AUTHOR: Maggie Shipstead
STARTED: August 19, 2015
FINISHED: September 1, 2015
PAGES: 272
GENRE: Fiction
FIRST SENTENCE: In the wings, behind a metal rack crowded with bundles of cable and silk flower garlands and the stringless lutes from act 1, two black dachshunds lie in a basket.
SUMMARY: [From BN] For years Joan has been trying to forget her past, to find peace and satisfaction in her role as wife and mother. Few in her drowsy California suburb know her thrilling history: as a young American ballerina in Paris, she fell into a doomed, passionate romance with Soviet dance superstar Arslan Rusakov. After playing a leading role in his celebrated defection, Joan bowed out of the spotlight for good, heartbroken by Arslan and humbled by her own modest career. But when her son turns out to be a ballet prodigy, Joan is pulled back into a world she thought she'd left behind—a world of dangerous secrets, of Arslan, and of longing for what will always be just out of reach.
THOUGHTS: When I shared a picture of this book on instagram, Lady KS told me this book was a DNF for her because it was boring. I've enjoyed other titles Lady KS has recommended, so I trusted her instincts. I've never DNFed a book (I just can't seem to do that), but I approached this story with a bit of trepidation. I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up loving this book. It might have helped that I did ballet up through High School, but I enjoyed the story immensely.
This is a book steeped in ballet - the language, the movement, the meaning. I think it would be hard to be charmed by this story if you did not also love ballet. It is the heart and soul of this book. Ever character and every plot point revolves around the dance. Shipstead uses the love and work of ballet to craft a greater narrative, but it always comes back to ballet. If you've ever danced before, you will feel this book down to your feet. It will make you miss it, and it will make you want to move.
The story itself is deliberately paced and well-crafted. The characters are all full of gray nuances, and motives that only come together in the very last pages. And those last pages are not the ending I expected. This book still rings with me partly because it left me wanting more. I wanted the story to continue with those characters. I wanted to see where they were headed. I guess you could say, I wanted the dance with them to keep going.
If this book ever gets a sequel, it will jump to the top of my reading list.
RATING: 8/10 [Terrific]
Comments