Dancer

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Summary: "Here now the board is yours, explain to me my loss"
Review: Big, bold and audacious, Dancer will probably anger the ballet purists, but those who like challenging, edgy, and stylistically daring literature will probably love this ode to one of the most written about dancers in history. Told from the point of view of several different people who influenced Rudolf Nureyev's life, Dancer takes the reader on a journey from rural 1950's Soviet Union, crippled by war and poverty, to the decadent "West" of the late 70's and early 80's where Rudi tangled with the cocaine fuelled and sexually promiscuous jet set. McCann, using a variety of different narrative styles in the form of letters, diary entries and news reports, paints a kind of semi-biographical portrait of a man who lived, breathed, and was driven by the desire to dance; but was ultimately haunted by his defection to the west, and his inability to return to visit his family to rediscover his roots.

As a child, Nureyev is portrayed as a simple Russian peasant boy, who picks his nose, scratches his crotch, has no manners, and is endlessly teased at school. But his first ballet teacher, Anna could see that "Rudik" was somehow born to dance, "that he was unlettered in it, yet he knew intimately that it was grammar for him, deep and untutored." From the moment he performs for the hospitalized Russian soldiers after World War 11, Rudolf is set on a path that will take him from the boards of the Kirov stage to performing with Margot Fontaine at Covent Garden, London.

As the narrative progresses, Nureyev blossoms into a beautiful man, an obsessive performer, and a glamorous, brawling celebrity that becomes both a fiend and darling of the western media. He was dogged by the paparazzi and fixated over by critics and gossip columnists who witnessed both his technique disintegrate and his health gradually decline before their eyes. But Rudolf's ultimate genius was allowing his body to say things that he couldn't otherwise express - there was more intuition in him than intellect, more spirit than knowledge, "as if he had been here in another guise, something wild and feral."

Intense and oblique, McCann blasts the reader which interior monologues of the people who made up the kaleidoscope of Rudolf's life - from his sister to his housekeeper and even his English shoe-maker. We witness Margo Fontaine ruminating on how her life as a dancer had "been so full and empty at the same time." She's anxious for Rudi to retire; yet she ponders her own life of incessant bloody feet, unending blisters, and chronic headaches (from constantly pulling her hair back). There's also Rudolf's best friend Victor, the Venezuelan hustler who becomes Rudi's "partner in crime" as they furtively cruise the Manhattan bathhouses in search of men and sex. These characters while showing a mixture of self-absorbed views of Nureyev, also throw up colorful, and distinctive shards of his personality, creating an iconic image of a dancer who was also a transcendent celebrity.

Much of McCann's portrayal of Nureyev is unsympathetic: The reader witnesses a fidgety, uncontrolled boy become a hardnosed artist and domineering employer. He's an unadulterated egoist, who's vain, rude, and lacking in any kind of sensitivity. And the images of the sweating collective mill of dance training, punctuated with Nureyev's obsessive internal checklists, show his fanatical desire to perfect his technique, acquire culture and fine-tune his image at all costs. Dancer is a hectic, fast-paced, fragmental novel, which never romanticizes the world of ballet, but offers fervent insights into the hunger and grandeur that this art form ultimately requires. Mike Leonard October 04.


Rating:
Summary: what is this book about?
Review: Can anyone tell me what this book is about? Those who praise it say it's about Nureyev, those who don't are told they have missed the point as it is not about him at all, it can't be about dancing can it, or it would tell more about precisely that, in fact I felt that I had read mostly about the author's fasicination for New York's avant garde society, how they really live and what their sex life is about. And frankly, that's not enough for me to call a book, let alone a masterpiece. Let alone a masterpiece about a dancer.

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Summary: "A sort of hunger turned human."
Review: Dancer is an extraordinary novel, affecting me more profoundly than any other novel I have read in a long time. Vivid and hard-edged, rather than lyrical and beautiful, it fuses fact and fiction seamlessly, bringing to life ballet star Rudolf Nureyev and the many secret worlds he inhabited. From his first public performance, when, at the age of five he performed an exuberant dance in a hospital ward for Russian soldiers wounded in World War II, he was considered more athletic than subtle, and as he grew older, his legs were regarded as the source of "more violence than grace."

Nureyev's "wild and feral" style of dance meshes perfectly with McCann's prose. Paralleling the athleticism and drive of Nureyev, McCann's writing is bold and straightforward, characterized by short, powerful, descriptive sentences, often in a simple subject-verb-object pattern. Avoiding all frills and sentimentality, McCann favors strength over lyricism, and power over prettiness.

