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Dancer

by Colum McCann (Goodreads Author)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 1,378 ratings · 201 reviews

Taking his inspiration from biographical facts, novelist Colum McCann tells the erotically charged story of the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev through the cast of those who knew him: there is Anna Vasileva, Rudi's first ballet teacher, who rescues her protégé from the stunted life of his provincial town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published February 1st 2004 by Picador (first published January 1st 2003)

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Apr 15, 2009 Blodeuedd Finland rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, awesomebooks

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...more 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.
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Apr 24, 2009 Bernadette rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this book up in our Edinburgh office where we were doing a book sale. I didn't realise that it was about Rudolph Nureyev when I picked it up. I enjoyed the first part which described this talented boy learning to dance. then it moved onto his early adulthood and he was identified as Nureyev. From then on it was a pean to his ego and sexual depravity - finally last night I could take no more. Life is too short to spend it reading about other people's sex lives! I rarely give up on a book...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Chrissie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, bio, art, soviet-union, russia, usa, favorites

This is fiction, but based on the true life events of the famed Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993). Through fiction the author attempts to show readers not only the external facts of Nureyev’s life but also how he perceived his own life. We are not so much told his inner thoughts, motivations and feelings, but we watch what he does and follow the crazed, hyped celebrity life and the frenzied gay-scene that lead to his death by AIDS. He defected Russia in 1961. We see how this impac...more This is fiction, but based on the true life events of the famed Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993). Through fiction the author attempts to show readers not only the external facts of Nureyev’s life but also how he perceived his own life. We are not so much told his inner thoughts, motivations and feelings, but we watch what he does and follow the crazed, hyped celebrity life and the frenzied gay-scene that lead to his death by AIDS. He defected Russia in 1961. We see how this impacted his own life and the lives of those left behind. In this book we are shown, not told. What is shown to us is NOT pleasant. I am sure you know of his promiscuous behavior. There is sex and drugs aplenty. This is not a comforting read, no fairy tale. If that is what you want, then look elsewhere. We see Rudi’ s life through the eyes of both those closest to him and those who only brushed shoulders with him, through famed entities such as Jacqueline Onassis, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Erik Buhn, Margot Fonteyn and through fictional characters too.

There is no author’s note stating explicitly what is fiction and what is fact, but I am convinced that Colum McCann has mirrored Nureyev’s world accurately. I did shore up the facts by reading Wikipedia. I learned much through the fictional characters. They gave depth to the story; some of them I grew to love (Odil and Tom and Anna, to name but three.) Having read this book, I feel I have lived next to Nureyev through his childhood, all the way to his death, ending with a final auction of his possessions. Each episode had a message, none were superfluous. I found neither the sex nor his final illness too explicit; I felt the electricity in the air, the dizzying pace, his fight for perfection in his dance and the sensuality of ballet. Don’t expect the life of a true artist to be anything but violent.

The audiobook has five different narrators, named below. In one chapter the reader hops form one character to another, without warning, but I was never confused. The audiobook’s narrators did not correspond to one specific character. You could not assume that if you heard one voice you knew which character was speaking sine there were many more characters than the five audiobook narrators. The only narrator I was not happy with was Jessica Almasy. Her voice was too sweet, too childish! All the others were great, and Suzanne Toren was f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c!!! Is she my favorite narrator? There is a brutal chapter filled with sex and drugs, read by one of the male narrators. That too, with its staccato pulse, perfectly created the world of Nureyev at that time. I believe that listening to the audiobook further enhances the reading experience. The tempo, the dialects, the intonations create an atmosphere that carries the reader beyond the written words.

I feel I know now what moved, motivated and pushed Rudolph Nureyev. I feel I understand him. I pity him and I admire him. Both. When I look at his life I look at it with disgust and admiration. I think the author has done a tremendous job. The way Colum McCann has mixed fact with fiction is really amazing. Five stars.

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I have just begun my third book by Colum McCann. It won’t be my last. I cannot get enough of his writing. It is fantastic. Why? Well, because he mixes the tragedy of life with humor and beauty. I have just experienced WW2 in Ufa, Russia. The horror of war is painted on a tableau. Next to this are also people laughing, the wonders of a warm bath, the glint of an eye and the sounds of a balalaika and singing. I can't take the horrors of the earlier tableau if I am not given the happiness too. I love seeing both so beautifully depicted one next to the other. Life IS beautiful if we just pay attention and look and listen and smell. What writing! Is this my favorite author?

