Paperback, 320 pages
9 x 6 inches
9780864925077
Buy now from Goose Lane Editions or as an e-book from Amazon or iTunes
View Excerpt 1: “Muffle” [PDF]
View Excerpt 2: “Surrender” [PDF]
Hear Excerpt 1: “The Weight of Desire” [SoundCloud]
Hear Excerpt 2: “Muffle, Muffle” [SoundCloud]
High Resolution Cover Image [JPG]
Andrew Day embarks on a bicycle trip from Halifax to Kingston, his childhood home. As he goes, the dual narratives of Andrew’s life emerge: the slow, painful death of his father and the disappearance of Betty, who may be lost to him forever. He contemplates, too, the nature of desire. En route, Andrew sloughs off his fears, material goods, and attachments. In episodes of intensifying violence, he leaves the highway and rides the back roads under the cover of night. By the time he arrives home, an epiphany greets him. Darryl Whetter writes with compelling intensity of athleticism and degeneration, isolation and community, the weight of desire and the joy and anguish present in all things.
“Darryl Whetter’s The Push & the Pull is a brash, vibrant, melancholy, sexy, and finally uplifting book about a mesmerizing father, the son who can’t tear himself away, and the women who make them grow up. Whetter is intoxicated with language. He writes like a dream in a quick, urbane, and witty style. His women are gorgeous independent creatures; his men are large and infuriating; and when love happens it’s explosive, passionate, and grand. A lovely first novel.” – Douglas Glover