i discovered maggie shipstead's astonish me via mashable. they had posted 24 must-read books for summer 2014 . they described it as
Maggie Shipstead's first novel Seating Arrangements debuted to massive praise and won the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction. In Astonish Me she explores the haunting and sometimes painful world of professional ballet.
professional ballet? i decided to check it out.
in my usual fashion of requesting books and then forgetting how i found out about them, i searched for posts about this book and came across one that made it sounded like a suspense thriller. when i came across that article, i was not thrilled about reading the book, but it turns i must have misread that blurb. also i have to add with the more contemporary authors i read, the more names i recognize on book covers now! for example, maria semple is on the front cover of this one! and jeffrey eugenides is on the back, i'm really shocked that he wasn't give the front, but i guess where'd you go, bernedette is more current.
astonish me was an enjoyable read and not just because i understood the ballet terms. the story centers around joan, an american ballet dancer. though never prima ballerina material, she was vital to the professional ballet world because she helped arslan rusakov, a russian ballet dancer, who was very talented and would go on to become very famous, defect in 1975. i must admit that i wasn't sure what defect meant initially but i guess it happened a lot during the cold war so pardon me for being young. joan and arslan were lovers but it ended, partially due to his success. joan then became pregnant and married jacob, a boy that was in love with her throughout high school. the novel covers her life and the life of harry, their son. another thing i must add is that though joan is the main focus, we learn a lot about the other characters, learning very intimate details about everyone. i must add that all characters large or small contribute to the story and affect the course the story runs. i enjoyed this because that is how life is, we may not see it, but in someway everyone we encounter leaves a mark upon on us that does affect our fate.
**there will be spoilers, there are some surprise turns in this novel, so i recommend reading it first, but if you don't care, continue reading
the novel covers about 30 years and jumps around time wise, as well as character wise. i guess the best way to discuss the novel is how it ends. in the end, it is discovered that harry is not joan and jacob's son but joan and arslan's son. i was caught off guard though elaine, joan's friend from her ballet days, provided foreshadowing. elaine had seen a picture of harry as a young child and knew that he would become a great dancer. this did not make sense to me when i read it but i caught on. even when arslan and harry danced together, i didn't completely catch on, i had to go back and reread that last line to see that it was meant as foreshadowing as well, probably confirmation for brighter people. harry was a brilliant dancer but it turned out to be his genetics. this came as a complete shock to everyone, only joan knowing the truth and elaine having her suspicions. also well-played by shipstead, allowing the reader to read too much into the situation because she never said that harry was jacob's. she even had jacob question joan's pregnancy in his head. he and joan talking about her being on the pill and her not being direct in her reply.
jacob and harry, sadly, discovered the truth from ludamilla's, arslan's ex wife, though arslan went to her knowing she would spill the beans. arslah wanted her to tell them because he had plans for a ballet of his life and of course it would have to include the truth of harry being his son. the ballet was a concept came up by arslan and his new wife. okay here is another twist, so arslan ended up marrying . . . harry's ex-girlfriend chloe!!! harry and chloe grew up together as neighbors, joan even took chloe under her wing to help train her for ballet. chloe was not that great of a ballerina and harry ended up breaking up with her because he thought that he was better than her because he was the better dancer.
quick digression, harry's rejection of chloe was an example of how history repeats itself. arslan rejected joan because he can never partner with her in ballet as he wished. also joan felt insecure about her dancing causing her to feel unworthy of being arslan's lover. fast foward a couple of years, harry rejected chloe for the same reasons that his father rejected his mother.
i was shocked that chloe ended up with arslan. simply because i didn't like chloe, though i guess my dislike was due more to her parents then her. her father did commit suicide, but they were both such horrible people. also i didn't like how she was so mean to harry when he was in love with her in high school.
another digression, though same notion of history repeating itself. harry's love for chloe in high school and her keeping him as a friend, was the exact same situation as jacob being in love with joan and she doing the same. just some food for thought.
in the end, the ballet happened. jacob, hurt from what had occurred, did not want to go, but went for harry's sake. he and joan end up sitting next to each other and i hope they end up back together. the story doesn't say so, but that is how i am going to end it.
the very last section of the novel, we learn why arslan chose joan to help him defect. i couldn't handle her neediness and constant questioning of why her. her insecurities is what i think resulted in their relationship ending. it's interesting to see how she went from being the reacher in her relationship with arslan to the settler in her relationship with jacob (google, if you are unfamiliar with "how i met your mother" reacher and settler theory.) anyway, i think joan's inability to see her boldness is what caused her relationship with arslan to flourish. however, i do believe that having jacob as his father allowed harry to become the successful dancer that he became. if he had known that arslan was his father, the pressure to follow in his father's footsteps would have been too much. and i think that this is what made the book a enjoyable read, life doesn't always work out the way we want it to, but it doesn't result in a bad life.
all in all, a great ending to a great book. i enjoyed it and will start looking to mashable for recommendations. and i think i will read shipstead's other novel.
oh and before i close i have to add two things about elaine and mr. k. first, i wish i was elaine's friend back in the late 70's doing coke and going to random clubs. and second, author's need to stop making gay/bi/questioning characters die from aids, this is the second book i have read recently that a gay man died from aids. i mean i know it happened but still. though i should be nice and say that i have read one book in which the person with aids doesn't die.
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