I am listening to an audiobook with superb narration by several narrators, men and women who expertly pronounce the Russian dialect. Their names are: Jonathan Davis, Nick Pauling, Jessica Almasy, Marc Vietor and Suzanne Toren. All of them are new to me except Suzanne Toren who did a great job narrating Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. I am so glad I have a long-listen ahead of me, more than 12hours. :0)

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May 23, 2009 Surreysmum rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, biography, dance, general-fiction

As the 3 stars say, I "liked it". I'm definitely ambivalent about fiction based on people who lived so recently; at least McCann had the decency to change the names of people still living (basically turning it into a bit of a roman-a-clef, whether he planned it that way or not), but I noticed that by and large the really major figures in the Western ballet world didn't get much more than an indirect word or two. Possibly they or their ferociously protective estates (Balanchine?) deterred the aut...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Could I defect a country like the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic if it meant I would not see my family for the greater part of three decades?

I know my parents would encourage me to do so, as I would be the first to push my own children out the door to spread their God-Given talent around the world. But still...imagine not seeing your own family for 30 years? That was Rudolf Nureyev's life. He bravely defected Russia to dance for the world.

Before Mikhail Baryshnikov, there was Rudolf...more Could I defect a country like the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic if it meant I would not see my family for the greater part of three decades?

I know my parents would encourage me to do so, as I would be the first to push my own children out the door to spread their God-Given talent around the world. But still...imagine not seeing your own family for 30 years? That was Rudolf Nureyev's life. He bravely defected Russia to dance for the world.

Before Mikhail Baryshnikov, there was Rudolf Nureyev. I am glad Colum McCann wrote this novel to capture the essence of Nureyev before he fades away with the passage of time. Of course, those immersed in the world of ballet will always hear of him, but I believe his story should continue to be told so all will be aware of the courage and sacrifice it took to defect USSR to pursue greatness.

The book was well written, however I skimmed over the chapter on New York (Victor and the gay/celebrity subset) because the words lost me. I went back to that chapter to re-read it, and realized why it was a difficult read. The whole chapter is written without sentences! No wonder! That particular chapter is written in a dizzying pace which was McCann's intention I am sure to reflect Nureyev's decadent lifestyle in New York which ultimately led to his tragic demise from AIDS.

John Lennon, who by the way made a cameo in the above-mentioned New York Chapter with Yoko Ono at one of the endless wild parties with Nureyev, once said that it was all about his music for his fans rather than him, John Lennon, as a person. He meant that he wanted people to remember and judge him by his songs and music, not by what they read in gossip columns or his "Lost Weekend." I believe Nureyev would say the same thing, It was all about his masterful dance rather than how he lived his personal life. Though there was much to be desired in their moral characters and their treatment of their lovers and close friends, John Lennon and Nureyev were without a doubt the top performers in their respective arts. That's how they would want to be remembered.

I ended the book with a prayer thanking God that I do not live in a country like the former USSR, and another prayer that my family will never have to. (less)

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Apr 29, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Superb fictional look at Nureyev from McCann

Colum McCann's "Dancer", a fictitious biography of acclaimed 20th Century dancer Rudolf Nureyev, is quite simply the author's finest work of fiction to date. This is truly an engrossing, often mesmerizing, exploration of the dancer's life as seen through the eyes of his family and friends from his childhood to the end of an artistically triumphant life tragically cut short by AIDS. The son of impoverished Muslim Tatar peasants, we meet the young "Rudik...more

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Jan 15, 2012 matt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fictions-of-the-big-it, worldly-lit

Very brisk and rather quickly read. I picked this up idly from a friend's bookcase after a night of drinking, since I love to sleep but don't like to surrender that easily, and got through the bulk of it in one extended recumbency (semester's over, not much to do, figure I'd tack another contemporary up while I've got the time). the narrative is ideally suited for this kind of thing. McCann writes with some distinct, succinct, almost punchy sentences which follow each other so fluidly that the r...more
Very brisk and rather quickly read. I picked this up idly from a friend's bookcase after a night of drinking, since I love to sleep but don't like to surrender that easily, and got through the bulk of it in one extended recumbency (semester's over, not much to do, figure I'd tack another contemporary up while I've got the time). the narrative is ideally suited for this kind of thing. McCann writes with some distinct, succinct, almost punchy sentences which follow each other so fluidly that the reader doesn't really notice how easily the pages are passing.

the story is interesting for people (like me) who revel in tortured artist stories. Didn't know very much about Nureyev and now I'm curious. McCann makes what seems to be a somewhat exaggerated though essentially accurate portrait of the man- aggressive, sexy, willful, egocentric but with an equally irrefutable sensitivity and brutal sense of repressed loss. I was reminded of an anecdote I'd heard about Michaelangelo and how he loved to sculpt out of marble- the "ecstasy", as contrasted to "agony"- and the subsequent image of him as a workaholic who loved his studio and the rigors of the workshop, to say nothing of the final product. Nureyev seemed similar, and it was inspiring to read about his dedication matching his passion and perfectionism. You gotta love to practice, whatever you're doing, don't you? It might well be that whatever you find enjoyably challenging when working on- never mind finishing- might just be your calling. Screw the final product, or the pride of creation. If the moonlighting is fun for you, then you ought to think about sticking to it. Journey not the destination, blahblahblah....

All in all, a very solid story. At points McCann really hit his stride with a sort of deliberate stream of consciousness structure for "Rudi"'s semi-diary as his artistic perfection and public acclaim start to click into place. You really get the sense of what it would be like to be a touring performer, seen of course through Rudi's eyes specifically. The supporting cast of characters- his sensual dance partner Margot, Erik the possibly number 2 dancer in the world, who is also his anguished obscure object of desire, his teacher, his floundering, gradually desperate family snowed in under Soviet repression and totalitarian imprisonment, the bird-flipping 3 year exile Nureyev assumes when the word gets back from Paris that the great ballet dancer might be...um... a 'poofta', and the charismatic, sybaritic Venezuelan Victor, queen of the coke-sodden suckathon in 80's bathouse NYC who fades out dreaming of ultimate cock and shooting down his poisoned cells himself.

The novel does veer into some sort of overdone, obvious metaphorizing, dangling over the precipice of "Nice Writing"...part of the reason the book moves so floatingly and reads so smoothly is precisely because it's nearly all surface. McCann literalizes so much of the narrative and the motivations for the characters that we know pretty much exactly what we're getting, moment by moment, move by move, word for word. It's not simplistic, really, it's more that the narrative it presented with surface detail which swerves from the more ingrained form of storytelling, which would be to let the diagesis do the talking. The "show" not the "tell", in the irritating and almost irrelevant phrasing of the fiction workshop. It's a surface which necessarily follows the complex, firey, and dynamic characters all right, and therefore expresses their humanity in more complicated forms than simple minimalism would, but for a large part what you see is what you get. It's easy to enjoy but doesn't really hit the kinds of depths which the best of fiction has to offer. The dancing is vivid, but its under glass. (less)

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Feb 09, 2011 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book. He had me from the initial description of the Russian front and the building of the baths for the soldiers all the way through mid-70s gay life in NYC, a dancer's physical decline, and the end of several character's lives. I think McCann is an exquisite writer, and there were so many sentences that stopped me cold while I read the book, I had to re-read them, and then read them out loud to my companions.
I knew almost nothing of Nureyev when I started this book. I ha...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Marianne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russia, dance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have an interest with the cold war and the defections that took place during the height of communism so it's kinda surprising that I haven't read more on the subject. This book covers that, ticks the Russia box plus throws in some dance and was on special offer, which all appeals to me.

I think mostly everyone has seen, whether they know it or not, a little bit of Rudolf Nureyev dance. He was a superstar and his early performances can be found on youtube still but I knew nothing about him apart...more I have an interest with the cold war and the defections that took place during the height of communism so it's kinda surprising that I haven't read more on the subject. This book covers that, ticks the Russia box plus throws in some dance and was on special offer, which all appeals to me.

I think mostly everyone has seen, whether they know it or not, a little bit of Rudolf Nureyev dance. He was a superstar and his early performances can be found on youtube still but I knew nothing about him apart from the fact that he was an amazing ballet dancer who had defected in the early 60s. This book wasn't exactly a biography because it had amalgamations of people, and suppposings flung in amongst the facts, but there was enough truth about it to be informative.

