First, a bit of information about the author: “ASHLEY AUDRAIN previously worked as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada. Prior to Penguin, she worked in public relations. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children. The Push is her first novel.” 

Second, what others are saying:

“Taut, chilling….Audrain has a gift for capturing the seemingly small moments that speak volumes about relationships.”
—New York Times Book Review
 
“Hooks you from the very first page and will have you racing to get to the end.”
—Good Morning America

A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family—and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for—and everything she feared , , , “

“The “GMA” January Book Club pick is “The Push” by Ashley Audrain.

Audrain’s debut novel is already being hailed as an unputdownable read that will leave readers guessing until the end.”

Third, a few comments from this reader:

A fascinating read! One of the responses from this reader is to think again (as philosophers do) about facts – facts are important. We humans, as we are learning everyday, are easily led astray by repetition, false statements repeated ad infinitum and by leaders who use mass media to obscure and obfuscate. 

The push refers, of course, to the mother’s push to give birth to the child inside her – a moment of pain and pleasure that produces a new being. And perhaps another push as the story unfolds. Written mostly in the second person it comments on relationships between Mother and daughter as well as between father and mother. In this case the father is entranced by the daughter and is quiet honestly a pain in the ass. The book is an inter-generational study about the many difficulties we humans face in our time on earth   “a story I loved about a family with a beautiful, kind mother who became very sick with a rare form of deadly chicken pox. They go for their last vacation together as a family to a faraway island, where they find a tiny, magical gnome in the sand named George, who speaks only in rhymes . He grants them the gift of one special superpower in exchange for bringing him home in their suitcase to the other side of the world. They agree, and he gives them what they wish for— Your mom will live forever, until the end of time. Whenever you get sad, just sing this little rhyme!”

But remember it is a book that is “taut and chilling” and “a tense, page turning psychological drams about the making and breaking of a family.” 

Actually, it is a real page-turner that will keep your interest as you wait for the facts that will explain the events as we are taken from the birth bed (“Are you ready, Mom?” someone said. They placed her on my bare chest. She felt like a warm, screaming loaf of bread. She had been cleaned of my blood and bundled in the hospital’s flannel blanket. Her nose was speckled with yellow. Her eyes looked slimy and dark and they stared right into mine.”) to the mysterious death of the second child to the break up of the marriage, to the revelation of the facts at the end of the story.

Facts are important.

Bob Lane is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Vancouver Island University.

Categories: Fiction

Keywords: fiction