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Dance Move
Following the prize-winning Sweet Home, Wendy Erskine's Belfast is once again illuminated. Meet Drew Lord Haig, called on to sing an obscure hit from his youth at a paramilitary event. Meet Max as he recalls an eventful journey to a Christian film festival. And Mrs Dallesandro who dreams of being a teenager again as she sits in a tanning salon on her wedding anniversary. In these stories, Erskine's characters' wishes and hopes often fall short of their grasp. Brilliantly drawn, Dance Move is about the hugeness of life as seen through glimpses of the everyday.
223 pages, Paperback
First published February 17, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
January 29, 2022
This is my first experience of Wendy Erksine's short stories set in Northern Ireland, and I can only marvel at her abilities to capture people, painting authentic pictures of their characters with so few words and the wide range of circumstances they find themselves in, including within families, their pasts, traumas, feelings, relationships, the unexpected, the tragedies, the idiosyncratic, and the joys. She has a real ear for dialogue, there is dark humour and humanity in her astutely observed, unvarnished and insightful writing. Despite the short length of the stories, Erskine had me totally immersed in the worlds she creates, and the characters and scenarios she imagines.
To give you a taste of her fiction, we have Roberta who cleans short lets for a living, working for Mr Dalzell, who finds a young girl that she takes home, kitting her and buying her supplies, and taking her to school, finding herself reflecting on her own difficulties at school. We follow Mrs Dallesandro, her preparations for celebrating her 23rd wedding anniversary and her significant memories of her past, Marty and Rhonda attend a birthday party at her sister's home, and a mother is intent on removing the missing posters of her son, Curtis, noticing, almost indignantly, that there are now new posters of the latest missing person. Kate struggles with her rebellious 13 year old daughter, Clara (who has no intention of doing ballet), and her unsuitable friend, Stacey, knowing she will have to take over the care of her brother, Mark, on the death of her parents.
An academic film professor gives a lift to a care home employee to a film festival, only for them to come across an accident, and a young man on a work placement in Belfast finds himself in a surprising relationship, even acquiring an inheritance, from the woman he stays with. There was not a story I did not like, and amongst my favourites are Bildungsroman and Momento Mori. A fantastic short story collection that I recommend highly. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
To give you a taste of her fiction, we have Roberta who cleans short lets for a living, working for Mr Dalzell, who finds a young girl that she takes home, kitting her and buying her supplies, and taking her to school, finding herself reflecting on her own difficulties at school. We follow Mrs Dallesandro, her preparations for celebrating her 23rd wedding anniversary and her significant memories of her past, Marty and Rhonda attend a birthday party at her sister's home, and a mother is intent on removing the missing posters of her son, Curtis, noticing, almost indignantly, that there are now new posters of the latest missing person. Kate struggles with her rebellious 13 year old daughter, Clara (who has no intention of doing ballet), and her unsuitable friend, Stacey, knowing she will have to take over the care of her brother, Mark, on the death of her parents.
An academic film professor gives a lift to a care home employee to a film festival, only for them to come across an accident, and a young man on a work placement in Belfast finds himself in a surprising relationship, even acquiring an inheritance, from the woman he stays with. There was not a story I did not like, and amongst my favourites are Bildungsroman and Momento Mori. A fantastic short story collection that I recommend highly. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
November 30, 2024
Wendy Erskine’s excellent debut short-story collection “Sweet Home” was shortlisted for the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize (I had read it earlier – in late 2018).
Coming three years later to this, her second collection (to be published in 2022 by Picador in the UK and Stinging Fly in Ireland) I was struck by how much the review I wrote of “Sweet Home” could equally serve for this equally strong collection.
In my review I tried to describe what I saw as her signature technique as “what is unspoken or at best gradually acknowledged, to create in the reader an empathetic reaction to the character’s behavior when viewed in the context of their past (a past, often hinging in a single event, which leads to a feeling of exclusion or loss).” and further went on to say that one of the characters (when discussing a fictionally famously obscure pop star’s – Gil Courtney’s - music) inadvertently gave a perfect review of what the author herself achieves:
“It just, what it does is, it just – penetrates to the heart of what it means to be lonely, or in love or to feel a failure … a total affirmation of what it is to be alive …. There’s warmth there and there’s strangeness there”
In this collection (like the first all set in Northern Ireland) in addition I felt there was a sense of life lived elsewhere – another place, another time or by other people or other generations.
“Mathematics” – a girl who struggled at school and who now works as a cleaner for various short term rental properties, finds a small girl abandoned in one property and temporarily befriends her – the girls maths homework reminding her of her own difficulties as a child.
“Mrs Dallesandro” – is about a trip the wife of a well known Italian-origin solicitor takes to get ready for a party, remembering an encounter she had as a teenager with a boy with bad burns
“Golem” – is the story of a couple going to the birthday party of the wife’s sister (the latter has a child and a richer husband) – and we see the thoughts, worries and fantasies of the main characters.
