{"id":5032,"date":"2014-04-08T11:05:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T11:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=5032"},"modified":"2014-04-28T11:37:19","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T11:37:19","slug":"astonish-me-by-maggie-shipstead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=5032","title":{"rendered":"Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Knopf 8 April 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

272pp, hardback, $25.95<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love you more \u2013 or less, or different: those central yet rarely articulated balances of commitment and affection are the themes of Maggie Shipstead\u2019s second novel. Her debut, Seating Arrangements<\/em> – http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=1127 – was an intricate comic ensemble which won the Dylan Thomas and other awards, but this new book, set in the world of ballet in the US, is a more conventional and less humorous tale, intricate only in its non-chronological arrangement of chopped episodes spread across several decades.<\/p>\n

The central character, Joan, is a good but not great dancer who has earned her fame more as the helpmeet and lover of a Nureyev-esque (but straight) Russian dancer, Arslan Rusakov, than for her art.\u00a0 The Russian, a promiscuous and self-centered soul, was happy to involve her in his defection to the West, then moved on to other loves and better partners after freedom was gained and Joan\u2019s dance limitations became apparent.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another man in Joan\u2019s life, Jacob, the nerdy boy she\u2019s known since childhood, whose admiration she has accepted as a given. To Jacob\u2019s delight, Joan chooses to marry him and give birth to their son, Harry. As the decades pass, Joan learns to love Jacob although never with the scorching intensity of her passion for Arslan. Meanwhile Harry has become the focus of both parents\u2019 aspirations, Jacob\u2019s for the best academic fulfilment of his child\u2019s evident gifts, Joan\u2019s that he might have the talent to dance.<\/p>\n

As with novels located in the theatre, ballet stories seem often to inhabit a narrow character range, leaning towards the stereotype, and Astonish Me, <\/em>with its imperious star dancers, gay choreographers and besotted ing\u00e9nues, doesn\u2019t entirely dodge those bullets.<\/p>\n

Where Shipstead talents shine undimmed are in the relishably piercing quality of her insights and the freshness of her imagery. If this novel\u2019s schematic steps lead to a symmetrical conclusion where the author\u2019s overworked plot line is a little too visible, the quality of Shipstead\u2019s prose acts as a significant counterbalance. Readable and cleverly woven, Astonish Me<\/em> makes for satisfying, intelligent escapism: perfect for next summer\u2019s beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/p>\n

The central character, Joan, is a good but not great dancer who has earned her fame more as the helpmeet and lover of a Nureyev-esque (but straight) Russian dancer, Arslan Rusakov, than for her art. The Russian, a promiscuous and self-centered soul, was happy to involve her in his defection to the West, then moved on to other loves and better partners after freedom was gained and Joan\u2019s dance limitations became apparent […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5032"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5059,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032\/revisions\/5059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}