Through the first person observations of almost two dozen characters who touched Nureyev's life in some way, McCann shines light on Nureyev's personality and his development as a dancer. His family, teachers, lovers, and even a schoolboy bully, a stilt-walker, and the captain of an airplane, who filed an "incident report" about his atrocious behavior aboard a plane, all comment on his actions and the choices he makes, personally and professionally, as his career soars.

The deprivation and sadness experienced by most of these sensitive observers in their own lives contrasts vividly with the excesses and hedonism of Nureyev's adult life and illuminate, without need for authorial comment, his arrogance and boorishness. At the same time, however, these multiple viewpoints also humanize Nureyev in many ways by showing the extent to which these other characters are connected by love to others and to their history, while Nureyev becomes a "living myth...cared for and coddled and protected by the mythmakers."

Filled with intriguing characters, ranging from simple Russian peasants to Andy Warhol, Tennessee Williams, John Lennon, Truman Capote, Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, and the stars of ballet, the novel is a monument to the power of the creative spirit and a testament to the dangers inherent in a life from which all other controls have been removed. Rudi always "tore [a] role open...by the manner in which he presented himself, a sort of hunger turned human." McCann brings this voracious human to life. Nureyev leaps off these pages in a huge and stunning grand jete. Mary Whipple

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant writing elicits life at the passionate edge
Review: First, the writing in this book is as breathtaking as actually seeing Rudi dance--and I have. This book is NOT for the linear/literal minded. James Joyceian, fluid, associate language alternates with standard sentence format, and the combination brings alive the passions and personalities of Nureyev's life. In this book he appears as the larger-than-life character he really was. I have recommended this book to SO many people, and haven't had a disappointment yet. Please ignore the reviews of those who are judging this book by their own fixed expectations of what a book about a dancer should be. This novelized bio is more true than any group of literal facts.

Rating:
Summary: Yes!
Review: I was vaguely disappointed when I heard that the subject of this novel by Colum McCann, one of my favorite authors, was ballet. It would be tough for me to find a topic I care less about, and I thought that this book would therefore bore me. Boy was I wrong...I should've trusted McCann from the start. This is his best work to date, and that is saying something! This book is vividly imagined and loaded with so much telling detail about the various settings (WWII Russia, 70's New York, Caracas, London, Paris) and of course the subject (ballet, Nureyev and the people who surround him) that you wonder how McCann found the time to do so much research. Nureyev's story is told from his own point of view and through the eyes of those around him. McCann digs deep, giving life to Nureyev's dance coaches and partners, his jealous sister, his suffering mother, his friends, his maid, his shoemaker, even a ballet school rival who gets only a few paragraphs! It all adds up to a rich story. A number of celebrities make cameos, too (Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Andy Warhol, etc.), lending further flavor to the story's time and place. McCann possesses a genius that borders on scary. He draws you in and makes you care about the characters in a way few other authors have made me experience. On a back-of-the-hardcover quote, Frank McCourt lauds McCann for taking big chances in this book...and he does! And they all work. My only disappointment was to learn that Nureyev was a real person. The real Nureyev couldn't possibly have lived a life this perfectly imagined. Bravo, Colum McCann!

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Summary: McCann trips the light fantastic with 'Dancer'
Review: In "Dancer," a "fictionalized biography" of Rudolf Nureyev, Colum McCann, indeed, takes liberty with his subject matter, although one certainly wonders just how far! Serious Rudohiles and scholars will notice this. However, one must give the author his dues--this is stated as a work of fiction.

That said, it certainly is a mesmerizing work, a roman a clef of the first order. McCann, while certainly intrigued by the subject, makes an effort to capture the whole picture. Beginning with graphic scenes of the Russian Front in the dead of winter in l943, McCann then introduces us to young Rudi, a boy totally captivated and dedicated to dance.

The novel then takes off, ala a good foreign film, in several directions, shifting bluntly from one character to another, a carefully choreographed and orchestrated plot outline. We watch with fascination as Rudi grows up, is given special attention by the state authorities, especially at the Kirov, and then successfully defects to the West. The book is a miasma of successes and failures, a pot pourri of Nureyev's lifestyle and profession. McCann portrays at once a young man given to his great ego and self confidence, his insensitivities to friends and associates alike, and his dedication to the few close friends (and family) he maintains.