“His Mother” is a deeply moving story of the mother of a missing-teenager (later discovered dead) and her obsessive quest to remove the “missing person” posters that still remain.
“Dance Move” features a married woman whose brother was left paralysed in an accident (and who knows on her parent’s death she will inherit his care) – as she struggles with the developing physicality and nascent sexuality of her teenage daughter.
“Gloria and Max” is a short piece about an English Professor of Film who travels to a planning event for a film festival with a carer from a chain of care homes (whose residents are going to be the main audience) and a disconcerting incident that occurs on their journey.
“Bildungsroman” is a story about a man who forms a life long bond with a woman (a famliy friend) who stays with for a few days while on a work placement scheme – the bond around something she has been asked to store in her house.
“Cell” was perhaps the oddest story and my least favourite – of a girl from a middle class family who decides to travel to London to study and there falls in with an exploitative couple posing as leftist revolutionaries and a bond she later starts to form with her niece.
“Nostalgie” links in some ways to Gil Courtney of “Sweet Home”, but is excellent in its own right – a little known pop star is asked to attend a party specifically to play the B-side “Nostalgie de la Boue” (attraction to what is depraved or degrading”) of his top 30 hit – except that the invite is from a non disbanded paramilitary battalion for whom the song became something of an accidental anthem.
“Momento Mori” was perhaps my highlight – a woman mourning the death of her own girlfriend and long time companion, has to deal with her garden wall being something of a pilgrimage site due to the brutal death of a young teenager nearby.
“Secrets Bonita Beach Krystal Cancun” (the only story previously published – in an anthology) is about two friends who meet for a takeway each Friday and one of their reflections when the other (a paramedic) goes on holiday to Mexico with a man she has met.
Recommended to all “Sweet Home” fans – and to those who have not yet encountered Wendy Erskine’s work – buy them both.
My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC via NetGalley
Coming three years later to this, her second collection (to be published in 2022 by Picador in the UK and Stinging Fly in Ireland) I was struck by how much the review I wrote of “Sweet Home” could equally serve for this equally strong collection.
In my review I tried to describe what I saw as her signature technique as “what is unspoken or at best gradually acknowledged, to create in the reader an empathetic reaction to the character’s behavior when viewed in the context of their past (a past, often hinging in a single event, which leads to a feeling of exclusion or loss).” and further went on to say that one of the characters (when discussing a fictionally famously obscure pop star’s – Gil Courtney’s - music) inadvertently gave a perfect review of what the author herself achieves:
“It just, what it does is, it just – penetrates to the heart of what it means to be lonely, or in love or to feel a failure … a total affirmation of what it is to be alive …. There’s warmth there and there’s strangeness there”
In this collection (like the first all set in Northern Ireland) in addition I felt there was a sense of life lived elsewhere – another place, another time or by other people or other generations.
“Mathematics” – a girl who struggled at school and who now works as a cleaner for various short term rental properties, finds a small girl abandoned in one property and temporarily befriends her – the girls maths homework reminding her of her own difficulties as a child.
“Mrs Dallesandro” – is about a trip the wife of a well known Italian-origin solicitor takes to get ready for a party, remembering an encounter she had as a teenager with a boy with bad burns
“Golem” – is the story of a couple going to the birthday party of the wife’s sister (the latter has a child and a richer husband) – and we see the thoughts, worries and fantasies of the main characters.
“His Mother” is a deeply moving story of the mother of a missing-teenager (later discovered dead) and her obsessive quest to remove the “missing person” posters that still remain.
“Dance Move” features a married woman whose brother was left paralysed in an accident (and who knows on her parent’s death she will inherit his care) – as she struggles with the developing physicality and nascent sexuality of her teenage daughter.
“Gloria and Max” is a short piece about an English Professor of Film who travels to a planning event for a film festival with a carer from a chain of care homes (whose residents are going to be the main audience) and a disconcerting incident that occurs on their journey.
“Bildungsroman” is a story about a man who forms a life long bond with a woman (a famliy friend) who stays with for a few days while on a work placement scheme – the bond around something she has been asked to store in her house.
“Cell” was perhaps the oddest story and my least favourite – of a girl from a middle class family who decides to travel to London to study and there falls in with an exploitative couple posing as leftist revolutionaries and a bond she later starts to form with her niece.
“Nostalgie” links in some ways to Gil Courtney of “Sweet Home”, but is excellent in its own right – a little known pop star is asked to attend a party specifically to play the B-side “Nostalgie de la Boue” (attraction to what is depraved or degrading”) of his top 30 hit – except that the invite is from a non disbanded paramilitary battalion for whom the song became something of an accidental anthem.
“Momento Mori” was perhaps my highlight – a woman mourning the death of her own girlfriend and long time companion, has to deal with her garden wall being something of a pilgrimage site due to the brutal death of a young teenager nearby.
