Description
In Pushing the River, Barbara Monier's third novel, a family crisis erupts when a fifteen-year-old becomes pregnant and decides to keep the baby.
Madeline describes her house as an empty shell inhabited by ghosts. She has been living alone for years, keeping to a few rooms, surrounded by the possessions of her ex-husband and grown children. Over the course of four months, people accumulate in the household one by one--including Madeline's new love interest, who unexpectedly shows up carrying grocery bags full of his clothes.
Pushing the River is told largely through Madeline's eyes. As we discover how she came to "push the river," the unfolding action is interspersed with Madeline's memories of her own mother, driving a message of sometimes-anarchic confusion, occasional angst, and powerfully abiding love across the generations of a familiar American family.
Reviews
Molly K. Hales, author, Vital Ties: "Breathtaking...A must-read for anyone who has ever been, or had, a mother."
Rita Dragonette, author, The Fourteenth of September: "Beautifully written! Entertaining and innovative, a jewel...that unfolds powerfully. An embarrassment of riches."
Clark Elliott, author, The Ghost in My Brain: "Like a collection of fine impressionist art."
James R. Petersen, journalist, writer, storyteller: "This is a novel about how women pass along wisdom [and] the power of mothers to embarrass. The monstrous. The methodical."
Janis Post, Chicago artist: "I couldn't put it down. So many stories, so much emotion. Two-word review: loved it!"
Ruth Hull Chatlien, author, Blood Moon: A Captive's Tale and The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte: "Pushing the River illuminates that tricky place so many of us live in, the intersection where our desire to remain rooted in the past collides with the need to move forward into an unforeseeable future."
Jay Sheets, author, The Hour Wasp: "Fantastic read, great narrative and flow, hooks you right from the start."
About the Author
Barbara Monier has been writing since her earliest days when she composed in crayon on paper with extremely wide lines. She studied writing at Yale University and the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, she received the Avery and Jule Hopwood Prize. It was the highest prize awarded that year and the first in Michigan's history for a piece written directly for the screen. Pushing the River is the latest of her three novels. You, In Your Green Shirt and A Little Birdie Told Me are her previous titles.
- Paperback: 247 pages
- Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches