The Coffin Dancer (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel)

Amazon.com

This return engagement for quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme is strong on forensic details as Rhyme tracks an elusive assassin known only by the tattoo that gives this fast-paced thriller its title.

Three witnesses to a murder could put a millionaire arms dealer behind bars for good. When one of them, the co-owner of Hudson Air, is blown up in a plane bombing with the Dancer's fingerprints all over it, the FBI takes the other witnesses into protective custody. Only Rhyme can decipher a crime scene, read the residue of a bombing, or identify a handful of dirt well enough to keep up with the killer. Helped by Amelia Sachs, his brilliant and able-bodied assistant, Rhyme traces the Dancer through Manhattan streets, airports, and subways. The psychological tension builds rapidly from page one all the way to the stunning and unexpected denouement. At the same time, Jeffery Deaver slowly develops the against-all-odds love affair between Rhyme and Sachs. Fans of Patricia Cornwell and others in the growing subgenre of forensic thrillers will find a lot to enjoy in Deaver's latest. --Jane Adams

Book Description

NYPD criminalist Lincoln Rhyme joins his beautiful protégé, Amelia Sachs, in the hunt for the Coffin Dancer -- an ingenious killer who changes appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims. They have only one clue: the madman has a tattoo of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman. Rhyme must rely on his wits and intuition to track the elusive murderer through New York City -- knowing they have only forty-eight hours before the Coffin Dancer strikes again.

Download Description

Detective Lincoln Rhymes, the foremost criminalist in the NYPD, is put on the trail of the Coffin Dancer, a cunning professional killer who has continually alluded the police. Rhymes - -a quadriplegic since a line-of-duty accident -- must use his wits to track this brilliant killer who's been hired to eliminate three witnesses in the last hours before their grand jury testimony. Rhyme works with his eyes and ears, New York cop Amelia Sachs, to gather information from trace evidence at the crime scene (for a start, scrapings from the tires of the emergency vehicles that responded to the Chicago crash) to nail him, or at least to predict his next move and head him off. In the resulting game of cat-and- mouse, both Rhyme and the Dancer are constantly subject to unbelievably timely hunches and brain waves that keep their deadly shuttlecock in play down to the wire. Fair warning to newcomers: Author Deaver is just as cunning and deceptive as his killer; don't assume he's run out of tricks until you've run out of pages. By the author of "The Bone Collector."

Customer Reviews:

You will not see what's coming in the end. I promise........2007-01-31

No spoilers

The Coffin Dancer is a pretty good follow up to Bone Collector, but it's definitely not as good. Actually the path of the books is very different. In Bone Collector, it's all about the antagonist leaving all sorts of crazy evidence just waiting to see if the law can put it all together and get on his trail. However, in Coffin Dancer there is almost no evidence whatsoever and Rhyme is having a tought time catching a break on getting a lead on the antagonist.

As I was reading, I kept thinking that Bone Collector was better and that while this book was good, it wasn't all that great, but at the end there are two huge twists that you will not at all see coming. I promise you. If you see these coming... well you won't and if you say you did then you're a liar. If you're thinking of continuing the Rhyme series, I definitely suggest you do so, because I am.

The Coffin Dancer.......2006-11-02

I have read a number of Deavers books and he always keeps me in suspense until the end of the book. I would definitely recommend this book and put it up there with Michael Connely, James Patterson and other such authors. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Excellent twisted story and superb reader of the book on tape.......2006-08-29

Alexander Adams did a marvelous job of reading this book on tape. It was a really great mystery novel with Lincoln and Sachs doing their best to catch the culprit(s). If you watched the movie, the BONE COLLECTOR with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, you know the characters and these Lincoln Rhyme novels are excellent. I picked up another book on tape by Deaver, PRAYING FOR SLEEP, read by Connor O'Brien and the reader is really not high quality. If you've listened to books on tape and heard readings by the likes of Frank Muller or George Guidall or the reader of the Stuart Woods novels, then you know what great readers are like. When you get a dud reader, it destroys the books. Although I've become a fan of Deaver's with this book and the Bone Collector movie, I'm afraid I'll have to bypass any "listening" of these books read by O'Brien.

Having said that, this is a great story of a very perverse and brilliant villain and a woman who loses nearly everything dear in her life because she's on the assassin's list. You'll love it, Deaver's done a great job with this one!

Not the Prime of Rhyme!.......2006-08-21

I've been following the Lincoln Rhyme series out of order. My first book was "The Stone Monkey"(my favorite), and I've since gone backwards to read "The Empty Chair"(mediocre) and "The Vanished Man"(much better). I have yet to read "The Twelfth Card" or "Cold Moon", but I'm confident I'll like those better.
As for "Coffin Dancer", I just didn't like it as much as the books that followed it. Although the "Master criminologist vs. hired assassin/serial killer" premise was solid, the plot was a bit contrived, and a few of the twists that were so vital to the story just didn't work. A large part of the story is the development of the relationship between Stephen and Jodie, but the huge plot twist spoils what could have been an interesting development of both characters.
The 'aviator' supporting characters, particularly 'The Wife', were either unsympathetic of just plain dull, and seemed to exist only to spout off about aviation procedures and terminology wgich might turn off readers who are not that interested in the subject. Rather than giving readers enough information about the subject to understand it, we are deluged with too much information!
And the "Denver" reference during a tense moment in the book is just a cop-out that destroys the tension.
The book does have its good points, especially in fleshing out Lincoln and Amelia's relationship(although that leads to the also less-than satisfactory "Empty Chair").
I've found that only like Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme books, and that I have no use for his 'off-topic' novels. The biggest gripe I have with "Coffin Dancer" is that, until the second half of the book, Rhyme is too much of a minor character. The charter-air side of the story would have been better off in one of Deaver's unrelated novels.
Worth reading if you're into the Rhyme series, but not recommended as a stand-alone effort.

A real treat for "CSI" fans.......2006-04-03

This book is fast paced and packed with ample twists and turns and unexpected developments up to its very last page. It is a pleasure to witness Lincoln Rhyme and the Coffin Dancer outguessing and outsmarting each other constantly throughout the book. On top it features interesting details about the work of crime scene investigation which should be a real treat for fans of the "CSI"TV shows.
Well worth reading!

Average customer rating:

Worth more than five stars
A Must Have
A blend of history, drama, and autobiography
What do we do now? We dance!

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel
Siena Cherson Siegel
Manufacturer: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0689867476

Book Description

Dancers are young when they first dream of dance. Siena was six -- and her dreams kept skipping and leaping, circling and spinning, from airy runs along a beach near her home in Puerto Rico, to dance class in Boston, to her debut performance on stage with the New York City Ballet.

To Dance tells and shows the fullness of her dreams and her rhapsodic life they led to. Part family history, part backstage drama, here is an original, firsthand book about a young dancer's beginnings -- and beyond.

Customer Reviews:

Worth more than five stars.......2007-03-16

While other people have already said wonderful things about To Dance, it's also a great book for what it is not. It's NOT another Very Young Dancer.

I was the right age for A Very Young Dancer, but discouraged and saddened me, because she was always the Best--it seemed as though if you were not the lead, your work did not count at all. [This may be a modern attitude; when Michelle Kwan came in second at The Worlds--I think--the headlines screamed Michelle Kwan Loses!]

In To Dance, Siena is a good dancer, a great dancer, even, and spends years as a Pierette, eventually leaving dance because of injuries. She never becomes a prima ballerina, instead going to college and ultimately making a career out of the business of dance. Which is what is wonderful about this book. It shows how dance can run in your veins even though you're not Kirkland.

It's refreshing that the author and illustrator show much of her individual personality, not JUST her dedication to her art. Beautifully written, beautifully illustrated.

A Must Have.......2006-12-02

Bluebonnet award winner, Mark Siegel has teamed with his wife Siena Cherson Siegel and created an exquisite and tender graphic novel that honors dancers everywhere.

Siena began her dance journey in San Juan, Puerto Rico when she was diagnosed with flat feet. She started dance classes and fell in love with the art form. The story follows her family as they move to Boston where she sees the Bolshoi Ballet perform for the first time. She dreams of ballets.

At the age of 11 she auditions and wins a spot in the School of American Ballet and begins to work in earnest. She sees George Balanchine and Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell, and Gelsey Kirkland in the halls. Being fitted for her first toe shoes, winning a spot in her first performance and partnering class are all milestones in her life at SAB. Family life is difficult as her parents' marriage fails. As a teenager there are boyfriends and schoolwork and worry about the shape of her body.

Plots of ballets are seamlessly woven into the story as we see the excitement and glamor of performance balanced with the hard work of practice and the heartbreak of not being chosen to perform. Her memoir also allows the reader an inside look at the grief and sorrow that overwhelmed the company when Balanchine died.

Mark Siegel draws the story with detail and love. To depict a story like this in graphic novel form allows the reader to move through the years with Siena. The reader notes the change of color of her leotard as the years pass, each color representing a higher level at SAB. Her painful injuries and aching toes from hours of dancing are communicated without words.

One scene where young Siena is reading the book A Very Young Dancer by flashlight is typical of the care and detail the Siegels have included. I think every school library has that book as it is a favorite with young dancers. Like the girl on the cover, Siena will wear the green leotard.

Siegel opens the story with little Siena dancing on a beach. He ends it on a beach too and it brought tears to my eyes. This is sophisticated storytelling at its very best.

Words to describe this book: Brilliant, fascinating, informative, original, beautiful, a must have for all ballet students, dancers, and fans of ballet

A blend of history, drama, and autobiography .......2006-11-06

TO DANCE: A BALLERINA'S GRAPHIC NOVEL provides a blend of history, drama, and autobiography in telling of young Siena's dream to dance, which began when she was six. Ages 8-14 are the intended readers - but younger ages will find this equally accessible in its full color graphic novel format as it tells of a young dancer's evolution.

What do we do now? We dance!.......2006-09-07

How should your average adult shopper determine the difference between a graphic novel that is good and a graphic novel that is bad? It's simple. If a graphic novel is bad then it will be poorly illustrated, shamefully written, and just dull all over. If a graphic novel is good it can convert the unconvertible. I work with a woman who is a self-proclaimed woman "too old" for graphic novels. She never dug them. Never much cared for them. And then "To Dance" fell into her lap and BANG! Instant fan. This should come as no very great surprise. We're dealing with the Siegel duo. Mark Siegel the illustrator may at this point in time be best known for "Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operattea" which he penned with aplomb. He's the editorial director of First Second (the company that gave the world that go-buy-it-right-now book "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang) and a talented artist in his own right. And Ms. Siena Cherson Siegel attended the School of America Ballet where she studied "preprofessionally" (as the book's author blurb says) for twelve years. So what couple is better suited to depict the rigor and wonder of how a child becomes a ballerina, I ask you? This is a biography like you've never seen it before.

Siena begins her story this way: "Big, empty spaces always made me dance". She yearned to move. First growing up in San Juan, Puerto Rico and then later when her family moved to Boston. For Siena, dance was in her heart and mind. She flew to New York in 1977 to get a taste of dance rigor at the American Ballet Theater and discovered that she wanted to be a ballerina more than anything. A year later she auditioned for the School of American Ballet (founded by George Balanchine) and got in. As her home life grew unpleasant, Siena's time with the ballet became even more precious to her. The book tracks what it's really like to be both a kid and a professional ballerina. And though she quit at the age of 18 and followed other pursuits, she still dances today. "Dancing fills a space in me".

I must say that if the Siegels had put their heads together and said, "Let's find a way to stymie library catalogers everywhere" they couldn't have done better than to create a graphic novel biography. Where the heck do you put it in the collection? It'll never attract its key audience in the biography section, but won't it also get lost in the fantasy/manga shuffle if you stick it in with the other graphic novels? What's a librarian to do? If I ruled the world I'd create a whole new section of gn bios and then insist that everyone from Toni Morrison to Ray Bradbury create one (art by others, of course). Ms. Siegel's memoir, however, is particularly well-written. I loved the little details of Siena's life that she was able to work into the story. It's a mere slip of a book, but there's an abundance of great details here. I was particularly fond of young Siena's fears that if her relatives had huge boobs then maybe she herself would get huge boobs. The next panel is of little Sienna lying in bed as an image of a big boobed self dances through her head. Less blatent was the book that started it all. In the story Siena receives the book "A Very Young Dancer" and is enchanted by it. As a kid, I too had a copy of that book, and I can attest to how entrancing it was. For a kid growing up in the Midwest, the idea of a kid like myself getting to live in New York to dance professionally was a wild magnificent dream. Now kids today can relive that dream, only now with Siegel's book as their guide.