“Secrets Bonita Beach Krystal Cancun” (the only story previously published – in an anthology) is about two friends who meet for a takeway each Friday and one of their reflections when the other (a paramedic) goes on holiday to Mexico with a man she has met.
Recommended to all “Sweet Home” fans – and to those who have not yet encountered Wendy Erskine’s work – buy them both.
My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC via NetGalley
February 13, 2022
(4.5) More excellent stories, including her best yet, 'Cell', which somehow in the space of 40 pages manages to be about most things.
August 31, 2022
When Linda went into the amusement place she saw that the ghost train was still there. A straggly little queue waited to be not very scared. She put her money in the machine to get a metal cascade of tokens and then she tried a couple of the Penny Falls machines, losing and winning and losing again. There were bells ringing, electronic squelches from the machines, disco music echoing in the big hall. She thought of Mike and Rae in the Wellness Centre at the Secrets Bonita Beach Krystal Cancun.
Wendy Erskine’s debut short story collection Sweet Home was shortlisted for the 2019 Republic of Consciouness Prize, perhaps the UK and Ireland’s finest literary award, a prize for which this year (2022) Erskine is a judge.
My review of Sweet Home commented that the collection was perhaps a little more conventional than I might associate with the RofC Prize but that “Erskine's stories are typically around 20 pages long, and what is most impressive is how, in that limited amount of words, she manages to create genuinely engaging characters, in whose story the reader becomes emotionally invested. Her modus operandi is typically to provide her characters with a backstory, usually a past trauma, which only gradually emerges in the story and explains their current behaviour.”
Dance Move, her 2nd collection, builds on the strengths of the first with 11 stories in 224 pages. Short story collections can be of mixed quality but here every story works, my personal favourite Memento Mori, wonderfully sketched and the ending a literal punch in the face, as well as including a side-character called Wendy, a short-story writer (at her book launch her friends admit to relative indifference: “Although they had all bought the book, dutifully, they agreed that they didn’t read short stories, or even like them all that much.”)
See Gumble Yard's excellent review for an overview of each story: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Recommended
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.
Wendy Erskine’s debut short story collection Sweet Home was shortlisted for the 2019 Republic of Consciouness Prize, perhaps the UK and Ireland’s finest literary award, a prize for which this year (2022) Erskine is a judge.
My review of Sweet Home commented that the collection was perhaps a little more conventional than I might associate with the RofC Prize but that “Erskine's stories are typically around 20 pages long, and what is most impressive is how, in that limited amount of words, she manages to create genuinely engaging characters, in whose story the reader becomes emotionally invested. Her modus operandi is typically to provide her characters with a backstory, usually a past trauma, which only gradually emerges in the story and explains their current behaviour.”
Dance Move, her 2nd collection, builds on the strengths of the first with 11 stories in 224 pages. Short story collections can be of mixed quality but here every story works, my personal favourite Memento Mori, wonderfully sketched and the ending a literal punch in the face, as well as including a side-character called Wendy, a short-story writer (at her book launch her friends admit to relative indifference: “Although they had all bought the book, dutifully, they agreed that they didn’t read short stories, or even like them all that much.”)
See Gumble Yard's excellent review for an overview of each story: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Recommended
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.
February 9, 2022
4.5 rounded down
This is a bold statement to make but I reckon Wendy Erskine is a contemporary master of the short story. I thoroughly enjoyed her debut collection, Sweet Home published in 2018, and this new collection is a comparable - maybe even better - in terms of bringing together an excellent selection of stories of contemporary Northern Ireland.
I love that the stories are almost exclusively centred around female protagonists, including many in middle age. The most memorable include the titular story which follows a mother who is struggling to deal with her daughter's teenage years (the tension in this story was palpable!), "His Mother" which centres on a mother roaming the streets in the wake of her son's disappearance, and "Momento Mori" which follows a couple whose almost literal front doorstep becomes the site of an awful incident and the fallout that takes place after this incident occurs.
Highly recommended! I'm already excited to see what Erskine writes next.
Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan/Picador for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
This is a bold statement to make but I reckon Wendy Erskine is a contemporary master of the short story. I thoroughly enjoyed her debut collection, Sweet Home published in 2018, and this new collection is a comparable - maybe even better - in terms of bringing together an excellent selection of stories of contemporary Northern Ireland.
I love that the stories are almost exclusively centred around female protagonists, including many in middle age. The most memorable include the titular story which follows a mother who is struggling to deal with her daughter's teenage years (the tension in this story was palpable!), "His Mother" which centres on a mother roaming the streets in the wake of her son's disappearance, and "Momento Mori" which follows a couple whose almost literal front doorstep becomes the site of an awful incident and the fallout that takes place after this incident occurs.
Highly recommended! I'm already excited to see what Erskine writes next.
Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan/Picador for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Read
December 16, 2021Wendy Erskine writes a damn good story. She accomplishes something rare in having a style so distinctive that, just a few sentences in, each story is unmistakably hers ... all the while appearing to be very light on style. There’s an ease that conveys so much enjoyment to the reader: we are permitted in without ID checks; we're invited to take part in questionable dance moves ... and cancellably sexy ones ... And there’s that bone-dry, characteristic humour borne of a sensibility and place and culture that’s idiosyncratic as all good, vibrant, storied things.
July 15, 2022
Another brilliant collection by another brilliant Irish writer. What impresses most is the range of character and milieu - from University professors to cleaners to old one hit wonder pop stars to Marxist commune dwellers. I read and enjoyed her first collection 'Sweet Home', but I think this is a step up.
December 12, 2025
Wendy Erskine creates such incredibly unique characters but importantly I could imagine encountering any of them on the glider and I think that is what really sold this for me
February 6, 2022
Wendy Erskine's debut, Sweet Home, is one of my favourite short story collections ever, so I was thrilled to find out that she had another one coming out in 2022. Dance Move has all the trademark Erskine things that made Sweet Home so memorable: the stripped back, direct writing style, the incisive narratives that meander even as they cut to the heart of the matter. But something about this collection just didn't click with me. Most of its stories left me either confused or underwhelmed. Either way, my main reaction was mostly just, okay...?, and that is not the reaction you want to have after finishing a short story. As to why I felt this way, I genuinely have no idea. The writing was good, and the narratives weren't poorly constructed or anything, but as a whole package, something about these stories didn't work for me.
My favourite story was easily "Mrs Dallesandro"; it was the one I found the most memorable, and the one that really stuck with me as I was going through the collection. The other stories, not so much: I remember the broadstrokes of some of them, and the others I just completely forgot about (and it's only been a month since I finished this collection).
Am I disappointed to be giving this collection a 3-star rating? Absolutely. I really thought Dance Move was going to be a sure winner, especially since I loved Sweet Home so much. But alas, twas not meant to be.
Thanks so much to Picador for providing me with an eARC of this via Netgalley!
My favourite story was easily "Mrs Dallesandro"; it was the one I found the most memorable, and the one that really stuck with me as I was going through the collection. The other stories, not so much: I remember the broadstrokes of some of them, and the others I just completely forgot about (and it's only been a month since I finished this collection).
Am I disappointed to be giving this collection a 3-star rating? Absolutely. I really thought Dance Move was going to be a sure winner, especially since I loved Sweet Home so much. But alas, twas not meant to be.
Thanks so much to Picador for providing me with an eARC of this via Netgalley!
March 10, 2022
I have to admit I am not really a reader of short stories. I’m just not very good at diving into separate stories that have nothing to do with each other within a book. I almost always want more after finishing a story, to learn more about certain characters. Two stories I really liked were ‘Cell’ and ‘Mathematics’. If they would have the length of a novel, I would certainly read both!
Thank you Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the ARC.
Thank you Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the ARC.
January 1, 2023
I read Wendy Erskine’s first collection of short stories Sweet Home in 2019. This latest collection carries on where the last selection left off. I’m a fan of Erskine’s writing though the same old caveat about short stories persists with me. The ones that are really good leave me wanting more character development and a slower burn.
I heard Wendy Erskine speak at the Irish Writers Weekend in London (26.11.2022). In conversation she said:
• WE gets to know her characters as the story develops and takes on a momentum of its own – ‘it’s a bit Doris Stokes’. The example of the title story given to the collection is a case in point. In Dance Moves the mother is not able to move with the times. WE hadn’t initially seen that connection
• WE writing routine is to write a much too wordy 20,000 word first draft which is then pared to 6,000 words to then assess what’s of interest
• The story Momento Mori does indeed reflect Wendy at her own book launch. She was having a bit of auto fiction fun writing this one.
When I spoke to WE after the event I remarked on a character in Golem who says, of the author’s (female) picture on back flap of the book : “if it was a woman who looked like she wasn’t making an effort then she knew she wouldn’t like the contents” . Its no surprise that WE has final say on the publicity shots on her inside book flaps!!
It's difficult to write a review of a book of short stories unless it’s a collection in which a theme is running throughout and connecting the stories. That’s not the case with this collection whose stories stand alone. If I was trying to find some recurring essence in the stories with which to summarise Erskine’s writing I would say that she explores and examines what is going on behind, or beneath a respectable or unremarkable veneer. People’s secrets don’t easily reveal themselves, people are exploitative of others, and often the sinister and corrupt shamelessly use the vulnerable.
It sounds downbeat, but the output is anything but depressing, and praise is due to Wendy Erskine for her acute observations, drawn from people watching.
