MY LIFE IN BOOKS: ASHLEY AUDRAIN
Ashley Audrain wrote The Push after leaving her job as publicity director at Penguin Books Canada to raise her two young children. The Push is published by Michael Joseph and available now.
The books on your bedside? The stack is high. It’s always a mix of great books I’ve read recently that I like to keep near (for good energy) and whatever I’ll be reading next. Right now, these include Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent, Luster by Raven Leilani, Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid, The Harpy by Megan Hunter, and a terrific, modern cosy-mystery coming out this time next year called The Maid by Nita Prose — it’s set to be huge, and I was lucky to receive an early bound manuscript.
The first book you remember?
I have a terrible memory from childhood and wish I could get my hands on my first book collection (long ago donated, I’m sure). I do remember having a lovely box set of Beatrix Potter books that I kept on my bedroom shelf, and a particular fondness for The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. The Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish stand out for me as well, and of course, the wonderful Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary.
Your book of the year?
As we’ve only just begun a most welcome new year, I’ll claim mine from last year: Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam. This book was perfectly 2020, about how two families — one white, one black — cope with fear and uncertainty when something strange and inexplicable begins to happen while they’re isolated at a vacation home in the countryside. The writing is completely absorbing, but I paused so often to think about what it would feel like if this really happened; as well, 2020…
Your favourite literary character?
You must get this answer a lot, but it is, of course, Olive Kitteridge. She is so lovably cantankerous. One of my all-time favourite scenes is when Olive snoops through her new daughter-in-law’s closet and draws a black line down the arm of her beige sweater. I don’t really enjoy writing characters who are likeable in the typical sense, and my favourite characters as a reader never are either. Olive is the perfect example of this.
The book that changed your life?
I don’t know if it changed my life, but I have a vivid memory of reading The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright in one sitting, from a hammock in Thailand (10 years ago) and feeling an overwhelming conviction that I wanted to be a novelist. I’m not sure exactly why that book spoke to me so strongly as an aspiring writer, besides Enright’s obvious genius — but perhaps it was the flawed (you might say unlikeable) narrator Gina, who could be interpreted as a woman desperately in love, or a lying adulteress. And I’m remembering as I write this that Gina was disgusted by motherhood! That book has stayed with me and I think often of the feeling I had while reading it.
The book you couldn’t finish?
I would never say! But there are plenty of books I don’t finish. I don’t believe in sticking with a book if I don’t like it. There are just too many other options and, in most cases, I won’t be offending anyone by quietly putting a book aside.
Your Covid comfort read?
The absolutely wonderful memoir Wintering: How To Survive When Life Is Frozen by Katherine May. It’s a must-read about the difficult ‘wintering’ periods of life we all face. I’ve talked about it to anyone who will listen.
The book you give as a present?
This year it will be Wintering by Katherine May.
The writer who shaped you?
I’ve been influenced by so many women writers who explore the contemporary lives of women. Celeste Ng and Brit Bennett come to mind as recent bestselling writers whose books I’ve read carefully with the intention of learning from them.
The book you would most like to be remembered for My one and only… The Push!