Ballerina
This novel by Vicki Baum reminds me of a lot of other 1950’s vintage ballet stories – the old ballerina reliving her life and wondering if it was all worth it, etc. This one is quite well written and interesting, but at the same time pretty depressing, in the same way most of them are, because for someone who is not a ballerina it simply doesn’t ever seem worth it. The actual dancing part is difficult, maybe impossible, to express in words, which leaves the performance and the hard work and the insecurity of it all – in other words, the negative side.
Like most novelists, Baum focuses on the relationships – one with an arrogant ballet dancer, with an arrogant Spanish bull fighter, with a not so arrogant American doctor. They’re all slightly stereotypical, but interesting enough. The language is the same – typical 1950’s attempt to be realistic and hard-bitten (though for some reason whenever I see Lesbian with a capital in the middle of a sentence it always makes me laugh). In the end the ballerina decides that actually it wasn’t all worth it, gives it up and goes back to her husband. You do feel that it probably wasn’t the best move on either part, but you also don’t feel that any of them deserve any great happiness, either.
Like most novelists, Baum focuses on the relationships – one with an arrogant ballet dancer, with an arrogant Spanish bull fighter, with a not so arrogant American doctor. They’re all slightly stereotypical, but interesting enough. The language is the same – typical 1950’s attempt to be realistic and hard-bitten (though for some reason whenever I see Lesbian with a capital in the middle of a sentence it always makes me laugh). In the end the ballerina decides that actually it wasn’t all worth it, gives it up and goes back to her husband. You do feel that it probably wasn’t the best move on either part, but you also don’t feel that any of them deserve any great happiness, either.
posted by Carly at 10:39 am
2 Comments:
Hmm, I'm sorry you didn't think much of it. I really like it, although it's certainly not a perfect book. I didn't find it depressing; on the contrary, I thought she conveyed the joy of the dancing and the inherent discipline very well. I felt that the central relationship was with Grisha, and that's what sustained my interest all the way through -- this back-and-forth development, and the question of whether he intended to hurt her at the end. The husband story was the most "fifites" thing about it, and I found it irritating, particularly at the end -- although the second time reading it, I realised that the end is actually quite open; it doesn't mean that she's given anything up. She's just accepting growing older.
Hey, a comment! My first comment ever!! (They don't alert you on this blog, so I just discovered it then).
Yeah, this book didn't do much for me, but no surprises, you and I seem to have very different tastes in reading, and probably ballet too - I really enjoyed the ballet the other night, preferred it to the video (despite the poor wobbling ballerina) - the whole "ballet as a religion" thing doesn't do much for me, even if that's how it once was or how it still is for some people.
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