on body issues, family dynamics and healing. Definitely worth a read!

[noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book, realistic. I don't like Jesse though. He swears too much. :(

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the Strawberry is very good: engaging, considered, surprising. Lydia, the book's young protagonist, has stopped eating. Kathryn Pope manages to bring the reader into Lydia's world while also keeping that world private for Lydia, a place the character assiduously created in her struggle to make sense of things. Pope never sentimentalizes Lydia or anorexia; doesn't over-explain or encroach. Pope lets Lydia, flawed and compelling, speak for herself.

Pope's writing is perceptive and spare. Elegant. The content can be painful, uncomfortable at times, but there is a lightness to the work, an actual lightness, that lifts the reading. And the writing is excellent; a pleasure. "Lydia watched the backs of the night nurses's heels as she left the room. Night nurses walked like cats. Lydia watched a hand close the door until there was just a slit of light at the bottom." Many slits of light in After the Strawberry.

[Kendra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shit, the writing was terrible. She would literally write things like this: [shit, blah blah blah] Both sentences are examples of the writing style. I think the author was going for edgy, but the result was a painfully tedious read.

[Stacy-ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't get halfway through this book...it's sad, really. I was so intrigued by this story and was expecting a lot more than I got. It's a book that made clumsy attempts at being deep and if I'm getting this far in the story and not feeling anything for the main character...there's a problem. Also, Jesse, the filmer, has a needlessly horrible potty mouth and for the simplest sentences that also pretend to be deep. I'm sure he has his own deep story, it's alluded at enough, but there's nothing about him I actually like. The premise could have been good and enlightening...and after reading through other reviews I've determined my opinion will not change. I can tell a lot of research went into facts about anorexia and the mindset of the main character seems accurate enough to the dizzying connections of thoughts and the way someone with this condition views themself. But it's missing a lot and is over-clouded with Jesse's mouth.

Sigh. That is all.

[Gabriella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor character development. Too much focus on the documentary and an unrealistic picture of eatimg disorders. Not sure I'd recommend this to anyone. Not enough substance, it was bland.

[Mayleigh Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its ok.

[Kayla 🇦🇺 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m so mad I spent $15 dollars on this garbage. Terrible one-dimensional characters, dumb ending and stereotypical. I want my money back. Doesn’t even deserve 1 star.

[Dani]

2022 Challenge: 5 Strawberry Books

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

An extremely bizarre read - it felt like it was written by a male with an anorexia fetish. It's just... odd. Not worth reading, certainly don't waste your money on it.

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a puzzle, this one. It's told from two perspectives: that of Lydia, who is battling anorexia and spends much of the book in hospital, and that of Jesse, a film student who is shooting an ill-defined documentary about Lydia's sister and who gets (slightly) wrapped up in Lydia's life too.

Lydia's end of things is largely pretty standard, as far as eating-disorder fiction goes, standard hard-core anorectic who dies at the end and all.... Two things stand out: first, that once she gets to hospital she's quite relieved to be told to eat—no magical cure, no miracle therapist, but it's nice to see a lower-key story where the protagonist is not the Worst Case Doctors Have Ever Seen, et cetera. Second, so much of Lydia's life is internal: we see so much of her thought processes, sometimes obsessive and sometimes magical thinking, and so little of it ever makes its way through her filters and out of her mouth.

But Jesse...Jesse is hard to get my head around. He's following Bette (Lydia's sister) around for a documentary, but the topic of the documentary is unknown—as far as I can tell, he's picked her as a subject for the sole reason that he has a crush on her, and he has no actual story or direction. He's largely characterised by 1) saying 'shit' and 'fuck' a lot, 2) writing deeply inane notes to himself (e.g., GET BETTE'S REACTION. SHIT, THIS IS GOOD STUFF (loc. 1799) or QUIT FUCKING AROUND AND JUST GET SOME OF THE UGLY SHIT ON FILM (loc. 1835)), 3) and being incredibly invasive in pursuit of the shots he wants.

I don't know what to do with Jesse, but more than that, I don't know what to do with Lydia's family's acceptance of Jesse. He shows up at a traumatic time in their lives (Lydia is in hospital, her father is sick, etc.), Bette and Jesse instruct the family to pretend the camera isn't there, and they just...go along with it. Nobody seems bothered when he goes shirtless into Lydia's room to film her while she's sleeping. Nobody seems bothered when he films them through the windows, including filming Lydia's father in a state of very sick collapse. They're clearly not comfortable with his presence, but they accept that he's going to trail them to hospital and ask incredibly invasive questions (he'd probably call them 'hard-hitting'), and I just...why? Why would they do that? The description says that Lydia 'agrees to be the subject of his documentary', but that's not the case at all—it's just that he thinks it would make great film if she died on camera, so he starts following her around without getting (or asking for) her agreement. I'm sure I'm supposed to have some sympathy for Jesse, but he just kind of...made me recoil. Not my favourite blend of characters and stories here.