I heard Wendy Erskine speak at the Irish Writers Weekend in London (26.11.2022). In conversation she said:
• WE gets to know her characters as the story develops and takes on a momentum of its own – ‘it’s a bit Doris Stokes’. The example of the title story given to the collection is a case in point. In Dance Moves the mother is not able to move with the times. WE hadn’t initially seen that connection
• WE writing routine is to write a much too wordy 20,000 word first draft which is then pared to 6,000 words to then assess what’s of interest
• The story Momento Mori does indeed reflect Wendy at her own book launch. She was having a bit of auto fiction fun writing this one.
When I spoke to WE after the event I remarked on a character in Golem who says, of the author’s (female) picture on back flap of the book : “if it was a woman who looked like she wasn’t making an effort then she knew she wouldn’t like the contents” . Its no surprise that WE has final say on the publicity shots on her inside book flaps!!
It's difficult to write a review of a book of short stories unless it’s a collection in which a theme is running throughout and connecting the stories. That’s not the case with this collection whose stories stand alone. If I was trying to find some recurring essence in the stories with which to summarise Erskine’s writing I would say that she explores and examines what is going on behind, or beneath a respectable or unremarkable veneer. People’s secrets don’t easily reveal themselves, people are exploitative of others, and often the sinister and corrupt shamelessly use the vulnerable.
It sounds downbeat, but the output is anything but depressing, and praise is due to Wendy Erskine for her acute observations, drawn from people watching.
Read
September 10, 2024A mixture of conversations to enjoy, treasure and avoid.
April 25, 2022
These past couple of weeks, I have been dancing around Ireland and Hungary with Wendy Erskine and her latest collection Dance Move. First I took it around Kerry and Dingle, then on a weekend in Hungary. And wow were there some surprise moves hidden in it!
Wendy Erskine has an unquestionable talent in concentrating a whole town or a country into a single story, along with all its hidden nuances and cultural meanings. Not just that, she is able to pack a historical event into the lives of people in a town and then throw all of that into a story. And you’ll feel every bit of it. It’s exactly this ability she has of conveying emotions and histories in just a few sentences that keeps drawing me to her stories and makes me expect each next collection of hers impatiently.
Erskine’s writing is clear and precise, without any tricks or gimmicks. Her language doesn’t obscure or unveil. Her words just add up and build a story as if building a wall, layer by layer, as you stand and watch it all grow. Her stories draw you in and you can’t stop reading until you get so close to what she’s built that you scrape your nose against it. In a good way!
For me, Wendy Erskine is the new voice of Northern Ireland and I can’t wait for her next collection!
Personal favourites: Mathematics, His Mother, Nostalgie, Memento Mori
Wendy Erskine has an unquestionable talent in concentrating a whole town or a country into a single story, along with all its hidden nuances and cultural meanings. Not just that, she is able to pack a historical event into the lives of people in a town and then throw all of that into a story. And you’ll feel every bit of it. It’s exactly this ability she has of conveying emotions and histories in just a few sentences that keeps drawing me to her stories and makes me expect each next collection of hers impatiently.
Erskine’s writing is clear and precise, without any tricks or gimmicks. Her language doesn’t obscure or unveil. Her words just add up and build a story as if building a wall, layer by layer, as you stand and watch it all grow. Her stories draw you in and you can’t stop reading until you get so close to what she’s built that you scrape your nose against it. In a good way!
For me, Wendy Erskine is the new voice of Northern Ireland and I can’t wait for her next collection!
Personal favourites: Mathematics, His Mother, Nostalgie, Memento Mori
April 23, 2023
Either I’m beginning to ‘get’ short stories or it’s more obvious what these are about… everyone in these seems ultimately to be a bit sad and leading disappointing lives for one reason or another. Not sure they are uplifting!
February 4, 2023
wendy erskine is a home-grown hero, revered by all who have read her. dance move was a favourite for several of my bookseller friends in 2022, so i knew that i had to prioritise her latest short story collection, dance move, as one of my first reads of the year. typically, i like my short story collections with an edge - a tinge of absurdity, tinted through a weirdo lens. something that goes beyond the realm of the ordinary or everyday. erskine's work is the complete antithesis, but somehow managed to captivate and enthral me in equal measure.
sweeping across northern ireland, dance move is a short story collection that hones in on familiarity, a sense of home and things that remain unspoken in a very distinctly northern irish way. the majority of the short story protagonists are women, particularly important given the legacy of wilful silence that has befallen many women in the north in both the distant and recent past. their lives are shaped and altered by experiences that may come across as shocking to some readers, but stay within the realm of reality. erskine's mantra in dance move seems to revolve around the fact that our lives can change forever in the blink of an eye.