And then there's Mark's art. I thought it was pretty nice and all for the first few pages, but then I came to an image he drew of two hands crossed against a pure black background that blew me away. I am a great admirer of hands and Mark knows how to draw them. Heck, he knows how to draw ballerinas period! Their poses, positions, and gestures are captured here so well that Mr. Siegel must have studied ballerinas and their moves for hours on end. Then there's the layout of the book itself. Instead of strict panels of corresponding shape and size, Siegel expands and contracts his spaces according to the story's plot. When Siena and her friends put on silk kimonos and explore the New York State Theater on their own, they stand in the vast auditorium like three small colorful specks, dwarfed by magnificence. I also liked how Siegel chose to give his book chapters of a sort. The book is broken up under headings with names like "Refuge" and "Dying Swan". As for the color scheme, Siegel uses watercolors here in variegated colors and shades. Quick eyes will also note that the first image of this book (that of Siena leaping across yellow sand as a child) is mirrored by the last image of this book (that of Siena leaping across yellow sand grown and WITH a child). Mark even makes his own headless cameo in the upper left hand corner of this last picture.

2006 seems to be the year for male artists to pen children's book odes to their wives. Matteo Pericoli did it with "The True Story of Stellina" (also in watercolors). Now Siegel does the same with "To Dance". Of course Siena Siegel wrote the book herself, so it's not as if she didn't have any input or anything. There are so few graphic novels to compare this title to that I have a hard time conveying how nice it is to you. I'll just say this: Kids (girl kids, some might say) like ballerinas. The book shows ballerinas in spades, has a great eclectic format, some great writing, and beautiful art. If you think you can do better for your kids, go ahead. Be my guest. Just remember "To Dance" when you find yourself seriously stumped gift-wise. It's a gem.

Average customer rating:

A Waste of Time
Couldn't Put it Down
Splendid read
A book you won't want to put down
Historical India Adventure

The Temple Dancer: A Novel of India
John Speed
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312325487
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Book Description

Maya, the temple dancer, is a very expensive womanand shes been bought by one of the most powerful men in Bijapur, India. The problem is getting her across India in the 1600s. Protected by settlement men and accompanied by a eunuch and a spoiled, rich Portuguese woman, Maya must overcome incredible odds only to live out her worst nightmare. A sweeping, page-turner filled with sex, violence and adventure, The Temple Dancer begins a three book journey that will cover the final years of Indias Mogul Empirethe period that shaped the politics and religious warfare of modern India.

Customer Reviews:

A Waste of Time.......2007-05-09

I found this book a bit insulting in its unbelieveable set of characters and their predicaments. A waste of time and money.

Couldn't Put it Down.......2007-02-10

I never thought I would say this but John Speed now rivals Philippa Gregory as one of my favorite authors of historical fiction. Set in India in the year 1657, "The Temple Dancer" is a riveting tale of two women: Lucinda Desana, a beautiful Goan heiress; and Maya, a devadasi (temple dancer) who is bought by Lucinda's family and sold as a concubine. They meet in Goa and travel through the Western Ghats by elephant, each heading towards a fate that has changed by the time their journey has ended. Escorted by a dangerous man with a reputation for violence, a conniving eunuch, a cold-hearted businessman and a mysterious prince, their story is filled with intrigue, adventure, sensuality and forbidden love. Indeed, I lost many hours of sleep because I simply had to find out what Speed's exotic collection of characters were going to do next. His immense knowledge of Indian history and culture transforms them into vibrant people who inhabit an unforgettable world. The back cover of this book says that Speed has studied Indian history, art and religion for over thirty-years and I believe it. I can hardly wait for the next two books in this planned trilogy.

Splendid read.......2007-02-06

I read this book in three days straight, could not concentrate on anything else. Especially since I am born Dutch, grew up in Portugal and lived in Goa for a while, this is the book that I've been waiting for all my life. Can barely wait for the follow up. Adventure, History, passion, love and murder, what else does a reader want. Bravo!, Nicolette

A book you won't want to put down.......2007-01-23

John Speed, a long time student of India, uses all his knowledge and skill as a writer to bring this epic to life. Filled with graphically formed characters involved in adventure and intrigue, the story moves with astounding clarity.

Bring us more, John Speed! Bring us more!

Historical India Adventure.......2006-12-18

The author does a great job in taking us to 17th century South India. As you read it, you want to read more and get drawn into it. You want to know what happens next. Combine the intrigue with some history, and that makes this book a very interesting read. I especially enjoyed the historical slant.

The Novels of Tiger and Del, Volume III (Sword-Dancer Saga)

Average customer rating:

Awesome Book, Unique Concept

The Novels of Tiger and Del, Volume III (Sword-Dancer Saga)
Jennifer Roberson
Manufacturer: DAW Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0756403448

Book Description

The thrilling concluding novels in the epic adventures of Tiger, the hardened Southron sword-dancer, and Del, the beautiful and dangerous northern sword-singer. Filled with dramatic action, danger, magic, and the crackling repartee and verbal fireworks which have made the Sword series a fantasy fan favorite

Customer Reviews:

Awesome Book, Unique Concept.......2006-07-27

Great book. Loved the stories. I'm a guy, but its nice to read about a female protagonist. Usually its the guy obsessed with revenge, and the gal doing the sensible thing. This is a unique and highly readable twist on that plot.

Average customer rating:

Not Bad
WOW!!
Wow. What a thriller
THE CAT DANCERS
Story Without End

The Cat Dancers: A Novel
P. T. Deutermann
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0312933428
Release Date: 2006-10-31

Book Description

THRILL SEEKER
Dangling silently in front of a cave eighty feet down the cliff’s edge, the man snaps a picture of the enraged mountain lion. The furious beast lunges...but the man is gone, back up the rope.

JUSTICE DEALER
When a judge releases two unrepentant killers on a legal technicality, North Carolina police Lieutenant Cam Richter knows facing the victims’ grieving families is going to be tough. But when Killer #1 turns up on the Internet riding a homemade electric chair?followed a few days later by Killer #2?Cam thinks despair may have turned to vigilante justice.