The actual style of the book was weird for me. Speech wasn't shown conventionally, the book was split into books with very few chapters within them and perspective would shift from one character to another from page to page without telling you who it was you were reading so it kept you on your toes as you were reading. It was a little confusing at times, but it was engrossing enough that I wanted to stick with it anyway.

It covered 'Rudi' Nureyev's life from child-hood to his trip home and ended with the auction prices his belongings had sold for after his death. He was a complex character - a perfectionist who was at times deeply unlikeable but at others you almost wanted to shelter him. His relationship with Margot Fontaine was portrayed beautifully, which (combined with her financial issues) explained why they continued to dance together for so long (she still danced with him when she was 69 years old and he was 50). Rudi was decadent and used and discarded men for pleasure yet never really found any deep, lasting love or pleasure in life. The most touching part of the book for me was his visit home to see his dying mother in 1989, nearly 30 years after his defection. He showered his sister and niece with gifts and refused to leave his mother until she recognised him, but she never did.

It was a good book and has me curious as to maybe reading a different account that would perhaps be a little more thorough. I just don't know enough about him to know which parts of the story were fictionalised and enhanced for dramatic purposes (he even admits some of the celebrity accounts weren't accurate, which is a shame because they were fascinating) so eventually I might get an actual biography and try and find out what is right and what's not.

Still though, it was definitely worth a read so not going to complain too much.(less)

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Aug 29, 2010 Joseph rated it 3 of 5 stars

I guess I'm just over the let's-analyze-a-genius genre, and have been for a while. I picked this up when it came across my desk at the bookstore, because I've loved other things McCann has written, but this . . . while it is undeniably beautifully written, and parts of it are quite compelling, it turns out he subject matter just didn't do it for me, and the main character -- real-life ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev -- is such an irredeemable jackass that I had a hard time really caring about hi...more I guess I'm just over the let's-analyze-a-genius genre, and have been for a while. I picked this up when it came across my desk at the bookstore, because I've loved other things McCann has written, but this . . . while it is undeniably beautifully written, and parts of it are quite compelling, it turns out he subject matter just didn't do it for me, and the main character -- real-life ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev -- is such an irredeemable jackass that I had a hard time really caring about him. I feel like "he's a GENIUS, you know, and therefore we excuse his excesses!" is an old trope with which I long ago grew tired.

Given the way Nureyev died, the book was bound to have a depressingly typical ending for a story about a gay man who lived through the 70s and 80s at the peak of his fame and sexual prowess. The book wisely treads lightly over this topic, but still, it has been done so many times that I'm a little bored even by the hint of it. I realize that (A) the reason so many stories about gay men end this way is because so many lives of gay men ended this way in the 80s and 90s, and (B) McCann doesn't want to just pretend that Nureyev didn't die or something, but it's still ground that's been covered enough times that I'm not that interested in pursuing it anymore.

The book has many, many merits, and its most compelling sections deal with Nureyev hardly at all, but more with the lives of ordinary Russians and Uzbeks in Kruschev's Soviet Union. McCann retains his usual excellence at inhabiting the heads and hearts of disparate people, from Soviet dance instructors to Venezuelan hustlers, and the story's third-person sections display the same chilling eye for the devastating detail that he displayed in Let the Great World Spin. But for a book that is meant to be a portrait of an explosive and passionate man, it is strange that its most effective passages would be the muted and cold ones that draw pictures of those considerably more ordinary (and less obnoxious) than the putative main character.(less)

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Feb 06, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: russia

This book's sense of time and place pulled me in, right from the start. The incredible suffering in the Soviet Union during WWII and for some time afterward. The wildness of Manhattan in the late '60s and '70s.

