First Aid

By Janet Davey

From the author of the acclaimed English Correspondence comes this story of fraught relationships, of a woman caring for her teenage daughter, son and toddler. It is a story of how everyone would like to escape the ties that bind, and begin afresh.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316059978
• ISBN13: 9780316059978
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Patches up a family

Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (08/06) Imagine yourself on a train from Kent to London and a loud, chaotic family enters your car. Out of nowhere, the teenage daughter jumps off the moving train. Her younger brother is distraught, yet the mother just sits with her eyes closed and reacts calmly, while her third child, a toddler, rests on her lap. This is the way "first aid" begins. You are a character witnessing these acts. Janet Davey uses second person point of view in the first chapter drawing the reader into the book. You have no choice but to be involved. As quickly as you have been thrust into the action, you are then released to being only a reader when the family (minus one) gets off at their stop. Jo, a divorced mother, is the central character. She and her family are fleeing from an act of domestic violence. Jo's boyfriend Felpo has cut her face with a bottle. The kids fix her up and they leave for Jo's grandparent's house in the city where they try to patch up their life. The teenage daughter Ella knows more about the reason for the sudden violence than she is letting on. After she jumps from the train, we follow her story as well. The entire book takes place over four days, a Friday through a Monday. This is a short glimpse into the lives of the characters. Yet, getting to know Jo, the mother, we realize this is the way she wants it. She is a very private person. She prefers to go through life without being seen or getting to know others. Jo has a quiet, detached way about her. Her lack of reaction to her daughter jumping from a moving train sets the mood for the entire book. The pace is slow and peaceful, while the subject matter is active and painful. "first aid" is the American literary debut of London author Janet Davey. I recommend "first aid" to anyone who wants a good quick read that really makes you think about the strangeness of life. One minute all is going fine. The next thing you know life is in an upheaval. This does not happen by chance. People and their motives, cause and effect, actions and reactions, truth and lies are all a part of the intricate web we call life.