Early from the Dance

by David Payne

Adam Jenrette, thirty-one and a successful Manhattan artist, has been hiding from his past for too long. When a relative's death calls him home to North Carolina, he is pulled into an intense encounter with his own eighteen-year-old self and with the two most important people in his life -- Cary Kinlaw, his best boyhood friend, and Jane McCrae, the girl they both, disastrously, loved. And as he relives one incredible, heartbreaking summer from thirteen years before, he dares to recover what he changed his life to lose . . .

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Southern

495 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

David Payne was born in North Carolina and attended the Phillips Exeter Academy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of five novels-- Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street, Early From the Dance, Ruin Creek, Gravesend Light, Back to Wando Passo--and a memoir, Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother's Story, forthcoming from Grove Atlantic in August 2015. Visit his author website at www.davidpaynebooks.com.

Linda Barrett Osborne, Washington Post Book World:
"[Payne] understands that place most families inhabit-somewhere between love and necessity, between truth and myth, between self and the expectations, the dreams and, ultimately, the separateness of others... Writing this fine evokes a past time, but also a state of boyhood that is timeless."

Reviews

[Dolors · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certain books, like certain memories, lose their gloss as years go by.
I picked this old copy of Payne’s first novel from my library wanting to recapture the feeling of a particular moment in time and, as I kept turning pages, I realized it’s impossible to relive the past as I am no longer the same person who read this book more than a decade ago.

Having forgotten most of the plot and remembering rare but engaging long introspective paragraphs on the imbalance between youth and insight, Payne presents a southern chronicle of a love triangle alternating the present time with flashbacks to the seventies that reaches the climax on a summer at the beach with the three protagonists changing drastically the course of their lives. Guilt, chance and desperation bring back together two of the three characters who have to forgive themselves, and each other, in order to leave a tragic past behind and accept that some things are beyond our control.

Walking down memory lane has its own risks. One is bound to be disappointed or simply bemused, trying to reconnect with old sensations that seem no longer relevant or even of remote interest. Payne’s eerie descriptions of the southern landscape and its indolent mood permeates the characters’ thoughts and actions, and self-pity becomes the main narrative in a story that holds no surprises. At least to my present-time self.

Rereading this old novel felt like trying to reconnect with someone who was very close to your heart once and realizing you have nothing left in common with that person anymore. And registering, at exactly the very same moment, that you have moved on to a different mental space. A sad business, to move forward, to leave things behind. But also, how exhilarating to add experiences as one grows old and distant to former episodes in life. How fortunate, to feel the joy of changing while remaining essentially the same, expanding my wings as I learn to fly.

[Camie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This bittersweet coming of age tale told in masterful prose centers around a love triangle between Adam, Jane, and Cary three naive teenagers from North Carolina who start out as life long friends but who run into big trouble when they become mesmerized by a group of older glamorous people who arrive to run a flashy resort on the Outer Shore. Not much plot here, but plenty of angst, drug use, and sex, in this story of friendship, love , betrayal, and disillusionment . If one summer could be called "the dance " the characters who participate this year will find their lives forever changed when due to their own actions someone they care about deeply is to be called away early. My first read by David Payne, whose writing in the Southern tradition has been compared to Pat Conroy. I liked his writing style more here than his subject matter. 3.5 stars

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my all time favorite books. I re-read it about every 3 to 4 years. It was assigned for a Psychology of Relationships class in college, and I just really enjoyed the style of writing from three different perspectives. The love triangle of best friends is a common theme, but I love the way David Payne takes it to a different level by spanning different chronological perspectives and allowing you a full understanding of each character's psychological state throughout the story. I still have my 15 year old copy if anyone wants to borrow it!

[Fred Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected to like this book more than I did since it deals with topics I usually enjoy - coming of age, great location, interesting protagonists. But while I enjoyed the descriptive power of the writing, much of the prose is dense, turgid and way overdone. If I analyzed everything I did to the extent these folks do I would never get anything done. Not only do they analyze something before they do it, they beat it to death again afterward. Reminds me of an Anne Rice novel where she once took 10 pages to describe someone walking across a room. The complexity of these thoughts goes far beyond any adolescent I ever met. Great beach read for those into "romance" and "meaning" and "endless love" but I need things to move along a bit more quickly.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my favorite book as a teenager. It utterly moved me. I read it multiple times (which I rarely did then and still don’t do now) and collected phrases from its long, introspective paragraphs like they were stamps. I can still see that cover in the public library; I can still picture myself standing in the stacks reading it.