her writing style is direct in action, with a wicked zest of that sense of humour that i am all too familiar with. but the beauty and lyricism of erskine's prose lies in what is unsaid between characters and the air of intrigue that clouds around some of the more tragic stories. "his mother" is a story i think about often. as a mother laments on the loss of her son, another mother comes to terms with the reality that her son is missing and may never come back. male mental health in northern ireland has reached a critical point over the last few years, and no doubt many readers will have heard similar stories in the press. "his mother" resonated so deeply that it almost took my breath away. the opening story too, "mathematics," speaks volumes to the standard of social care, education and protection offered to those within NI. the dark undercurrent of our history is alluded to several times throughout dance move, erskine courageously allowing just enough to reach the surface.
its easy to see why erskine has earned such a well-deserved reputation amongst readers and those in NI's literary circles. her fearless ability to tackle the normality of everyday life in a country where austerity, political turmoil and the shadows a tragic history still impact us in a multitude of ways, shines a spotlight onto our self-imposed silence. dance move glitters with truth, power and life.
sweeping across northern ireland, dance move is a short story collection that hones in on familiarity, a sense of home and things that remain unspoken in a very distinctly northern irish way. the majority of the short story protagonists are women, particularly important given the legacy of wilful silence that has befallen many women in the north in both the distant and recent past. their lives are shaped and altered by experiences that may come across as shocking to some readers, but stay within the realm of reality. erskine's mantra in dance move seems to revolve around the fact that our lives can change forever in the blink of an eye.
her writing style is direct in action, with a wicked zest of that sense of humour that i am all too familiar with. but the beauty and lyricism of erskine's prose lies in what is unsaid between characters and the air of intrigue that clouds around some of the more tragic stories. "his mother" is a story i think about often. as a mother laments on the loss of her son, another mother comes to terms with the reality that her son is missing and may never come back. male mental health in northern ireland has reached a critical point over the last few years, and no doubt many readers will have heard similar stories in the press. "his mother" resonated so deeply that it almost took my breath away. the opening story too, "mathematics," speaks volumes to the standard of social care, education and protection offered to those within NI. the dark undercurrent of our history is alluded to several times throughout dance move, erskine courageously allowing just enough to reach the surface.
its easy to see why erskine has earned such a well-deserved reputation amongst readers and those in NI's literary circles. her fearless ability to tackle the normality of everyday life in a country where austerity, political turmoil and the shadows a tragic history still impact us in a multitude of ways, shines a spotlight onto our self-imposed silence. dance move glitters with truth, power and life.
April 6, 2023
4.5 rounded up. These stories felt finer honed and more accomplished than her first collection. Overall, outstanding.
May 21, 2022
Okay, so I now come to Wendy Erskine's Dance Move having just finished reviewing Colin Barrett's Young Skins. Erskine writes the superior collection, in my opinion, though both are excellent. What separates them is Erskine's themes and style. With Barrett's Homesickness, I left one story and could immediately begin the next without having to pause for much thought. Erskine had me going back and rereading passages, considering motives, surprised by her decisions. She also took more chances with her styling, writing longer, more meandering and abstract stories, which can be risky but can also be justly rewarded. Her story "Cell" is a perfect example - it's nearly 30 pages long but contains so much of the character and the chance circumstances that happen to us (as opposed to via our own agency) and the life-long consequences that can ensue. The collection is more a little more uneven than Barrett's but worth it simply for the gems that leave a lasting impression. One aspect of both books that I appreciated was the authors' shifted focus away from The Troubles. Erskine in particular wants to write of a modern Northern Ireland. Traces of it fringe her stories but by no means are the central focus. There are so many good writers coming from the island these days - Sally Rooney and Claire-Louise Bennett and Kevin Barry, in addition to these two - to add to its literary lineage; it's important to look forward while keeping an eye on the past. Exciting stuff!
January 4, 2022
Dance Move is the first series of short stories I've read by Wendy Erskine and her second collection of published short stories. Erskine's stories are the very best of slice-of-life writing. She has the ability to fluidly move between examining the characters' backgrounds; their thoughts and emotions; the happiness in their lives and the sadness and the general absurdity of life in a few short pages. She is easily able to create three dimensional characters and their stories will inevitably suck the reader in. There were definitely some stories I preferred over others, but overall it was a strong collection.
December 5, 2023
Wendy Erskine's ability to capture human life and all its beauty, complexity and messiness shines bright again. Dance Move is a moreish bunch of short stories, just a beautiful collection.
One way to measure a good book is by how long the characters linger in your mind once you've finished. And also how uncanny they are to people in your own life (or yourself). These stories are awash with such people. You root for them. You despise them. You are disgusted or emboldened by them.
A young girl is left alone after her mother is tragically murdered. A middle aged woman having a sun tan is nostalgic for a former lover. A fragile relationship faces attrition at the hands of lust. A mother is bereft with grief, while another mother is losing her child in other ways. A bizarre car journey ends in a life changing incident. A young man is left something in the will of an older acquaintance. A singer is brought out of retirement for a murderous group.
Shockingly late to start this having purchased it a while back, but well worth the wait. Definitely recommend!
