Intense tale of angst-ridden motherhood
The Push
Ashley Audrain, Penguin, $37
It’s the best of jobs. It’s the worst of jobs. Ashley Audrain explores motherhood in her thoughtprovoking debut novel The Push. What happens when the reality doesn’t match the idealised version of the Mary Cassatt painting hanging on the nursery wall?
Blythe Connor believed she was ready to be a mother, until Violet arrived. The child was fretful, difficult to feed, wouldn’t sleep and seemed to love her father more than her mother. And somehow the rush of all-encompassing love a new mother is supposed to feel for her baby didn’t materialise.
We learn that Blythe was abandoned by her mother Cecilia, who herself was raised by her father after the tragic and disturbing death of her own mother. As I watched Blythe’s struggles to connect with her daughter, I turned the pages wondering whether Violet’s behaviour is a result of Blythe’s detachment. Or whether there is something wrong with Violet.
It’s a question that Audrain largely leaves unanswered. She makes no overt judgment as she leads us through Blythe’s motherhood journey. Others judge Blythe though: her mother-in-law, other mothers, her husband Fox, herself.
Mothers will recognise Blythe’s all-consuming focus during pregnancy: “I couldn’t wait to see her make room for herself. In me. In the world.” But Blythe grew more “clenched and scared” as the birth neared and after, unable to cope with the sleepless nights, the breastfeeding, the crying. And one day she looks down at her baby and wishes she would just go away.
We also gain some insight into Blythe’s troubled childhood, marked by abuse and neglect at the hands of Cecilia, whose childhood in turn was darkened by her mother’s struggles. It is likely both women were suffering from unresolved grief but the theme of “sins of the mothers” passing through the generations strengthens the ambiguity of Blythe’s impact on the maturing Violet. Meanwhile, Violet’s behaviour is also increasingly disturbing — and it is being noticed by teachers and others.
I read The Push in almost one sitting and it’s a story that is still filtering through my mind.
I predict that this book will provoke intense and lively book club discussions.
—