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Dancing Peel #4
Dancer In The Wings
- GenresChildrens
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1958
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 27, 2019
The more I read of the authors I read, the more I become convinced that there is a fine line between ridiculous and genius. So close and yet sometimes, so very much one or the other. It is the problem, I think, of being so squarely located within a series and world that you, as the author, have created, and being unable to find your way out of it. The Drina books suffered from this towards the end, I think, because it was too far in. So did Harry Potter if I'm being frank; I ached for it to be edited so much more towards the end of the series, and yet there they were. Behemoths, character-locked, mythology wrapped islands. Maybe it's a problem of series fiction, and not one of genre at all. Maybe that's what series do: leave you wrapped up in a problem of your own making and you're just left trying to find the way out.
And so to Lorna Hill, and this delightful yet inherently ridiculous affair. Annette Dancy ("dancey by name and dancey by nature" reader, I die) needs to get to Scotland. She has no money but a great idea. Inevitably, none of that matters because everything works out! As you always knew it would! This isn't a spoiler! You knew it from the moment you read it!
There's something comforting about Lorna Hill and I do love her, but this is essentially 'dancer on a boat and then dancer in Scotland' and she's done it better elsewhere. Much better. Dancer In The Wings just feels comfortable; a book span out of air, easy as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West. And even in that comfortable ridiculousness, there are moments when it's still perfect, albeit briefly, so very briefly, because Hill does write a bloody good dance scene. You root for Annette, even though she's an idiot, and you root for dancing on a ship, even though it's ridiculous, because Hill makes it work. It's comfortable, comforting stuff, and sometimes that's what's needed. It's not the highest of literature, nor will it last with you very long after it happens, but for a moment? It's ideal.
And so to Lorna Hill, and this delightful yet inherently ridiculous affair. Annette Dancy ("dancey by name and dancey by nature" reader, I die) needs to get to Scotland. She has no money but a great idea. Inevitably, none of that matters because everything works out! As you always knew it would! This isn't a spoiler! You knew it from the moment you read it!
There's something comforting about Lorna Hill and I do love her, but this is essentially 'dancer on a boat and then dancer in Scotland' and she's done it better elsewhere. Much better. Dancer In The Wings just feels comfortable; a book span out of air, easy as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West. And even in that comfortable ridiculousness, there are moments when it's still perfect, albeit briefly, so very briefly, because Hill does write a bloody good dance scene. You root for Annette, even though she's an idiot, and you root for dancing on a ship, even though it's ridiculous, because Hill makes it work. It's comfortable, comforting stuff, and sometimes that's what's needed. It's not the highest of literature, nor will it last with you very long after it happens, but for a moment? It's ideal.
June 11, 2020
Is this edition abridged?
August 28, 2020
When I stole this off my cousin probably two decades ago - and I know I stole it because she wrote her name on it, and I know it was a long time ago because her writing has greatly improved since then - I had no idea what a rare find I had. After a recent reshuffle of my bookshelves, I picked this up for an hour's leisure. There's something intensely comforting about books written in the fifties, when everyone is stoic and tramps around mountains and has toast for tea.
It woke in me a desire - with the wonders of the internet - to find the rest of these books, and along with them the 'Drina' books. (They share some crashing similarities.) I know the first three Drina books by heart, even though I left my copies in Australia 23 years ago. Alas - none of them are on Kindle! How deeply irksome. I went so far as to put the first five Drina books in a basket on Abe Books, but they steadily increase in price. If I wasn't saving money right now I might do it anyway.
Dancers who you know will become the prima ballerina at the end but struggle mightily in the gaining thereof is one of my absolutely favourite subgenres of fiction. Possibly because ballet, like many art forms, is enjoyed by many and understood by few, and the lines between 'doing it right', 'doing it well', and 'doing it completely and utterly wrong' are usually visible only to the very inner circle. There's something close to divine in learning something so well that only ten people in the world might understand it.
It woke in me a desire - with the wonders of the internet - to find the rest of these books, and along with them the 'Drina' books. (They share some crashing similarities.) I know the first three Drina books by heart, even though I left my copies in Australia 23 years ago. Alas - none of them are on Kindle! How deeply irksome. I went so far as to put the first five Drina books in a basket on Abe Books, but they steadily increase in price. If I wasn't saving money right now I might do it anyway.
Dancers who you know will become the prima ballerina at the end but struggle mightily in the gaining thereof is one of my absolutely favourite subgenres of fiction. Possibly because ballet, like many art forms, is enjoyed by many and understood by few, and the lines between 'doing it right', 'doing it well', and 'doing it completely and utterly wrong' are usually visible only to the very inner circle. There's something close to divine in learning something so well that only ten people in the world might understand it.
April 25, 2020
An old favorite. Suddenly it seems like Annette's luck has abandoned her, especially when her beloved ballet master dies, and is replaced by a woman who apparently prefers more brilliant dancing. Then another surprise results in a trip to the Isle of Skye where she is reunited with her old friends Angus and Jaimie. Another sweet, fast-paced story that tugs a bit at the heartstings. Recommended.
April 26, 2014
I read this book when I was about 13 and loved it so much
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews