FICTION

Astonish Me

by Maggie Shipstead
Knopf. Apr. 2014. 288p. ISBN 9780307962904. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9780307962911. F
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In the mid-1970s, Joan Joyce embraces the rarefied atmosphere that is the world of ballet. A member of the corps with little hope of gaining stardom, she is launched into the headlines when she helps her lover, the brilliant Russian dancer Arslan Rusakov, defect from the Soviet Union. Their romance flames out as his career soars, and Joan marries her childhood sweetheart, Jacob, raising their son, Harry, and running a dance school in California. Harry and Chloe, the girl next door whom he has loved since as long as he can remember, are both consumed by ballet as they grow up under Joan's tutelage. As Harry's gifts become more apparent, he is brought to the attention of Arslan, with explosive results.
VERDICT Recipient of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction for Seating Arrangements, Shipstead moves her story back and forth in time with the same seamless precision found in the details of a beautiful ballet, capturing the brutality of the training, the impossible perfection on stage, and the messy fallout that erupts when personal and professional lines blur. Expect renewed interest in her first novel. [See Prepub Alert, 10/28/13.]
Reviewed by Beth Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI , Feb 01, 2014
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