Nureyev as a character left me a bit cold, but I enjoyed some of the minor/peripheral characters. Nureyev's first dance teachers, internally exiled from Petersburg/Leningrad by Stalin, and their daughter (she felt like someone I'd be friends with). Tom, the master shoe-maker, accidentally...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Tamara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up right after I read Let the Great World Spin, which is really one of the best books I have read in a long time. I wanted more by the author, and I plowed through this one; I read the whole book really quickly on a lazy weekend day... I liked it a lot. I love ballet so a lot of the dance jargon/references/superstars who/which appeared in the book were familiar to me and enjoyable to read about. I wasn't as invested in the story and the characters as I was in the last book, though....more

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Apr 08, 2010 Suzanne Krueger rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: paris, gay-fiction, biographical, russia, audio

I thought this was going to be about Nureyev, the great dancer/cheographer; instead it was mostly about his promiscuity and gay lifestyle. The story starts in war torn Russia, then post war Russia...if this part of the book was a color, it would be the color of dirt...gray, dismal and heartbreaking.
There is a brief description of early dance lessons and ascent of Rudolf as dancer and his subsequent defection...but from then on you are given to believe his life is one orgy after another. After aw...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, audio

This was a fictionalized account of the life of Rudolf Nureyev from about age 10 until he died. It is based on reality, including Nureyev's defection, his long relationships with Erik Bruhn and Margot Fonteyne, and his visit to his mother in 1987. What appears fictionlized are the recollections (and life stories) of numerous individuals about "Rudy," including the spouse of an early ballet teacher and the daughter of that couple, Rudy's sister, a longtime hispanic friend, the British shoemaker w...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Julia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After finishing the book, on a number of occasions, I ran into a few of Nureyev’s photos. For example, there is a little dance studio in NJ which hold classes for school aged children (I was there for a child’s B-day party). And in the main room there is a huge poster of Nureyev. It is a photo shot during one of his performances where it seems he is flying upwards into the air. And I remembered a passage in the book where one of the students, who attended dance school with Nureyev, was thinking...more

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May 16, 2012 Yves Gounin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Grand succès, mérité, pour cette biographie romancée de Rudolf Noureev publiée en 2003.
Pourtant rien de plus difficile que de mettre en mot l'art de la danse, les vibrations qu'elle dégage, l'émotion qu'elle suscite. Il est d'ailleurs significatif que la littérature ne s'y soit guère frottée.
Colum McCann - dont le talent n'a cessé de se confirmer dans ses ouvrages ultérieurs ("Et que le vaste monde poursuive sa course folle") - embrasse un parti pris audacieux. Il raconte la vie de Noureev par l...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Cynthia ☮ ❤ ❀ rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this a few years ago and really loved it. I am fascinated by the world of "Dance." This was an interesting fictionalized perspective of world renowned dancer. Why am I adding this to my read shelf now...well I have the chance to listen to it through the Audible.com Sale going on now, and I was interested to see if the story has held up. Since I read/listen to so many books, is my memory of the book better than it actually was...did it hold up to the test of time. Also, some books "read" b...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Marianne Timmons rated it 3 of 5 stars

Colum McCann actually wrote an entire chapter without a period! Now, that takes guts. Before you call the MLA police, let me at least say that it was effective and created a fabulous tone for the coked-up hustler of whom the chapter revolved. That being said, he also chose to go in and out of first and third person narrative and changed narrators often and sometimes without provocation or notice. This wasn't as successful in my opinion. I only say that because I get confused easily...I'm a blond...more Colum McCann actually wrote an entire chapter without a period! Now, that takes guts. Before you call the MLA police, let me at least say that it was effective and created a fabulous tone for the coked-up hustler of whom the chapter revolved. That being said, he also chose to go in and out of first and third person narrative and changed narrators often and sometimes without provocation or notice. This wasn't as successful in my opinion. I only say that because I get confused easily...I'm a blonde. You, however, may find it intriguing and cool. I can only trust my instincts about half the time anyway, so feel free to disagree. I don't, however, want that to cloud the fact that Colum McCann has a true gift of creating voice and mood within the text. It had a real feeling of honest storytelling that I really appreciated.

The story revolves around Rudi Nureyev, the famous Russian ballet phenom who defected in 1961. The book gives an account not only of Nureyev, but the people intertwined in his complicated life both in Russia and the west. Through journal-like accounts and descriptive outside perspective writing styles, you get to know his first ballet teacher, his ballet shoe maker, his dance partners, his housekeeper, his best friend, and others equally.