MAN EATER
But it doesn’t add up, especially when Cam becomes a target. It looks like these vigilantes may also be cops, and he’s quickly running out of people to trust. The answers lie deep in the North Carolina wilderness, where Cam must track down this mysterious group of adrenaline-driven “Cat Dancers”—and risk losing everything he has left…

Customer Reviews:

Not Bad.......2007-09-25

I picked up this, the hardcover version, in the discount section at the bookstore. It was well worth the price. It is a good mystery/cop story and has plenty going on. My only problem is that the ending was not that satisfying. I would have been a lot happier if he had tied up the loose ends instead of saving them for a sequel. However, that is a minor point as I had a lot of fun reading it. The cat dancing device was quite imaginative and I applaud the author for that.

Not bad at all. Recommended.

WOW!!.......2007-02-16

I could NOT put it down - I am an avid reader and this one just totally captured my interest to the point that now, when I want to tell my husband that something is really exciting, I just tell him it's another cat dancer ...

Wow. What a thriller.......2007-02-09

Deuterman arrives with this novel. It is a real page turner, with a solid main character, many secondary characters that leap off the page at you, and a great story to boot. This mystery keeps the pages turning and keeps me from hiking any canyons any time soon. I can hardly wait for the next installment.

THE CAT DANCERS.......2007-01-20

I HAVE READ ALL HIS WORK,AN I DON'T HE HAS EVERY WRITTEN ANYTHING BAD.

AL GUNTER

Story Without End.......2006-11-30

Deutermann is an excellent writer and I have enjoyed every one of his books. This story kept me reading long after I should have turned out the light and called it a day. Once, an author wrote, "I don't write pages that people don't read." Long boring descriptions of things incidental to the story fall in this category. Some of the descriptions of the river, the wilderness and the trips getting there at times weary the reader. I guess my biggest complaint with the story was the ending. Too many loose ends. Another chapter on Cam & Mary Ellen getting together maybe 6 months later, the wrap-up by the Feds on all of the Cat Dancers, and the aprehension of the computer wizard Jay Kay would have put it to rest. The dogs in the story were a great addition.

Average customer rating:

Dated but still engaging and relevant
Lived to tell the tale
Beautiful and Magical
Heartbreaking Beauty
internalized homophobia at it's best

Dancer from the Dance: A Novel
Andrew Holleran
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0060937068
Release Date: 2001-12-18

Book Description

One of the most important works of gay literature, this haunting, brilliant novel is a seriocomic remembrance of things past -- and still poignantly present. It depicts the adventures of Malone, a beautiful young man searching for love amid New York's emerging gay scene. From Manhattan's Everard Baths and after-hours discos to Fire Island's deserted parks and lavish orgies, Malone looks high and low for meaningful companionship. The person he finds is Sutherland, a campy quintessential queen -- and one of the most memorable literary creations of contemporary fiction. Hilarious, witty, and ultimately heartbreaking, Dancer from the Dance is truthful, provocative, outrageous fiction told in a voice as close to laughter as to tears.

Customer Reviews:

Dated but still engaging and relevant.......2007-08-14

Written in the window between the Stonewall uprising and the discovery of HIV, the book brings to life a gay-ghettoed crew of colorful, fascinating characters, doing this better in my opinion than the Boys in the Band.

Lived to tell the tale.......2007-03-16

I lived through the era that AH writes of, it was an astonishing time, and he wrote an astonishing book. If you haven't read it, do yourself a big favor and do so immediately.

Beautiful and Magical.......2007-03-16

Holleran, Andrew. "Dancer from the Dance", Harper, 1978.

Beautiful and Magical

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

I usually go back and reread Andrew Holleran every couple of years but this year I could not wait to reread him since he will be the official guest of the Arkansas Literary Festival and my book club, Literary Pride in Little Rock. Turning a spotlight on gay literature in Arkansas is a first and the man of letters that will do so is Andrew Holleran.
I remember reading Holleran's first book "Dancer from the Dance" when it was first published in 1978 and it moved me than as it has moved me every year of my life afterwards. It describes a world of magic and beauty in New York of the `70's; a world that I once yearned to be a part of. The book opens with death and tells of the life of beauty and drugs and sex--a scene which was to call for its own destruction. The death of the opening book seems to be a premonition of the AIDS epidemic which had not begun when the book was written. It was written some three years before the first cases were reported.
Rereading the book in successive years, I suddenly realize how unattractive this lifestyle really was. Everyone in the novel were legally of age before we were given the okay to be who we are by the American
Psychiatric Association and many years before homosexuality was no longer considered a crime in America. Looking back at it now, I see that the beauty (or what I thought was beautiful) now seems so shallow and so cellophane--it was a world that had the seeds of its own sad ending.
"Dancer from the Death" is a classic in describing the self-hate and bitterness which seemed to engulf the gay world in that period. It is almost hard to believe that we actually lived that way, Aside from that sad aspect of gay culture and life, Holleran captures fully the lives of gay men in a prose that is dark and racy. Some of the things he says are hurtful--but honest as we look at ourselves for whom we really are. But it is also comforting to know that during that decade of unabandoned joy and sex, we were not alone--many of us behaved very much the same.
This is a book to be read slowly and savored and pondered over--you do not want to miss a word. Suddenly you realize that you feel like you know the characters in the book (you surely know people just like them).
Holleran's style is what makes the book. I am stunned by the knowledge that it is as fresh and meaningful to me today as it was in 1978. Holleran dazzles with his use of the English language and the true beauty of the book is that regardless of what else changes in the world, the book "Dancer from the Dance" will always be there--unchanged and beautifully written to remind us of whom we are and where we came from and to where we have gone.
Malone, our main character, is a young man who has been raised in conservative America and decides to just give up everything and be a gay man living a gay life. He arrives in New York where he meets another guy named Sutherland, an older gay man who teaches Malone how to be gay. We see through the interaction of the two as well as the subsequent happenings what gay life became in New York City after the Stonewall Riots of 1868. We meet characters from all walks of gay life and we see how the path of one gay man in the 1970s--that of coming out, getting laid, joining he circuit, meeting other men, becoming a male prostitute and ultimately becoming bitter and old--so reflects the times it is written about.
Holleran exposes the gay world which was presented as glamorous and exciting as being no more than a step into oblivion.
There is no question that "Dancer from the Dance" is one of the best gay novels ever written and Andrew Holleran is a beautiful writer. When I first read this book I had never read anything quite like it before and that is still quite true. The novel is lush and rich and beautiful and happy and sad. As Holleran takes us through the wreckage and beauty of New York, way back then, we meet characters we will not forget and Holleran's ability to bring about lasting images of a world that was--a wlrd that provokes, that causes us to laugh and brings us to tears. To know this book is to add it to your all time favorite list. It is truly a work that has affected us profoundly and will continue to do so as long as man can read.

