By Ashley Audrain
ISBN: 9780241434567
Michael Joseph – Penguin (2021)
“The Push” is intriguing from its’ first words, and it also defies attempts to slot it into a genre. I loved this; it’s one of the best novels I’ve read in some time.
I found myself utterly absorbed, even as the back of my mind wondered: is this a novel with an unreliable narrator? Is it a story of a mother with post partum depression, unable to love her child? Perhaps a thriller about a psychotic child? Or maybe an inter-generational story of abuse?
It’s a little of all of these, perhaps, and it wasn’t till I finished that I was able to place it in a genre; even then I think you could easily argue it into any other. I settled on “domestic thriller”, but this has depths and angles that reflect other genres.
Blythe was a little hesitant to have a child – the mothers in her family are, well, not good at mothering. But she’s madly in love with her husband Fox, and it doesn’t take him much effort to convince her to become pregnant.
Blythe soon concludes that Violet is not the perfect child she dreamed of. Violet is cold, distant – and dangerous. But Fox believes it’s Blythe who’s at fault, not filling his version of how a mother should behave, not confident of her own skills, not seeing Violet as he does.
We follow Blythe’s journey from falling in love with Fox through to Violet’s teenage years. Her story is interspersed with flashbacks to her grandmother and mother, and a picture of substantial intergenerational problems emerge.
We’re left with the fascinating question: who sees Violet most clearly? Her mother or father? Blythe doubts herself, and we doubt her, even as we disapprove of Fox’s lack of support for his wife.
This is an extraordinarily well written novel. We spend much of it in Blythe’s head, and the ambiguity surrounding Violet is cleverly written, so that it doesn’t feel manipulative, but a genuine reflection of Blythe’s feelings and thoughts.
Blythe is also a very sympathetic character, although if I described to you all of her actions in the novel, you probably wouldn’t think so. Yet being in her head, and knowing her feelings and what motivates her, triggers a lot of understanding and sympathy.
I loved this novel for the cleverly written plot, the emotional impact, and the strong characterisation. It is hard to classify it, and readers of a number of different genres should all enjoy it. I strongly recommend it.
Other Dreams, Other Lives 