I can't say McCann made our "hero", Nuryev, a terribly sympathetic character. His temper, his eccentricities, and his bouts with an undiagnosed depressive disorder made him somewhat of a stock character (I'm kind of over the tortured artist thing in books...and life). I guess I just wish I knew maybe a little more about why he was the way he was. It kind of popped out of nowhere and fed into the folk legend of Nuryev's Studio 54 lifestyle. Meh, okay, I get it...he hung out with Andy Warhol and Truman Capote...okay, who didn't?

So, yes, I liked it. Mostly, due to the descriptiveness of the scenery, the authenticity of the humanity within the characters, and originality of style. Didn't change my life, but it's a good read. (less)

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Nov 15, 2009 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended-by-friends

An advantage of the bad weather is the opportunity to finally finish this book; and a great excuse to neglect the growing list of jobs my wife manages to create with apparent ease.

Unlike Nureyev’s feet, I found myself dragging mine; hoping the next page I turned was the last. I almost volunteered to rake leaves off the lawn in the pouring rain, or decorate the kitchen again rather than struggle with the cast of twenty odd characters telling their story of Nureyev’s journey from Russia in 1940....more

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Jun 12, 2009 Kani rated it 4 of 5 stars

I learned a lot from this book; from a detailed picture of communist russia post-WWII (a difficult era), to life as a gay man at a time when there was a lot of expression of homosexuality waking up in the western world. Very well written and in such an interesting structure: it was really nice to be listening to this book as it was read by several different actors and actresses taking on the roles of the various characters throughout nureyev's life so that we heard about this intriguing and crea...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Adri rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love the arts, and deeply admire many artists, but sometimes I think it is best to not know too much about those artists: admire them for their special talent, their ability to entrance and enchant us, but to stop right there. Too often have I found myself intensely disliking one of the 'stars' upon learning more about them.

I have always admired Nureyev for his immense talent, but I was never enchanted by him. In July 1983 I was even lucky enough to see him dance in Swan Lake at the London Col...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Dot rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting fictionalized biography of Rudolf Nureyev. The book begins in Russia in WW2 when a young Nureyev dances to entertain hospitalized returned soldiers. His family are Tatars and therefore not considered quite equal to other Russian citizens and they lived a hard life in an industrial city.
All this changes for Rudolf when his talent is discovered and nurtured and the book follows his career through his defection and subsequent life as the darling of society in the Western World. M...more

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May 15, 2013 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was fantastic. Rudolf Nureyev's life is chronicled in this book from his childhood in Russia until just prior to his death in France in 1993. The book is tragic, romantic, daring, and artfully scripted. Too many adjectives apply here. It is a glimpse into the life of a gifted dancer, choreographer, actor, son, brother, lover, and at times-- a friend as recounted by his friends. Obviously some parts of the story are embellished, altered, and a lot of people's names have been changed to...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Dan Pearce rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the second time I've read this book. The first time I read it to myself (much too fast) but this time i read it to Miranda (15 pages a night) and we're both knocked out by the passion and the originality and the sheer audacity of Colum McCann daring to write a fictional biography of Rudolf Nureyev. And I don't think anyone has come so close to describing the physicality, the exuberance, the pain and joy of dancing.
Rudi, whose early life in post-war Russia is brilliantly imagined, comes...more

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Oct 04, 2010 Doreen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: ballet fans, readers of Communist Russia

Recommended to Doreen by: just wanted to read another book by Colum McCann

I love McCann's writing. I gave Dancer a rating of four, although a three and a half is closer to my true feelings about this book. McCann creates a full, complete story through his use of narrative from each character. Every characters' feelings, perspectives, insecurities, are made evident, exposing themselves to the reader. I love that. From reading this book, I am firm in my belief that no one is completely 'wonderful'. Even Nureyev, one of the finest dancers of all time, had a less than att...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Kalen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. Best book of the year so far. This is the second book I've read of McCann's and I don't know how he writes so perfectly. Every word belongs and the structure is perfect (including Victor's single-sentence drug-fueled chapter and the way the Russian chapters become fewer and farther between the more time and distance between Nureyev and his family.)

