[.ca] Aftermath (ISBN 1550171933)

Reality check for the child welfare system:
Finally an author who tells it like it is. In Aftermath, Anne Cameron writes brilliant, funny, and sometimes overwhelming social commentary on the ins and outs of abusive families and the child welfare system in Canada, and presumably, around the world. No stranger to the subject, this is one of several books Ms. Cameron has written focusing on strong matriarchs who attempt to take back control of their lives and their extended families. Set in British Columbia, the book opens with Fran and Liz growing up, and coping in their own ways with their experiences, through years of denial, bad choices, healing and moving on. Meanwhile, social worker Anna Flemming tries to cope with working in a system that works for everyone except the children who need it. This is not a feel-good book about the modern day self-help recovery culture, but a reality-based, cynically optimistic version of life for those of us who choose to move through the world without years of primal therapy and Prozac. A slice of life novel for the rest of us. This reviewer would like to put Aftermath in the hands of every senior bureaucrat in the child welfare system.