The Push

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Through Blythe’s struggles and the slow-motion implosion of her marriage, Audrain cleverly examines and exploits women’s near-universal anxiety that they won’t measure up to some internalized standard of maternal perfection dictated by society. Audrain also riffs on the concept of the Bad Seed — popularized in film and television — inviting readers to wonder whether Violet is the culmination of a multigenerational curse, a victim of Blythe’s inability to mother … or whether the woman is just bonkers. The most thought-provoking exploration of motherhood I've come across since We Need to Talk About Kevin Clare Pooley

Ashley Audrain (born 1982) is a Canadian writer. [1] [2] During a July 2019 interview with the Toronto Star Audrain described her debut novel, The Push, as a "psychological drama told through the lens of motherhood." The story is about a woman who is unsure whether or not there is something wrong with her daughter, Violet. This causes strain in her marriage to a man named Fox Connor.

Was Fox manipulative?

Astonishingly good. Beautifully written, gripping, disturbing Jane Fallon, author of Queen Bee The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed. In present day, in her car outside their house, Violet comes up to her car and seems to mouth something, but Blythe can’t make out what it is. She thinks Violet is saying “I pushed him” but she can’t hear through the glass. Then, Violet turns around and walks home. Do you think Blythe is like the women who came before her? How so and why do you think things turned out differently for her?

Cecilia knows she is beautiful and heads to the city and meets Seb, who is a doorman at a fancy hotel. Soon, they are a couple, he introduces her to his friends and he supports her financially. Eventually, Cecilia discovers she also likes the wildness of fooling around with and feeling wanted by Seb’s friend Lenny. She and Lenny continue on and she considers leaving Seb for Lenny, but then Cecilia learns she is pregnant. Stayed up too late finishing [Audrain's] deeply unsettling The Push about the darkest reaches of motherhood . . . Visceral, provocative, compulsive, and with the most graphic and relatable description of childbirth I've read (or written) Sarah Vaughan, bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal The Push is a groundbreaking book about mothers, and the brutal reality that motherhood is not always smooth sailing, happiness, sunshine, and Barney songs. Sometimes there are nights (or months) with no sleep, children who have behavioral challenges, mother-in-laws who think that you aren't doing enough or give you little reminders how she never would allow her children to do X, Y, or Z, and partners who are less than supportive. Hallmark would have us believe that every person has a mother who is top 10%: She would never complain about taking the children to piano lessons three times a week while Joey wants to be at karate. She home cooks every meal from scratch, and the house is always magically sparkling clean. However, that isn't the reality. Some Moms can't be Moms in the traditional sense of the word. For some, the best thing that they can do is allow someone else to step into the role. Some Moms are bottom 10% Moms. Moms are also not defined by DNA - they are women who notice a need and generously step in and offer support.

Was Violet evil?

I settled in to read what I imagined would be a psychological thriller. And, for a while, it was just that. Sinister, mysterious, with short punchy chapters that kept me on the edge of my seat. None of this prepared me, though, for what came later. I wasn't expecting it to hurt so much. As The Push unravels from here, it definitely keeps you guessing who’s good and who’s bad in this mother-daughter relationship, but more importantly, why. There is so much more to this story to talk about, and so much I want to say, but I will leave it at this. I recommend this one to readers who love a well, developed psychological drama with depth layers. i guess domestic suspense just isnt my kind of suspense (if you could even call this book suspenseful to begin with).

They may balk at the idea that a mother can FEEL this way toward any of her children-beyond the Postpartum Depression stage that many women experience. The Push Characters: The main characters in The Push by Ashley Audrain are a young married couple named Blythe and Fox, and their two young children, Sam and Violet. Blythe, her mom and her Grandmother’s stories were all interspersed in chapters throughout the story and sometimes I would stop and wonder whose story I was on, wonder whose husband she was discussing, whose Dad, whose Mom, and then perhaps a bit late to the game, I realized 💡 hello, could that literally be the point?? Amazing!Ok, first off, major We Need to Talk About Kevin vibes with this one. A complex psychological thriller about a struggling relationship between a mother and her child. A mother who doesn't get on with her child, who thinks something is wrong with them and a husband, who doesn't believe his wife.