Heartbreaking Beauty.......2006-08-28

I read this at age 21, the summer I "came out", floating on an inflatable raft in a swimming pool in San Antonio. It described a world of magic and beauty in New York that I had to become part of, and soon did.

But the book opens with a death. The life of beauty and drugs and disco and dick could easily be seen by an Artist to contain the seeds of its own destruction. And the Death between the lines in hindsight seems a premonition of the AIDS on the way--this was published 3 years before the first cases appeared in the medical literature.

When I re-read it in my thirties, I was shocked at how unattractive this lifestyle seemed, whereas at 21 I just wanted to catch the next plane for Fire Island. But the men portrayed in this novel came of age before homosexuality was de-pathologized in 1973, and decades before it was decriminalized. (Has it been in every state? Probably not.)

And all life and beauty is transient, containing the seeds of its own demise. There is nothing uniquely gay about that fact of life.

Well worth reading for a glimpse into Pleasure Island. This book tells the truth. The prose is beautiful. Purple is a lovely, royal colour.

internalized homophobia at it's best.......2005-09-07

a classic excellent example of the bitterness and self-loathing which pervaded (some) of the gay world at the time. read it only to see how far we've come - then go watch 'sex in the city' to cleanse your palate

Average customer rating:

Ghastly
More Accessible Than Ruth
It was a short history for me!
A Prince of a Story
More relatable than Ruth

The Short History of a Prince : A Novel
Jane Hamilton
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0679457550
Release Date: 1998-03-24

Amazon.com

As a teenager in Oak Ridge, Illinois, Walter McCloud is desperate for adventure, hoping for love and success as a dancer. "If life for Walter was composed in part of confusion, shame and deception, the ballet was order, dignity and forthright beauty." In 1995, at 38, nothing has turned out as he had expected. Having spent years working in a dollhouse shop in New York and engaging in that city's ready sexual excitement, Walter finally returns to his Midwestern roots, accepting a teaching job in Otten, Wisconsin--a place that might have little to recommend it save its proximity to his family's summer home. ("It had taken Walter several years to admit to himself that he couldn't go on indefinitely selling Lilliputian Coke bottles and microscopic toilet-roll dowels.") In this new community, he will have to keep his head down, a stance that has long suited him, because he prefers to hold one memory of lost intimacy and perfection in high, private relief.

Walter's exile, or new start, allows memory to come to the fore, particularly that painful year in which his brother was dying of Hodgkin's and he and his fellow dancers were dying for experience. Jane Hamilton explores the distance between desire and reality, satisfaction and secrecy, irresistibly alternating between past and present. At first, we can't wait for Walter to break through, and it's tempting to race through her prince's history--one which is, happily, not that short. But to do so would be to miss out on Hamilton's fine major and minor characters and her exploration of competition, complicity, and silence. At one point, Walter fears that his pupils have "no clue that there was pleasure to be found in observing character. They seemed to be afraid to look around themselves and find a world every bit as amusing, ridiculous and unjust as Dickens's London..." Hamilton's readers, however, will find this pleasure in abundance.

Amazon.com Audiobook Review

Robert Sean Leonard (Much Ado About Nothing, Dead Poet's Society) brings a dramatic dimension to the bittersweet story of Walter McCloud, who has high hopes of becoming a ballet dancer. Leonard's flexible voice captures the thoughts and feelings of Walter both as a teenager and as a thirty-something high school teacher. The story begins with the star, an aspiring adolescent ballet dancer, coming to terms with his lack of talent when he is chosen to be the Prince in a third-rate production of the Nutcracker, while his friends dance lead roles in Chicago. The same winter, Walter has his first homosexual experience and his older brother becomes terminally ill. These profound events will haunt Walter for 20 years as he focuses on his coming to terms with his past tragedies and present shortcomings--making for a moving and often funny tale of forgiveness and understanding. Curiously, it is not his love of Balanchine, music and other refined aesthetics that restore a floundering Walter. The anchor he finds is a place, the family summer home on a lake in Wisconsin. It is Hamilton's ability to juxtapose the remarkable against the unremarkable that gives this work its poignancy and grace. --Anne Depue (Running Time: 4 Hours; Four Cassettes)

Book Description

"Jane Hamilton has removed all doubt that she belongs among the major writers of our time."
--San Francisco Chronicle

Set in Jane Hamilton's signature Midwest, The Short History of a Prince is the story of Walter McCloud and his ambition to become a great ballet dancer. With compassion and humor, and alternating between Walter's adolescent and adult voices, the novel tells of Walter's heartbreak as he realizes that his passion cannot make up for the innate talent that he lacks.

Introduced as a child to the genius of Balanchine and the lyricism of Tchaikovsky by his stern but cultured aunt Sue Rawson, Walter has dreamed of growing up to shine in the role of the Prince in The Nutcracker. But as Walter struggles with the limits of his own talent and faces the knowledge that Mitch and Susan, his more gifted friends, have already surpassed him, Daniel, his older brother, awakens one morning with a strange lump on his neck that leads to fearful consequences--and to Walter's realization that a happy family, and a son's place in it, can tragically change overnight. The year that follows will in fact transform the lives not only of the McClouds but also of Susan, who becomes deeply involved with the sick Daniel, and Mitch, the handsome and supremely talented dancer with whom Walter is desperately in love. Into this absorbing narrative Hamilton weaves a place of almost mythical healing, the family's summer home at Lake Margaret, Wisconsin, where for generations the clan has gathered on both happy and unhappy occasions.

