Afterfall is an allegory of the present policy of the U.S administration; and the consumer-American culture of the present as a whole. Intermingled with character's drawn from Mike Geoghegan's own life it is a personal as well as political allegory for a desperate state of affairs. Joe Macaulay has some problems. After returning home wounded, out of the Special Forces in the war on terror; thus avoiding the Army's stop loss program. A mentally disabled mother; recently who has released from an institution; 2 alcoholic brothers who play onion baseball in the house; an estranged girlfriend who didn't write him while he was gone. As well And the sneaking suspicion that he's the cause of the US loss of World War Two. Ending with a question as to whether or not "Joe" will choose to live in the darkness as a powerful individual or to choose the light and be powerless Afterfall asks is it better to serve in heaven or to reign in hell.
—Mike Geoghegan