This is a picture that perhaps not everyone is happy with; however, it's fiction and much of the speculation can be accepted. Even if "Dancer" was not so obviously about Nureyev, substituting a completely fictional name for the character would not diminish McCann power in this riviting book. A good read.
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Summary: A riveting and moving novel
Review: Mr McCann offers readers an astonishingly gripping biography of the Russian dancer Rudolph Nureyev written as a piece of fiction. It is not a biography in the classic sense of the term since real characters with true identities mingle with fictitious characters in episodes from the author's imagination. Nureyev's moody personality combined with his professionalism as a dancer are wonderfully captured by the author. By employing the technique of multiple narrators and skilfully interchanging between them - they are set in various locations in Russia, New York, France and England - Mr McCann has managed to produce the portrait of a vivid and many faceted artist with a tremendous charisma. Where most biographies tend to isolate and estrange its subject by pointing out its uniqueness, the author has achieved quite the opposite effect. Indeed, it often feels as if the reader were himself part of the dancer's exhilarating and thwarting lifestyle. It is the author's genius to transform carefully researched material into sparkling fiction on an artist whose fame, artistic accomplishment and shrewish, hedonistic, homosexual night life of 1970s New York are legendary.

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Summary: this book rocks
Review: One of the best books I have read in the past few years. The writer is a genius.

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Summary: Why call this Dancer?
Review: Reading Colum McCann's novel "Dancer" is a little like listening to a room full of people, none of whom are familiar to you. Whilst you might hear some interesting gossip & some tantalizing tidbits, in general their chatter means little.

McCann's decision to portray Rudolph Nureyev through the eyes of those who knew him at various stages of his life could have been interesting if any continuity had been maintained. We spend differing amounts of time with different "voices" but the pages allocated to them seem to have little to do with their importance to the story. Some who initially have many pages never reappear. One who hasn't even been mentioned for most of the book suddenly becomes the primary focus towards the end without much to add to the story. A few have no noticable connection to Nureyev at all. The voices themselves have so little differentiation that it is often hard to tell who is currently speaking. When a unique voice is attempted, it is an annoying affectation as in the case of "Victor", a highly social gay friend of Rudi's.

The primary problem with "Dancer" tho, is that it's protagonist DOESN'T. Altho we are often told how much Rudi loves to dance, how talented he is, how hard he works, we never learn about the daily mechanics, the minutiae of the dancer's life. In the same manner the voices describe Nureyev's animal magnetism yet the reader never FEELS it or understands what is so compelling about this person.

"Dancer" is a relatively interesting novel, but I never felt I was reading about RUDOLPH NUREYEV despite the inclusion of trivia from his life. This could have been any bisexual Russian defector of the period, or none, or an amalgam. Don't purchase "Dancer" hoping to read the definitive novel on ballet; get Edward Stewart's excellent "Ballerina" for that.

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Summary: A Brilliant Leap Of Imagination
Review: Rudolf Nureyev, a fictional biography told by those who knew him when and where. It is a fascinating look at this most famous Russian ballet dancer. Erotic at all times, and told in first person by a cast of characters who make this story come alive.

We first meet Rudi in 1943 as he is dancing for the Russian soldiers in his small town. The Second World War is in full swing. Russia is poor and the soldiers have little or nothing, but they give Rudi little bits of their nothing as a present for his dancing. Rudi is rescued from this poverty by his ballet teacher and taken to Moscow where his dancing life begins.

The stories told by Rudi's friends take us to Paris, Rome, Caracas and New York City, We meet Margot Fonteyn, probably the person who had the biggest influence on his life but the only one who did not sleep with him. Victor, the Venezuelan hustler, who meets Rudi in the lower East side of New York City. Victor introduces Rudi to the Gay celebrity set, and the drugs and seedy side of Gay life. We hear of John Lennon and the famous stars of the 70's and 80's and all of Rudi's friends.

Rudi was a perfectionist and he was never able to meet this need. He was willful and driven, and drove everyone else in his way and in his life to become that which was impossible. He danced until his feet bled and bled some more. He had the followers and the takers in his crowd. And, in the end, he loved Victor the best.

I was not aware that this was a fictional biography unitl I read the back cover of the book. In the end, it did not make any difference. The story of this great man was told with grace and with some shock at times. The jest of the man, the dancer is there for all to see. The book caught the spirit of this man, the greatest of all ballet dancers, with the span from Russia to New York in forty years. It ends with his first visit home to Russia-what goes around, comes around. Fabulous tale. prisrob