Only a writer of Jane Hamilton's sensitivity and humanity could do justice to this moving story of the torments of sexuality and the redemptive power of family and friendship. This book confirms her place as a preeminent novelist of our time.

Customer Reviews:

Ghastly.......2006-06-27

For a work of literary fiction from a much-published author, this is a disaster. Hamilton--like Sinclair Lewis at the end of his career--seems not to grasp that simply fabulating fictional life-stories is not all there is to a novel. Writers of a different calibre (but, like her, devoted to the realist narrative) find moments of insight or tranformation, even if their resolutions are tragic or sorrowful. Hamilton has a knack for finding all the *other* moments--the moments that reveal nothing. No felicitious sentences; no particular hand with dialogue (her characters do not have really distinct voices). Worse yet, she seems committed to subjecting her protagonist to a series of little humiliations and disappointments--not, I think, because she hates him, but because that's the way it came out. She can almost guess what happens between two men in bed, but seems to have no idea, emotionally or psychologically, how they get there, or how such a relationship might operate. At the novel's conclusion, certain plot elements have shifted, but the protagonist, it seems, will keep bumping along, unchanged.
Not every literary novelist need adhere to the essentially 19th-c. model of catharsis and change--look, after all, at Nathalie Sarraute or Claude Simon--but this *is* Hamilton's chosen mode, and this is a very poor exemplar of it.

More Accessible Than Ruth.......2005-05-25

Without question, Jane Hamilton is one of my favorite authors (who could not be moved by "The Book of Ruth"?), but in "A Short History of a Prince", Hamilton rises to a new level of exquisite characterization. Hamilton's graceful lyricism is present as always, rendering the book a charming read whether or not you enjoy the plot - but it is nearly impossible not to do so. Anyone who has every participated in the arts, or at least coddled an impossible dream, can relate to the plight of Walter. In a world in which, tawdry, but uplifting "feel good" books crowd the shelves it is refreshing to read of one who struggles with a dream, fails to achieve it in the physical sense, and yet triumphs internally. Hamilton gently reminds us that true grace lies in humanity and true achievement in how we deal with others. It is a novel about subjects far deeper than dance and far more human than death. It is a novel about life.
Hamilton is a master of characterization. Ruth Grey and Matt (of "The Book of Ruth") are prime examples. But it is the character of Walter that stands out in my mind. He is one of the most fulfilling gay characters I've encountered in literature, proving once and for all, that literature with a gay central character need not be solely concerned with sex and relationships. Instead, Walter is a complex, lovable and slightly pathetic (in a good way, mind you) man who must deal with the real life tragedies of death in the family and unfulfilled dreams.
I enjoyed "A Short History of a Prince" far more than "The Book of Ruth" for several reasons. Partly because it was slightly easier to digest in its general lack of violence and dismal poverty, but mostly because I found Walter to be a character closer to my heart and self. I am not a gay man, but I felt more kinship with Walter than with Ruth. He is less specific than Ruth, more middle class, artistic and introspective. In short, he is me.

It was a short history for me!.......2004-04-01

I couldn't get past page 68. I read the first chapter (1972), and found it OK, but once the second one got going (1995), I started getting very irritated. Walter came across as a malcontent whiny guy, and the characters so far had been less than enticing (Susan seemed slightly egotistical, and Lucy was way too perfect to be real). Another thing that bothered me is the excruciating descriptions that the author goes through about the most minute details. I could tolerate that level of detail when the story carries my interest (We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates is a great example), but in this case I just had to glaze over whole paragraphs describing suburbian neighborhoods. I hate it when I don't finish a book, so I decided to check Amazon reviews and see what other people had said. I'm not so disappointed now. To the author's credit, I didn't see the fact that Walter is gay right away. However, the parallelisms between lesbian aunt Sue Rawson mentoring Walter in his ballet, and then Walter mentoring his niece on hers were too melodramatic. The ending, which I only know about through other people's comments, makes me wonder if Jane Hamilton perhaps wrote this book with Oprah in mind. I really enjoyed The Book of Ruth. It was difficult to go through, but there was something true and compelling about the story and the characters. In this case, though, I wasn't able to find any empathy for anyone or get driven to the story.

A Prince of a Story.......2003-03-29

Hamilton does what she does best, as always, makes us look at ourselves; our limitations, our own fears.
This is the second time I've read "Short History of a Prince"
It was better the second time, because, ofcourse, we see more detail.

The story unfolds back and forth from the 70s to the 90s...For some more inexperienced writers, this may not have worked, but for Hamilton, it did.
Walter is the main character, coming of age in some chapters, a thirty eight year old in others. I love how Hamilton does this, as in the "Book of Ruth" It really allows the reader to understand the characters more clearly.

I enjoy dance and adored Balanchine, so I found the story line centered around the dance world very interesting. I wonder if Hamilton danced once herself or just did her homework on this one.

The story has been woven with family situations, death, dreams, sexual desires (some we may never experience), youth, middle-age, and finally, in the end,
realizing that sometimes what we have is enough...

Love, love, love Hamilton, the messages she sends, Her tenderness, Her ability to allow hope to seep through all of her stories. She does not disappoint in this one either!

More relatable than Ruth.......2002-03-13

Hamilton is a master of characterization. Ruth Grey and Matt (of "The Book of Ruth") are prime examples. But it is the character of Walter that stands out in my mind. He is one of the most fulfilling gay characters I've encountered in literature, proving once and for all, that literature with a gay central character, need not be soley concerned with sex and relationships. Instead, Walter is a complex, lovable and slightly pathetic (in a good way, mind you) man who must deal with the real life tragedies of death in the family and unfulfilled dreams.

Book Description

Tom Meeker is a handsome rookie priest stranded in a dying rural parish. Vidal Stump is a proud, gay half-breed with a criminal record and unlawful desires. Father Meeker must choose between his sacred vows and his secret attraction to this Fancy Dancer who lures him into forbidden love.

First published two decades ago, this provocative, hard-hitting novel was the first bestseller to portray a gay priest and to explore gay life in a small town.

Customer Reviews:

A novel of the struggle between homosexuality and the Church.......2004-09-11

Father Tom Meeker relishes his work at the little parish in Cottonwood, MT, listening to confessions, participating with the church council, feeling grateful to spread God's word. Then, a young Blackfoot Indian named Vidal Stump enters his confessional. A bit wild in his ways and comfortable with his homosexuality, Vidal takes Father Tom on a journey of discovery and reveals to him what he's been trying to hide for a long time.