One way to measure a good book is by how long the characters linger in your mind once you've finished. And also how uncanny they are to people in your own life (or yourself). These stories are awash with such people. You root for them. You despise them. You are disgusted or emboldened by them.
A young girl is left alone after her mother is tragically murdered. A middle aged woman having a sun tan is nostalgic for a former lover. A fragile relationship faces attrition at the hands of lust. A mother is bereft with grief, while another mother is losing her child in other ways. A bizarre car journey ends in a life changing incident. A young man is left something in the will of an older acquaintance. A singer is brought out of retirement for a murderous group.
Shockingly late to start this having purchased it a while back, but well worth the wait. Definitely recommend!
March 13, 2024
didn’t finish all the short stories. adored the first one, loved the author’s skill to communicate the unsaid between the lines. the other short stories were meh and i feel like i didn’t really understand what was going on (maybe i wasn’t focusing enough)
July 27, 2025
This challenge isn’t to write a short story collection inspired by Dubliners; the challenge is to write one that isn’t
November 5, 2022
Interesting short stories from Northern Irish writer Wendy Erskine.
September 16, 2024
“When the Friday evening came, rather than order a take-away to her own house Linda thought that there was no reason why she too shouldn’t go into town. She parked the car in one of the multi-storeys and took a walk past the shops that were just shutting up for the evening. She could have been anywhere in the world and there wasn’t a single soul who expected her to be in a certain place. That was freedom for you, liberation. She went to the doughnut place that was still open. It felt like a break-up place.”
Absolutely amazing book of short stories—that it’s yet to be published to great acclaim in the U.S. is an absolute travesty. A must for fans of the short story, on par (and sometimes rising above) greats like Lucia Berlin or Amy Hempel or Lorrie Moore. What makes them work so well is that they’re not so much about plot and story as they are about character and interiority. We often find ourselves in short flashbacks, quickly gathering the life stuff that led this character to this point, facing the decision or event in front of them. Like life, these stories start mid action, end mid action, and feel real.
One really amazing thing I noticed myself doing was blazing through paragraphs and pages, caught up in the voice, and my rational mind catching up and saying “hey wait! That was an amazing sentence! Go back and read that again, find out how she got you there.” There was some real magic here.
Absolutely amazing book of short stories—that it’s yet to be published to great acclaim in the U.S. is an absolute travesty. A must for fans of the short story, on par (and sometimes rising above) greats like Lucia Berlin or Amy Hempel or Lorrie Moore. What makes them work so well is that they’re not so much about plot and story as they are about character and interiority. We often find ourselves in short flashbacks, quickly gathering the life stuff that led this character to this point, facing the decision or event in front of them. Like life, these stories start mid action, end mid action, and feel real.
One really amazing thing I noticed myself doing was blazing through paragraphs and pages, caught up in the voice, and my rational mind catching up and saying “hey wait! That was an amazing sentence! Go back and read that again, find out how she got you there.” There was some real magic here.
March 13, 2022
Another fantastic collection of short stories from Wendy Erskine. "Cell" and "Nostalgie" were my favorite. Again, the characters are complex and communication for some of them isn't easy, making this style of story telling more in line with modern society I think. There's really a lot unsaid in these stories and that makes me want to re-read them again.
I especially liked the Easter Egg of one of the characters having a friend called Wendy who wrote short stories that no one read :-) We are definitely reading yours!
I especially liked the Easter Egg of one of the characters having a friend called Wendy who wrote short stories that no one read :-) We are definitely reading yours!
April 27, 2024
2,5*
Not very impressed by this one. The stories felt random and mostly forgettable, I didn't feel properly introduced to most of the characters.
Not very impressed by this one. The stories felt random and mostly forgettable, I didn't feel properly introduced to most of the characters.
May 7, 2024
Short stories. Eccentric characters. Just my cup of tea!
August 28, 2023
what’s a little one sided almost-homoeroticism between a man and the salesman at his local car dealership who does not know he exists the moment he leaves his sight?
My favourite was Momento Mori- a character doomed from the very beginning despite being very justified in her actions of tragedy.
Also loved that the author included herself and her husband as little mentions, that was really fun in an otherwise terribly depressing story
My favourite was Momento Mori- a character doomed from the very beginning despite being very justified in her actions of tragedy.
Also loved that the author included herself and her husband as little mentions, that was really fun in an otherwise terribly depressing story
February 23, 2023
This was the February mystery book (which arrived beautifully wrapped in red tissue paper). ‘Dance Move’ is a collection of 11 short stories by Wendy Erskine who lives in Belfast. I don’t often read short stories, partly I think because their length does not allow for enough character development. However I was very pleasantly surprised by Dance Move. I read one story each evening and enjoyed them all. And each one remains vivid in my mind.
