Hiding

by Norma Klein

Book by Klein, Norma

Genres: Young Adult

Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Norma Klein was born in New York City and graduated cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College with a degree in Russian. She later received her master's degree in Slavic languages from Columbia University.

Ms. Klein began publishing short stories while attending Barnard and since then she had written novels for readers of all ages. The author got her ideas from everyday life and advised would-be writers to do the same -- to write about their experiences or things they really care about.

Ms. Klein died in 1989.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. This is the kind of book that would have disturbed me had I read it in junior high. The execution is a mess, a first-person narrative with an unintentionally confused sense of time (reading almost autobiographically? I wonder..). Most notable is that it is fairly stream-of-consciousness yet employs exactly NO emotional content -- and it's impossible to tell if that is by design or mistake. It is very weird. The protagonist, Krii (??), comes from an emotionally distant family and is very hung up about sex. She's an American high school graduate starting ballet school in London and gets involved with a male dancer there. The book is basically just her talking to herself about her issues. There is a lot of intriguing sexual content, though really least of all with her and her first lover. After things fall apart, she runs off and appears to come to some conclusions that are a bit blurry from the reader's perspective. It's as if the character knows what's going on, and is telling you, but somehow you really don't end up with any understanding of her. And yet I kind of liked it? I'm not sure. The whole thing is a mystery.

[elissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read and enjoyed some of Klein's younger books (for elementary and middle school readers) when I found this one at the bookstore. It was probably a little old for me at the time, but I didn't mind. I think I literally read parts of this one with my eyes wide open (popping out?). :)

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof this is depressing beyond measure!

[Reading with Cats · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dear lord, what did I just read? This was completely off-the-rails bonkers.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s been a few days since I finished this book, and I still don’t know what I think. This story was published in 1976 and is about an 18-year-old girl, Krii, who moves to London to study ballet (rather than go to college as her parents would prefer). Her father lives in England, and her mother in New York, though they are still married, and Krii is used to spending summers with him. (Wow, the parents in this book are something else.)

Right at the beginning, Krii is thinking about her sister’s marriage and husband, and she imagines her sister wanting her to finally have an affair because “then she'll realize that sexual relationships are composed of bullying and violence and that's all part of it” (17). That makes my stomach turn. The acceptance of it.

The blurb on the front cover says it’s “a profoundly sensitive story of first love,” but I had a hard time believing there was any love between Krii and Jonathan, who is a choreographer and “almost thirty.” It’s an odd story because at only 124 pages, we jump right into their relationship without getting to know them at all. I never get a full sense of them as a couple, just that Krii has always been reserved and Jonathan is frustrated that she doesn’t show more passion in bed. Krii doesn’t feel like she will ever get married or have children. And then, spoiler, less than halfway through the book, Jonathan makes a rather shocking decision, and their relationship is, mostly, over. Do we care? Not really. But Krii is rather lost, and that’s what the story focuses on. And then at the end--are we supposed to be rooting for them? Or screaming at Krii to come to her senses? I mean, the last line about seeing things clearly…but she’s questioning her decision. It’s all pretty contradictory and unclear to me.

Klein’s books are always extraordinarily candid in that 70s and 80s way, but this one also feels almost devoid of feeling, very detached. As soon as I formulated that idea for myself, I read this sentence: “Women are never detached…and men always are” (45). Huh! Krii thinks of herself as having “diffidence” (modest or shy because of a lack of self-confidence) rather than “innocence or detachment” as Jonathan thinks (58). I don’t think Krii lacks self-confidence, and I think it’s really rather relatable that the quiet one who hasn’t dated is perceived as aloof or stuck up.

Here’s a paragraph that is a bit chilling in 2025, and I wanted to preserve it here:

“If I hadn't been born in this particular century, or especially this particular decade, none of this would be such a problem. I would be comfortably ringed around with taboos. There would be constant “don't touch” or “don't think,” and abstinence would be looked upon with great approval. I feel that all these laws which liberalize abortion and improve birth control are fine, but they sound my death knell. They remove, one by one, all my excuses. Maybe someday soon there’ll be some hideous era of reaction and repression and I'll be saved. But I somehow doubt it” (40).

[Hilary Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book that I read over and over as a teen and young adult. It’s probably out of date fir kids now, but something in it haunted me.
Krii Halliday is studying ballet and trying to remain unobtrusive when she meets Jonathan, a choreographer who pursues her—making some of her fellow ballerinas jealous.

The book is really about Krii’s lifelong pursuit to be invisible, avoiding relationships, friendships, and other connections Later in life, I realized that Krii (who at one point hides in her parents’ attic for a week or so) has an attachment disorder.

I think this is a sensitive portrait of a shy person who is working through trauma by herself.

[Zoey Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books as a young teen. I read it over and over. The main character, Krii Halliday, has spent her life hiding in various ways. A relationship with Jonathan wakes her up, but she is still compelled to hide emotionally.
This book is a perceptive portrait of a woman who has a tendency towards avoidant attachment. It also delves into the mystery of sex for the uninitiated. I think it is more relevant to Gen Xers like me than to Milkennials or Gen Zers, but it spoke to me.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started out hating this 1976 YA novel and wondering what on earth was going on with Norma Klein when she wrote it, since she was a total genius. Then, about a third of the way through, the book won me over. It's a stream-of-consciousness story about an 18 year old ballet student whose boyfriend is a choreographer at her school. He's an absolute monster (but that's not the main character's assessment) and she starts cracking up.

[WillowRaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this while I was in middle school (late 1970s) and I remember reading a lot of books by Norma Klein because I really loved her stories and, being in a dysfunctional home, could relate to a lot of the family dynamics in the books.... this book was no different. At some point, I'd like to re-read her books. I would highly recommend them to those in middle school and high school.

[lunarlibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weeding final.
Opening in this book means exploring a girl's world -- a girl who dances ballet, shies away from human encounter, struggles with trust and sex ... but I have never met a character who can describe their cognitive processes and realization so accurately and true to form.