Dancer by Collum McCann

It's a fictional story about Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nurejev. From his humble and poor Tatar upbringing, to when he studied at the famous Kirov in St Petersburg, to his jump to the west where he was adored by royalty and celebrities. And to his ultimate fall, his love affairs which brings him to his deathbed in Aids.

My problem with real characters is that I always have to google them, so yes I knew that he defected (not like I wouldn't have otherwise, he was too big for Soviet), and that he would die of Aids. )


I loved this book, ask me to explain and I don't know why. It just took me by surprise, McCann is a master with words and he knows how to spin a story. It all begins with soldiers coming home from WWII, and how they are bathed in Rudolfs home town of Ufa. It's glimpses out to the real world and they are shown through out the book.

"They looked out over the steppe and saw the bodies of fellow soldiers, a hand in the air, a knee in a stretch, beards frozen with frost, and they leaned to steal the dead man's clothes before he became stiffened in them, and they leaned in to whisper, Sorry comrade thanks for the tobacco."

Rather then seeing the world through his eyes, we see the world around him through those of his friends, family, and strangers. And in the beginning through his eyes the sentences are short, like thoughts sometimes. He is so busy so he only thinks of the things he must do to get better. The thing I then love is the fact that we see the world though the eyes of others, not only what they think about him, but how they are feeling. Hungry, tired, loved, everything that is crucial in life. I truly enjoy these glimpses into their lives. Some are fictional and some of them are real. McCann is not afraid to show the real world, and not some glamour bubble around one of the worlds greatest dancers.

Even though I do love this book, the end of the 3rd part and the 4th part gets tiresome. There is a lot of how he screwed everything that moved through out the 60's to the 80's. He really should be in sex addicts anonymous. Not to mention that is what killed him. Not explicit sex scenes no this is not that kind of book. But it's just so much, and it's so depressing.

Still it's a lovely portrait of a man loved by ballet fans. McCann waves the fabric of his life into a wonderful tapestry which I highly recommend to all. He shows him to be what he was, arrogant and temperamental, still loved by all. They couldn't help it.


And since he was so beautiful that everyone wanted him I do have to leave you with a photo since I didn't know how he looked either.

Nurejev and Fonteyn:

4/5

The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick

The Greatest Knight

This is the story about the greatest knight that ever lived, William Marshal. Born in the 12th century he rose from a penniless knight to an influential man of his time. He saved queen Eleanor of Aquitane and became a tutor to her children. But every star must fall and not all at court liked him, and rumours were spread. He had to flee from court, but he always tread a path that lead him to success.

It's a story about a real person, and Chadwick mixes historical facts with fiction on how things could have happened.

There is also a second book called The Scarlett Lion, and there we again meet an older William, trying to hold it all together while as always there is fighting around him in England.


So why did I not like this book?! I love Chadwick, but I fear it was because this was based on truth and I could just look up what was going to happen. Who would die, who would marry who and all that. I am not particularly fond of books like this.

Yes it was a great book and Chadwick knows how to write historical fiction. She makes it a world i would like to live in. In that this is a good book, something all historical lovers should read.

Could it be because it's from a mans point of view? I am used to reading her books from a woman point, and I didn't really warm up to William. That and the fact that I knew how things would work out made it a bit boring. There wasn't that much love either, and I love love in Chadwick's books, it was mostly about how he served a lord after a lord, tournaments and frictions with the Plantagenet princes.

Not the Chadwick book for me even though it was good. I am such a picky reader.

The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran

Now why should books I have read before suffer cos they were read before this blog were started so here I go, most will not have a long review, maybe just one sentence but this one was written before.

(read May 2008)

In a debut romance as passionate and sweeping as the British Empire, Meredith Duran paints a powerful picture of an aristocrat torn between two worlds, an heiress who dares to risk everything...and the love born in fire and darkness that nearly destroys them.
(copied from the back of the book cos I like it :)

The books starts with a shipwreck 1857 and the only survivor is Emmaline Martin. She comes to Delhi to meet her fiancé Marcus, who would rather have seen her die than arriving in the way she did. She feels betrayed by him and at that time she meets Julian Sinclair, an English Duke. At this time the sepoys (Hindu soldiers in the army) revolts and the city becomes a death-trap. She can only do one thing and that is to flee.

The book is made up by 2 parts, the one in India and the one in London. I liked the first part better. That one had everything, war, turmoil, danger and romance. It felt refreshing in a strange way. The author wasn't exactly afraid to put her heroine in harms way. A likable heroine by the way. She could talk back and sure she could be a little naive, but that was understandable. Julian was a good hero but sometimes lacking (well only a little bit) cos I would have liked something more about his hindu heritage. As for more Marcus, well he was an idiot. Very well-made and he got what he deserved.

It's a good lovestruck that has a bit of everything in it so that many can like it. Danger, romance and loss. I wish I could have read it without stopping so much to write on my thesis. But it also works if you makes some stops. Cos then it's there waiting for you and one wants to know what happens.

India is enchanting and their love makes one forget about the danger around them. A good book in every way.

Author's site where you find a excerpt from the book. http://meredithduran.com/

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

The Blood of Flowers

It's a story of a girl, and we never learn her name. She is born in a little village in Persia in the 17th century. When her father dies she and her mother must make a choice or else they will starve to death so they leave their village and heads for the capital. There lives a half-brother to her father and they have never met him. But he takes them in, but soon they see that they are more treated like servants than anything else.

But this 14 year old girl has a gift, she weaves beautiful carpets, and her uncle works for the Shah. He is skilled in the way to make patterns, and the girl wants to be as good as him because so far she is good, but she is no master. Her work is poor, but she improves under his hand. If she had only been a boy.

Most of all she wants her mother and her to be free, and when she is offered a temporary marriage, a sigheh, with a wealthy man she is torn. Lose her honour and virginity, or try to make a better life for herself.


Anita Amirrezvani has a way of writing, and I am captured by the book, and the girl with no name. But I do think the sex scenes were a little too many, and they made me dislike the girl. I have read other books with girls who fall so suddenly for someone in that way, and I never did like it. Other than that I liked this book and I couldn't put it down. I loved the history, and glimpses of an age gone. I never thought I could be that interested in how carpets are made.

The book has a rhythm, and she weaves the threads into a beautiful story. Worth noticing are the 8 old Persian stories that are told in the book, either by the girls mother or by herself. The create a sort of magic that isn't lost.

I do want to read more of her, but this is a her first book and hopefully more are coming. If they are set in that time and place the better. She is an author to look out after.