"The Fancy Dancer" is by no means a tawdry tale of homosexual love. The relationship between Father Tom and Vidal is played out very realistically, dealing not only with their interactions with others but with their inner struggles with themselves. They truly do love each other in every sense of the word.

Warren makes Father Tom's struggles to reconcile his new-found self, tinged by his own feelings guilt, with his love of the Church the center of the novel, revealing insight into the attitudes of the Church toward homosexuality. Surprisingly enough for a novel from 1976, it is very relevant with the state of the world today. And, what I really liked is that this is a positive novel, without the stereotypical ending with death or suicide.

Native American lore.......2003-08-03

While I'm a fan of Warren's, I found the romance between the two men not nearly as interesting as learning about the heritage of The Fancy Dancer. I could almost visualize the dance as it finally occurred.

There are strong religious themes that did not offend me, but might annoy some people who don't give much thought to religious pursuit.

Nothing special.......2002-05-15

Nothing glaringly bad, but absolutely no appeal for me, personally. Although I would love to just find a well-written, current, romantic gay novel, I haven't found it yet. This book was written in the 70's so I suppose I should give it some slack. Also, it felt too religious for my taste.

Once a priest.......2002-03-12

The first time I read this book, I was a confused struggling young man trying to make sense of his sexuality...much like Tom Meeker only without the collar. Now, 24 years later...I'm the priest still struggling to make sense of his sexuality and of love. This book, so poingantly describes the struggle that many of us in the priesthood must contend with as we live closeted lives. Unlike Tom Meeker, I chose to leave rather than stay...but there are many more who have been able to endure issues that Patrician Nell Warren so very accurately and sensitively wrote about in the book. While it is listed as "fiction", there is more truth in these pages than meet the eye. It touched me as well being a native american as I could grasp the world of Fr. Tom AND his lover, Vidal. TEN stars...not just FIVE.

A very good try.......2001-08-28

I think that this book could easily been seen as mediocre except for a couple of simple facts. First, the author is female, which means nothing to my New Critical friends, but I found it interesting how much insight and liberty this author felt she could take in portraying the life of a closeted gay male and his lover. Also, the times in which the book was written made it controversial. I felt some obligation to make my way through the movie just to see how good a job she did. She did better than I think most people did at her time, but I felt books like "Another Country," by James Baldwin, among others captured the energy and fear of gay male before the gay liberation movement. I don't know, I wasn't there. I found the book an important peek into a world I knew very little about, but it is not the best book I have read. I recommend it to those who liked the slower paced novel with the twist of something new. I don't recommend it to those who are expecting a salacious quick novel. A gay classic maybe, but definitely not one of the capstone's of twentieth century literature.

Average customer rating:

A sumptous, evocative tale
review
Boring, A Good Skim, Soap Operas have better story arcs than this!
Anita Nair's best

Mistress: A Novel
Anita Nair
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Indian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312349475
Release Date: 2006-08-08

Book Description

Christopher Stewart, a handsome, young scholar from the U.S. travels to India to interview a famous musician named Koman. Christopher spends a lot of time with Koman and his beautiful, unhappy niece Radha. Radha is blessed with a husband who adores her and a luxurious life; however, shes desperately bored and discontented. She also feels that her materialistic, ambitious husband is an embarrassment. Radhas unhappiness results in an instant connection with Christopher and they begin a passionate affair that will change everyones lives forever.

Customer Reviews:

A sumptous, evocative tale.......2007-08-29

Against the backdrop of Kerala in Southern India, Anjali Nair paints a deeply evocative tale of generations past and present, of locales near and far, of love, honor and betrayal. It is the story of Radha, a woman with modern day skills but still bound by tradition, her husband Shyam, her Uncle Konam ... and Chris who arrives at their resort from the USA.

Radha feels constrained in her marriage of convenience, her artistic soul free to seek self expression only in conversations with the dreamy and philosophical Konam, who has disappointed his family by becoming a famous Kathakali dancer. She is bearly tolerant of Shyam, who she sees as materialistic and boorish, with lowbrow aesthetic tastes. The sudden appearance of Chris in their midst causes her latent vibrance to erupt with volcanic fury of emotions, which changes the relationships she has with all three men.

In a sonorous cadence, Nair introduces in turn each of the nine types of human emotions (as exemplified in the classical dance drama form of Kathakali). She spins her tale from the narratives mainly of Radha, Shyam and Konam, an emotion serving as the theme for each of nine chapters. Radha and Chris (is this a clever update of the iconic Hindu lovers Radha and Krishna?) meet again and again as not-so cladestine lovers while Shyam helplessly watches on and Konam gives the relationship tacit approval.

review.......2007-05-16

It was well written and i kept my interest in the book till the end.

Boring, A Good Skim, Soap Operas have better story arcs than this!.......2006-09-18

The only reason I am glad that I skimmed this book is that now I will not read more by this author.

This story is told in three point of views. First, we have Radha, a young woman who really dislikes her husband. He's more of a driven entrepeneur, and she's got no direction at all and stays that way throughout the book. Her husband, Shyam, who doesn't understand his wife and only wants to possess her. Then we have Radha's uncle, and I skimmed most of his parts, but he's been a famous dancer and is being interviewed by an American man.

Radha and Shyam are so contentious, it reminded me of episodes of The Needlers on Saturday Night Live. It's stomach turning how they don't get along, and frankly I kept waiting for her to leave him already!

If you are a fan of this author's books, don't read on because I am about to summarize the book in order to save other readers the time.

1. Couple doesn't get along.
2. Enter strange and facinating American. The wife has a torrid affair with him.
3. Young American is in India to invterview wife's uncle.
4. I couldn't stay awake to read all of Uncle's passages, but he has this "feeling" he knows this young American. ((This part felt so cliche to me))
5. The wife gets pregnant from the torrid affair, but finds she doesn't love the not so facinating American anymore.
6. The uncle and young American do have a connection. ((Gee what a surprise))
7. The wife leaves her husband and does not stay with her American lover either. ((Gee, what another surprise!!))

OK, so there you have it.

