By Bruce Johnson
Start with early childhood trauma, fold in the overwhelming exhaustion of being a new mother, add in a dash of concern about those closest to you, and you have the ingredients for The Ascent, the latest novel from Allison Buccola.
Lee Burton is the mother of a seven-month-old, dealing with the collection of struggles that all parents face. As a mother herself, Buccola is familiar with the new-mom phase. “That transition into motherhood is such an intense and physical experience. All of a sudden, you’re responsible for a vulnerable infant, and you’re sleep deprived and flooded with hormones. In those early weeks, you’re tethered to your house, which can be isolating. And you have a heightened awareness of your environment and the potential threats in it. It all feels so surreal, like a total rewiring.”
In Lee’s case, the rewiring manifests as paranoia. Is she capable of being a good mother? Can she protect her daughter from harm? Compounding these concerns is the trauma Lee experienced as a child. Raised in an isolated compound run by a charismatic spiritual leader, Lee woke up one morning to find everyone she had grown up with gone. She became famous (because infamous isn’t an appropriate term for a twelve-year-old) as the only survivor of an apocalyptic cult whose members remain unaccounted for decades later, blamed by many for what happened—not that anyone really knows what happened.
As much as cults are a regular backdrop for psychological suspense, The Ascent has a different take. Terms such as “deprogramming” or “brainwashed” imply that entering a cult involves a significant personality change. But Lee didn’t join in the conventional sense. The cult was her family, her community. Her normal.
Buccola was drawn to the idea of what happens after leaving a cult, particularly as a youngster. “A child born into a cult might lack a social support system outside the group. They don’t necessarily have friends and family on the outside, and they’re not “returning” to anything that could help ground them. They’re being pulled out of their familiar world and dropped into a new, foreign one, and I wanted to write a story that focused on that experience.”
As a counterpoint, Lee’s husband, Theo, brings the rationality of a lawyer and the compassion of a defense attorney to the story. “Lee is twelve years old when she’s abandoned by the cult, but she’s still an outsider when she meets Theo as an adult,” says Buccola. “I wanted Theo to be very grounded in society—someone who could lead Lee into this new world and also enforce its rules and norms.” Throughout the novel, Theo strives to “help” although, unwittingly, he adds more to Lee’s stresses than he relieves.
In The Ascent, Buccola weaves together themes of inadequacy, anxiety, trust, and the never-ending grind of caring for your first newborn. It’s a story about navigating the labyrinth of your past to discover your true identity.
