Books

There's nothing like the seventh grade for persecution of the weak or the different.

That was the school year that Ben Reilly remembered going from "mostly unremarked upon nerd to extant social pariah," all as a result of being bullied by handsome Terrence O'Connell, who repeatedly marginalized Ben by calling him gay.

Christopher Kelly's sly first novel, A Push and a Shove, looks hard at the psychology of bullying. Ben fears Terrence, yet is attracted to him. Love-hate relationships have become something of a literary cliché, but that appears to be what we have here as Ben "crushes" on his tormentor.

The strength of the novel lies in Mr. Kelly's ability to make Ben a believable character, even as he longs for Terrence's approval. In one poignant scene, Terrence follows Ben home from school and at first seems almost like a friend. Reading that scene first from Ben's point of view, and later hearing the grown-up Terrence's version, shows just how pathetic the whole situation was, and how readily it could be tipped into violence when the bully shoved his victim down the stairs.

Terrence moved away during their junior year in high school, and years passed without the two meeting again. It happened after Ben went looking for him, only to find that the grown-up Terrence was a big success as a journalist and fledgling fiction writer. Mr. Kelly shows the burgeoning relationship between the two as developing naturally, out of mutual interests and need. What draws the reader on is the anticipation that somehow Ben must get his revenge and feel the intoxication of being the bully.

"He needs a person in his life to bully him back," Ben thinks, as he makes one more attempt at snagging Terrence's affections.

Mr. Kelly's novel mixes graphic sex scenes with sensitive writing about the psychology of his characters. Family secrets play a large part in this book, as do issues of class and social responsibility. The author, who is the film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a columnist for Texas Monthly, has the ability to engage readers and command their interest. Perhaps his next novel will feature someone more appealing and consistently realistic than Terrence.

Anne Morris, a member of the National Book Critics Circle, lives in Austin.

Christopher Kelly

(Alyson Books, $14.95)

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