Anita Nair's best.......2006-09-09

I enjoyed both The Ladies' Coupe and The Better Man, but I think this is Anita Nair's best novel to date. Universal themes about marriage are explored, as well as the nature of art and the importance of family ties. Set in lush Kerala, it is well worth reading. The language and nuanced emotions are beautiful and compelling.

Average customer rating:

Riveting
A Dancer's Psyche Explored
The Ultimate Dancer
Superb fictional look at Nureyev from McCann
A riveting and moving novel

Dancer: A Novel
Colum McCann
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312423187

Book Description

Taking his inspiration from biographical facts, novelist Colum McCann tells the erotically charged story of the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev through the cast of those who knew him: there is Anna Vasileva, Rudi's first ballet teacher, who rescues her protégé from the stunted life of his provincial town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-sanctioned marriage; and Victor, the Venezuelan street hustler, who reveals the lurid underside of the gay celebrity set. Spanning four decades and many worlds, from the horrors of the Second World War to the wild abandon of New York in the eighties, Dancer is peopled by a large cast of characters, obscure and famous: doormen and shoemakers, nurses and translators, Margot Fonteyn, Eric Bruhn and John Lennon. And at the heart of the spectacle stands the artist himself, willful, lustful, and driven by a never-to-be-met need for perfection.

Customer Reviews:

Riveting.......2006-12-02

This is one of the best written books I have read in a long time. Collum McCann's writing style just blew me away. In his book Dancer McCann wrote an entire chapter without one single period! The author uses only question marks and exclamation marks! Amazing! Rudolph Nureyev was a great dancer, a complex pesonality, a paradigm of his times. McCann's Nureyev is someone the reader will never forget. This book was just a marvelous read!

A Dancer's Psyche Explored.......2006-11-24

In my possession is an old and increasingly fragile newspaper clipping which depicts a portrait photograph. The face had been captured in a three-quarters profile, the strong chin uplifted slightly to suggest a bold self-confidence. The large, clear eyes were heavily lined in kohl. The mouth was full and perfectly formed, and the thin scar intersecting the upper lip added an unintentional defiance which seemed to say "I am beautiful despite the harshness of this world."

I was barely out of childhood when I came across this photograph in a newspaper. I can remember quite clearly how I sat before the open page and stared and stared and stared. I could not turn away from this image. The name of Rudolf Nureyev was only vaguely familiar to me then - but what a face! To consign it to the pile of discarded newspapers which were used, in our home, to wrap up vegetable peelings or food scraps before placing them in the refuge bin seemed some kind of subtle crime. And so very carefully I snipped out this image and saved it.

I was too young then to have any understanding of my own fascination with this particular face. My own reaction seemed almost mystical to me then. All I knew, at the time, was that Rudolf Nureyev was simply the most beautiful man I had ever seen.

This carefully hidden newspaper clipping launched an interest in ballet which lasts to this day. An interest which drew me to read Colum McCann's vivid and stylish fictionalised biography of the dancer who defected from Communist Russia and became the darling of the Western world. The book could be easily read simply as a novel which charts the life of a rugged and determined boy for whom poverty could not quench an instinctive love of music. He danced to entertain soldiers who sometimes threw him coins. He took lessons in secret, and learned how to carve out a career for himself in one of the most ruthless and demanding of all the arts.

One particular passage, (beginning on page 84 of my copy), opens with the phrase, "You see him on Rossi Street with his boots high on his calves, and his long red scarf trailing the ground behind him...", and goes on to describe Nureyev through the eyes of another, less talented ballet student. This section is exceptionally well-written, I think - in fact, I was so impressed with it that I read it aloud at a meeting of Riverside Writers as an example of good contemporary character description.

An attention-holding novel, and an intriguing insight into the creative mind of a complex and sometimes difficult character.

The Ultimate Dancer.......2005-05-26

Dancer is a fictional biography of the great Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev written by Colum McCann and is told by people who knew him or had the chance of meeting him .It is a charming book and it makes the reader feel as if the reader were with him when he lived his extraordinary life.We first see Rudi in a hospital ward while he was dancing for Russian soldiers wounded in World War II in a amateur group.Then altough his father forbade him to dance, his wish to dance and his teachers' support took him to Moscow.Later first visit to Paris,escaping from Russia,life in Paris,London,New York...
He was perfectionist and he fell in love with another perfectionist,male dancer Eric Bruhn.He danced with lots of famous ballerinas but one of them became his lifelong friend and best partner;Margot Fonteyn.

Before I read this fictional book of McCann I just knew that Rudolf Nureyev was just a dancer but later I learned that he was more than this.Sometimes a man missing his family, sometimes a man determined to be the ultimate dancer... But the most important is C. McCann's fabulous writing made me feel the spirit of the greatest of all dancers.

Superb fictional look at Nureyev from McCann.......2005-05-11

Colum McCann's "Dancer", a fictitious biography of acclaimed 20th Century dancer Rudolf Nureyev, is quite simply the author's finest work of fiction to date. This is truly an engrossing, often mesmerizing, exploration of the dancer's life as seen through the eyes of his family and friends from his childhood to the end of an artistically triumphant life tragically cut short by AIDS. The son of impoverished Muslim Tatar peasants, we meet the young "Rudik" dancing for Russian troops in the waning days of World War II. His teachers in his hometown and then later, in Lenningrad, recognize that here is someone who is destined to dance, culminating with his admittance into the company of Lenningrad's celebrated Kirov Ballet. His Paris defection only leads the young Rudolf Nureyev into scaling Mount Everests of international artistic triumphs, culminating with his dancing with acclaimed ballerina Margot Fonteyn at London's Covent Garden. But perhaps more fascinating is the dark side of Nureyev's personality, which McCann has captured vividly, showing the artist's arrogance and decadent behavior, including his brutal treatment of friends, colleagues and especially, lovers, such as acclaimed fellow dancer Erik Buhn. We see him sink into the seedy underground of New York City's homosexual-dominated sexual pleasure industry in the 1970s, while managing to keep his homosexuality a closely held secret. I concur completely with my former high school teacher Frank McCourt's glowing assessment of "Dancer" on the novel's book jacket as having "... the wingspan of a great Russian novel, which is only fitting for an imagined life of Rudolf Nureyev."

A riveting and moving novel.......2005-02-09

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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