2007 thriller novel by Christopher Kelly
A Push and a Shove: A Novel is a 2007 novel in the thriller genre by Christopher Kelly. Kelly, an openly gay man, is a film critic and journalist for "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" and "Texas Monthly". Kelly developed the story over four years and it is "slightly autobiographical [...] with elements of me in both the main characters." "Publishers Weekly" recommended it as a "combination of revenge and coming-of-age story".
The novel won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Debut Fiction in 2007. Kelly is working simultaneously on two other novels; one is "another dark thriller" the other is a satire.
Plot summary.
Benjamin Reilly, a high school English-teacher in Staten Island, N.Y., witnesses a fight between two students. This brings him back to childhood years of bullying by Terrence O'Connell, a popular jock he had a crush on at the time. Reilly decides to quit his job, track down his bully and wreak revenge on him. He visits his parents in Indiana, where he also engages in unsafe sex with a Hispanic man. In Manhattan, he meets with Terrence and they become friends. While on holiday in Vail, Colorado, he takes an HIV test - by the end of the novel, he learns he doesn't have AIDS. Terrence breaks up with his girlfriend and slowly admits to being gay, though he won't let Benjamin kiss him. Out of anger, Benjamin pushes Terrence down a mountaintop, sending him off to hospital for several weeks. Terrence proves to be understanding, and they both decide they are now even. Benjamin learns about the circumstances surrounding his sister's death and his brother's runaway streak as a teenager. Finally, Benjamin is invited to Terrence's same-sex marriage with an investment banker in Massachusetts.
References.
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