[Carmelo Valone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kathryn Pope has written one great story about eating disorders. Great narration and sparingly vital prose. I highly recommend this book for anyone with any interest what an ED disorder might really be like. Highly inventive and sincere. It does not preach, nor taunt but more so explain and give some real insight into the surreal world of ED disorders. What really made this book stand out from others?
The portrayal of distorted thinking when it comes to food and having an ED disorder.

Finally, I also liked so some of the interesting commentary/subtext on exploitation.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read "Snow Angel Perfect," an abbreviated and incomplete version of "After the Strawberry," a free download for my Kindle. The topic, anorexia, is important. However, the characters in the book were not likeable/appealing, and the main character enlisted no feelings from me. Her parents were "losers." The story did not capture me and the writing was stiff & stilted. It seemed that approximately 75% of the sentences were of the version: subject/predicate with a few modifiers thrown in. I really should give it only 1 star but perhaps the full book is better.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, it was hard to keep up with the writing style of this book. You just have to get through the first 2 chapters and then it is easier to follow along. It's a really great book about the struggles of anorexia and also the struggles of being a documentary film maker (even though it focuses more on the anorexia). If you have a device that you can read ebooks on then I definitely recommend this book. I think it's a little weird that it's only available on ebook, but it's obvious with the different links attached.

[Sarah Armor · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a powerful story of one girl's struggle against Ana and her compelling promises... Keep looking. This was a superficial, bare-bones story with ridiculously stiff and stilted writing and which gives no insight whatsoever into any of the characters. The one thing this author did right here was to somehow convey - and I may never understand how she managed it - that Lydia was on the less intelligent side without anyone making note of it at all.

[Monisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why I had never heard of this book before. It's very, very good, and I definitely think it deserves more attention/readers. I did read this as an e-book, and I think the hyperlinks slipped in that lead to narrative at the end of each chapter didn't work very well. Those parts that were hyperlinked to could have been worked into the chapter instead of being thrown at the end of the chapters. It really disrupted the reading process. Aside from that, this was really good.

[Danielle Calhoun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, the characters really lacked any sort of development. I would have liked to get to know them better, but it was really only a cursory introduction at best. I think that it was a unique perspective into the mind of a girl with anorexia, and some of the things going on in her life that prompted her to begin - and continue - restricting. The chapter format was... unique... I found it aggravating, personally. Others may enjoy this. I'm not sure I'd recommend this to anyone.

[J.B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

So/so...

This was a weird book. It was kind of confusing, and I felt it lacked direction. It was definitely a different take on the subject, though not necessarily a brilliant one. Also, making the reader wait until the last possible second to discover the meaning of the title is a little juvenile. I'm all for building suspense, but it just took a little too long in this one, i.m.o. Basically, if you have a short attention span, I'd advise you to choose another book.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

at first I was almost ready to just stop reading it. I thought it was slow in the beginning but then got really good. I really liked Jesse as a character. I really like how books show what's inside people's mind and what they truly think of themselves. I was completely sad about Maura. I'd really recommend this book, but it can be triggering.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like the narration of this book at all. I found this book superficial it didn't get into many deep emotions. I don't think this book showed how much struggles there are when you have an eating disorder not just for the person who has the eating disorder but also the family.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really dissapointed in this book. Id had such high hopes for it and its my first time reading a full length eBook. It is a first novel and it shows. I feel bad saying that but it wasnt a bad book, just not great. I did like Maura. She was realistic and believable with what anorexia is like.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this one.

[Jenna Owens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jesse was such a horrible character that the whole book was ruined for me. Ugh.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written.

[Kea Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally, I hated the writing style. It was dry, boring and difficult to get into.

[Bridget · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actually one of the worst novels I've ever read.

[MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the book. The hyperlinks could have been worked into the book better. It made it harder to concentrate on what was happening currently in the book. Otherwise, it was really goof.

[Tara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ehhh. Dropped at about halfway because I couldn't take it anymore. Other things to read.

[Kourttney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED IT