I really admired Wendy Erskine’s writing style. She is able to convey what she needs to without going into great detail and as one of the reviewers comments, a lot of the action occurs off stage as the protagonist thinks back to events that happened in the past - often seemingly trivial things that nevertheless remain fixed in their memories and speak of lost opportunities or different paths that could have been taken. The reader has to concentrate as characters and events will be mentioned without explanation and it is only gradually that the picture becomes clear.
If I had to pick a favourite it would be either ‘Bildungsroman’ or ‘Memento Mori’. The former was very funny, despite the dark overtones. In it 17 year old Lee is sent on a work placement and as it is quite a journey from his home he ends up staying overnight with a neighbour’s sister. Before he meets Eileen he brags to his school friends that he is going to hook up with a hot older woman. As he sees a beige silhouette approach through the glass in the front door he thinks ‘Oh my god, surely she wasn’t naked already?’. The door opens to reveal ‘a scrawny individual in a washed-out tracksuit’ - thus are Lee’s hopes dashed!
‘Memento Mori’ was a touching tale with a twist at the end, as Gillian looks back at the two happy years she has had with Tracey, before her partner died of cancer. What I liked about this was how unusual it was. A young girl is stabbed and dies right outside their house and the area becomes a shrine, especially when the case goes to court and candlelit vigils are held. What happened next was totally unexpected and completely alters the course of Gillian’s life. I thought it showed how something that happened by pure chance outside their house could have such unforeseen consequences.
The stories differed in length with ‘Cell’ at 44 pages being the longest and two of the stories being only 10 pages. I enjoyed all of them, whatever the length. One of the two shortest is a heartbreaking description of a mother’s grief at losing her son. We see her taking down the missing person posters and feeling ‘almost indignant’ when she finds posters of another boy who has gone missing, thinking that this newcomer has stolen her son’s thunder. But then as she starts to think what his mother must be going through she just wants to find her ‘so they can grip each other tight’. I felt that Wendy Erskine packed so much into a few pages and that the taking down of the posters symbolised so much.
The stories are set in and around Belfast (although a lot of the action in ‘Cell’ takes place in London). As in ‘The Raptures’ the Troubles are there in the background - in ‘Nostalgie’ for example an ex pop star is asked to perform at a party to celebrate the centenary of a paramilitary group.
I think these are stories that I would read again. And I am definitely interested in reading more by this author! Highly recommended.
I really admired Wendy Erskine’s writing style. She is able to convey what she needs to without going into great detail and as one of the reviewers comments, a lot of the action occurs off stage as the protagonist thinks back to events that happened in the past - often seemingly trivial things that nevertheless remain fixed in their memories and speak of lost opportunities or different paths that could have been taken. The reader has to concentrate as characters and events will be mentioned without explanation and it is only gradually that the picture becomes clear.
If I had to pick a favourite it would be either ‘Bildungsroman’ or ‘Memento Mori’. The former was very funny, despite the dark overtones. In it 17 year old Lee is sent on a work placement and as it is quite a journey from his home he ends up staying overnight with a neighbour’s sister. Before he meets Eileen he brags to his school friends that he is going to hook up with a hot older woman. As he sees a beige silhouette approach through the glass in the front door he thinks ‘Oh my god, surely she wasn’t naked already?’. The door opens to reveal ‘a scrawny individual in a washed-out tracksuit’ - thus are Lee’s hopes dashed!
‘Memento Mori’ was a touching tale with a twist at the end, as Gillian looks back at the two happy years she has had with Tracey, before her partner died of cancer. What I liked about this was how unusual it was. A young girl is stabbed and dies right outside their house and the area becomes a shrine, especially when the case goes to court and candlelit vigils are held. What happened next was totally unexpected and completely alters the course of Gillian’s life. I thought it showed how something that happened by pure chance outside their house could have such unforeseen consequences.
The stories differed in length with ‘Cell’ at 44 pages being the longest and two of the stories being only 10 pages. I enjoyed all of them, whatever the length. One of the two shortest is a heartbreaking description of a mother’s grief at losing her son. We see her taking down the missing person posters and feeling ‘almost indignant’ when she finds posters of another boy who has gone missing, thinking that this newcomer has stolen her son’s thunder. But then as she starts to think what his mother must be going through she just wants to find her ‘so they can grip each other tight’. I felt that Wendy Erskine packed so much into a few pages and that the taking down of the posters symbolised so much.
The stories are set in and around Belfast (although a lot of the action in ‘Cell’ takes place in London). As in ‘The Raptures’ the Troubles are there in the background - in ‘Nostalgie’ for example an ex pop star is asked to perform at a party to celebrate the centenary of a paramilitary group.
I think these are stories that I would read again. And I am definitely interested in reading more by this author! Highly recommended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2023
A wonderful collection of short stories. Each one immerses the reader in a world vividly engaging and thought provoking. The Cell, Nostalgie and Momento Mori stand out for me.
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