Her entry begins:
I was asked recently to write about my favorite backstage novels and I included in the list a childhood favorite: Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes. Searching through the Internet for a little background on the author, I discovered that Ballet Shoes was actually based on Streatfeild’s first book, an adult novel called The Whicharts, which I promptly ordered. The Whicharts has all the same characters as Ballet Shoes, the same basic premise, even many of the same sentences, but things are not quite so heart-warming and charming. An equivalent reading experience might be if one learned that The Wizard of Oz was based on an early adult novel of L. Frank Baum’s, and in that book Oz is this sort of tawdry carnival Dorothy works at, The Tin Man is...[read on]About The Cranes Dance, from the publisher:
I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake last night.Learn more about the book and author at Meg Howrey's website.
So begins the tale of Kate Crane, a soloist in a celebrated New York City ballet company who is struggling to keep her place in a very demanding world. At every turnshe is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who has recently suffered a breakdown and returned home.
Alone for the first time in her life, Kate is anxious and full of guilt about the role she may have played in her sister’s collapse. As we follow her on an insider tour of rehearsals, performances, and partners onstage and off, she confronts the tangle of love, jealousy, pride, and obsession that are beginning to fracture her own sanity. Funny, dark, intimate, and unflinchingly honest, The Cranes Dance is a book that pulls back the curtains to reveal the private lives of dancers and explores the complicated bond between sisters.
The Page 69 Test: The Cranes Dance.
Writers Read: Meg Howrey.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