I was almost afraid to re-read it 25 years (25 years!) later, knowing I would be disappointed and that it would reveal that I was, despite my own self assessment at the time, naive and young. It did disappoint, of course. It’s a mediocre book that views itself more grandly, and I bit that hook all those years ago. But still: there’s something sacred here that I’m glad to have revisited.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Early from the Dance is yet another book I bought, saved even, because it looked so good and set in the South - one of my favorite locations and it was very disappointing. Adam and Jane meet again after being apart for 13 years. The story is the unraveling of the fateful summer that tore them apart and what exactly tore them apart. The present day (1980s) Adam is a coke-snorting, alcoholic painter whose art hasn't sold in a while and Jane has just started going through a divorce. They meet again at Adam's aunt's funeral. Adam has lived in NYC for years and coming home is a stretch for him. Jane has never left. Jane begins as a sympathetic character but this evolves as the story slogs on. Every conversation, every touch is described in grueling detail and left my eyes falling out of my head from boredom. The drug use and alcohol consumption is enough to down a rhino. There is no way a 30 year old man could still stand, let alone function. I confess the only reason I kept reading was to see how the story resolves. The ending was contrived. The characters are dull and stereotypical.

This book got rave reviews. I must have read a different book. It was so drawn out, such a laborious read I thought it would never end. The author used a horrible dialog mechanics method that made following a conversation almost impossible and after a while I just didn't care who was saying what to whom. I gave it 2 stars because the book's setting.

[Kathy Winstead · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my all time favorite book. I re-read it every year. The southern heritage, down home easy feeling of the characters, the many lessons learned, the youthful feelings and experiences, as well as the sadness of a suicide and how it affects each person is something you simply need to experience. If you can start the book with the thought that you are going to be reading total conversations between the characters, it will help you to stay on track until you get the feel of it.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this book 20 years ago and have returned to it every five or so years.... First picked it up because of the N.C author and connection - but found it hard to put down and read it the first time in only a couple of days. Hard to put a finger on why I liked this one so much - but a great read. I've read a couple of his other books and they are good reads as well - but nothing approaching this one...

[Adam Golding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wouldn't mind reading this little gem again given the chance. Thank ya sis

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that I don’t know how to feel about this book. It’s beautifully written. That being said, outside of the fact that it’s a long book, it’s one of the most depressing and saddest books I’ve ever read. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters; they were all flawed in ways that made them unattractive, but they fit together. Enablers certainly, all of them. So how can I give this book 4 stars? I honestly can’t say. But I would invite anyone who is so inclined to read the book and decide for yourself.

[Margaret · Rating 1 out of 5]

I disliked every single character in this novel. I felt like I was reading someone's autobiography disguised as a fictional story. The long drawn out descriptions of personal feelings, scenery, colloquial dialogue and over-descriptive sex scenes, bordering on gross, were just so annoying. The ending fizzled. It was a relief to finally finish. I doubt I will read anything else by this author, but I will review his first publication and see what else he has written, but frankly, this was not doing it for me. I love Southern Gothic, but even this was too over the top for me.

[Tricia Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right now I'm a mixture of sad, mad and happy. This book ripped my heart out in so many ways! At one point it was so strange I almost gave up but I'm glad I stuck with it. I went from hated Jane and A to loving them. And Cary! I have no words to express for my feelings about sweet Cary. I was crying by the next to last chapter and was glad the author redeemed himself by the end. A great story! Coudnt give it 5 stars simply because of the character of Cleanth.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Sometimes it gets a bit too "deep", almost comically so...but over all I enjoyed the read.

[jacob graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

would give it 5 stars if it weren't for the occasional racist characterization

[Jim Inman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorites. This really resonated with me on many different levels.

[Travis Kruchinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was outstanding and came to me from out of nowhere. The story was extremely realistic and relatable. The detail of Cary's struggle with depression was very well written!!

[Luanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Close to 4 stars, but I felt like the author tried too hard. The descriptions of the characters' respective introspection or events and themselves was really overdone.

Loved the setting

[L.B. Sedlacek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The storyline is interesting and the characters are well developed. There’s just a lot of extra filler not really necessary to move the plot along. The settings are well detailed. The ending makes reading the book worthwhile.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[jo _ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early From the Dance preached a multi-faceted perspective on life, constructed through each character's philosophies, one different from the next, their personalities and beliefs rooted in their past (Faulkneresque, oh my).

Adam/A.
(I would love to find a better quote, but I was lazy with this book and didn't mark in it as much as I usually do, perhaps because I didn't find as much meaning in it as other books, though it still carries a significant message. )

"'My love for Cary was a great thing,' he said, 'but my love for you was greater, Jane, and losing him was the price I had to pay for you. And the real hell of it is, I paid. I paid the fucking price, Jane, I just didn't have the strength or courage to own the thing I bought. No, life made me lose Cary, but it didn't make me lose you--that choice was mine. One act, and I've never been right since. ... because what's wrong in my life now, Jane, started then. It all goes straight back to that summer...
'I still miss him, Jane, I'll miss him till the day I die, but last night something broke for me. I've always felt guilty about Cary, like I was responsible for his death. I don't feel that anymore. You can't be responsible for that in someone else. Cary has to take that responsibility back. He has to carry his just like I have to carry mine'" (492).

Cary
"'The only way would be to change [the truth:] but you can't, because there isn't any change, and even if there was you couldn't change the truth or else it wouldn't be the truth, not the real one. But when you know the real one, right that second, time stops and you realize it was always an illusion, just a swirling that you took for change, and then you either live with it or you don't, you either close your eyes or you go down in the basement and you look at it--I have'" (483).

Jane
"As I climbed back in my car, my hands caked with dirt, the awful pictures stopped, there were no more questions. Let A. ask the questions, I didn't need them anymore, because I finally understood what Mama had known all along, just like Sadie did, that it takes more strength and courage not to ask the questions than to ask them. Now I knew it, too, and every woman does. And what men know isn't worth lug tobacco compared to it, not worth the dust down in the bottom of the bale. It's not asking the questions, holding the doubts in abeyance, knowing they're there and can't be put away, not finally, not ever, but choosing to live beyond them and to trust that life is good--that's what real wisdom is, as any tobacco girl will tell you" (488).

I might elaborate later. I still can't figure out why there isn't any material on this novel or David Payne. He wrote an excellent essay titled "Carrying America's Shadow," which appeared in Oxford American. He is, undoubtedly, a Southern writer and, as a Southerner, his work appeals to me personally.

Payne, David. Early From the Dance. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print.

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just finished the book. I wasn't able to put it down for the last 50-70 pages....and found myself skimming a lot just to find out what happened in the end. The book started out slow and strange and I didn't know where it was going. Then, it got really interesting, even though the situations were unfamiliar. (i.e. a lot of cocaine usage) But, it was a well-told story and included a lot of soul-searching of the characters. I re-read the first 30-50 pages when I was in about two-thirds of the way through the book and saw it with a different perspective. This book could be read multiple times (especially since I zipped through parts of it) and also bring up good discussions. I would rate the book a 4.5 out of 5 stars, but since that's not an option, it rounds up to 5 stars.

p.s. the funny thing is that my husband picked the book for me randomly, with the only guideline of "get a book from the North Carolina author section"....so, a nice surprise.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going through my list of read books to attempt to review them and when this one came up, my first thought was I didn't like it. Since I read it in 2004, I went through other people's reviews in order to jog my memory so I could review it. I purchased it in 1998 but didn't read it until 2004 and I don't remember anything about it; usually once I read other's reviews, I remember at least something about the book. The majority of the reviews on Goodreads are great and people seem to love it but I'm giving it 2 stars based on the fact that I remember nothing about it and I no longer have it on my bookshelves. A few years ago, I decided I needed to make room so I went through and got rid of books I didn't think I would ever read again or didn't care much about. This evidently was one of those.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband told me to read this book, as it was one of his favorites. I was dubious. I'm not a big fan of "literature" and these types of books usually bore me or make me gag or both.

I freakin LOVED this book. Loved loved loved it. I love it so much that I refused to let my husband get rid of my personal copy when we were consolidating our massive book collection to fit it into our tiny little NYC apartment.

It's beautifully written, gorgeously characterized... Just a gorgeous book. I need to re-read it.

[James Digate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was excellent. Although I never heard of this author before and picked this book up at a library sale based on Goodreads reviews, I feel lucky that I did not miss this adventure. Great character development and details, some very specific, along with additional adventures among the characters to keep the story interesting all the time. Although basically a love story, there is so much more. I would consider this a late 20th century classic.
Kudos to the author, who is definitely a great writer.

[Steve Minor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got an advance copy of this book when it was new and bought another one later - I like the main two characters, A. and Jane, and Jane's mom, and A's dad, and a few of the lesser characters, but not the weirdness of Cleanth and Morgan. My favorite part these days when I reread it is A's recollection of his dog Pete and crabbing with Pete and his mom, I read this aloud to my wife just the other night.

[Sofiawahaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, but I thought it dragged on a bit. It could have been condensed. The characters were well portrayed, but I couldn't really relate to any of them. I guess that is why I didn't really LOVE the book because I thought the characters all made stupid mistakes or choices. Overall though, it was very well written and captivating.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the writing was excellent. Unfortunately, the book is narrowly focused on the events of one summer, and their repercussions. The actions and reactions of the characters to the events seem unrealistically exaggerated and ultimately tiresome. After a while, I got tired of reading in such exquisite detail about them, and moved on.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wanted to read this book ... It's quite lovely, old-fashioned in a way, not too too plotty, "character-driven," perhaps, w/ever that means. It reminded me a little of an over-long "Daniel Martin," which I remember as being pretty long itself. I like young love stories about three people ... true love ;)

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not imagine relating to a book as much as I did when I read this book. David Payne as an amazing grasp on writing from a male and female perspective. His ability to describe relationships and emotions is amazing.

[Dalee · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the southern novel! makes me proud I am from Atlanta and was way to thoughtful at one time.
I even read it in a crappy small paperback and enjoyed every page. read it and then let me know what northern novel would be it's equal.