I don't feel I know Rudolf Nureyev any better than I did before, but I think that's the point....more

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Sep 03, 2011 Joyce Dickerson rated it 3 of 5 stars

A disappointing read by one of my new favorite authors, Colum McCann. I was so looking forward to an in-depth and colorful account of Rudolf Nureyev, the defected Russian dancer who changed the world of ballet like Jordan impacted basketball. Because his story is told through the perspectives of those who knew him, Nureyev was left undeveloped and the author didn't explore what was going on in Rudi's head. I felt as though I never really understood Rudi's view-- what went into the decision to fo...more

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May 16, 2011 Ferris rated it 4 of 5 stars

All of a sudden, about an hour into this novel, I realized the author was setting Rudolf Nureyev up as the protagonaist. The novel is fictional, and is really more about the ripples experienced by the people in his life, in the life of a famous person. In the novel, Margot Fonteyn (Nureyev's partner for many years) says that the dancer's life is magnificently full, and desperately empty at the same time. That statement really sums up the gist of the story. Passion and tragedy walk hand in hand t...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Sophia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, dance

Let the Great World Spin led me to Colum McCann’s earlier novel Dancer. Based around Rudolf Nureyev, the celebrated Soviet ballet dancer who defected in 1961, I found Dancer to be akin to literary storm chasing. Those expecting a thorough fictionalized account of Nureyev’s life would be disappointed; he is like a whirlwind whose aftermath is the author’s real interest. The story is told from multiple perspectives, including those of his first ballet teacher, her daughter, his family and servants...more

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Oct 02, 2008 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Anna by: I found it in library

Great book showing life of Rudolf Nurieyev from different sides - not only artist himself, but also his family members, nurses taking care of soldiers in the end and just after World War II, dancing teachers, shoemakers, theatre workers.

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About Colum McCann

Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short stories and four novels, including "This Side of Brightness,""Dancer" and “Zoli,” all of which were international best-sellers. His newest novel “Let the Great World Spin” will come out in 2009. His fiction has been published in 26 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review and other places. He has wri...more Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short stories and four novels, including "This Side of Brightness,""Dancer" and “Zoli,” all of which were international best-sellers. His newest novel “Let the Great World Spin” will come out in 2009. His fiction has been published in 26 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review and other places. He has written for numerous publications including The Irish Times, Die Zeit, La Republicca, Paris Match, The New York Times, the Guardian and the Independent.

In 2003 Colum was named Esquire magazine's "Writer of the Year." Other awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Rooney Prize, the Irish Independent Hughes and Hughes/Sunday Independent Novel of the Year 2003, and the 2002 Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Literary Award. He was recently inducted into the Hennessy Hall of Fame for Irish Literature.

His short film "Everything in this Country Must," directed by Gary McKendry, was nominated for an Academy Award Oscar in 2005.

Colum was born in Dublin in 1965 and began his career as a journalist in The Irish Press. In the early 1980's he took a bicycle across North America and then worked as a wilderness guide in a program for juvenile delinquents in Texas. After a year and a half in Japan, he and his wife Allison moved to New York where they currently live with their three children, Isabella, John Michael and Christian.

Colum teaches in Hunter College in New York, in the Creative Writing program, with fellow novelists Peter Carey and Nathan Englander.

Colum has completed his new novel, "Let the Great World Spin." It is scheduled for release in the U.S on June 23 rd, 2009. An extract was published in the Paris Review in fall 2008. The British and Irish release will be in August, while European publishers will quickly follow up – in what amounts to an unprecedented international publication – in September 2009.

The novel begins in August 1974 as a tightrope walker makes his way through the dawn light across the World Trade Center towers, stunning thousands of watchers below. Using the true story of Philippe Petit as a pull-through metaphor, McCann crafts a portrait of the city and a people. There’s Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, who struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn the sons who died in Vietnam – they soon discover how much divides them even in their grief. Further uptown, Tillie, a 38-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenaged daughter, determined not only to take care of her “babies” but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory of 9/11 comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the tightrope walker’s “artistic crime of the century.” McCann’s most ambitious work to date, Let the Great World Spin has already been described as a triumphant American novel.

Let the Great World Spin will be published June 30th. Advance copies will be available here on GoodReads!!!!

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Quotes from Dancer

“He's at ease, his body sculpted to the music, his shoulder searching the other shoulder, his right toe knowing the left knee, the height, the depth, the form, the control, the twist of his wrist, the bend of his elbow, the tilt of his neck, notes digging into arteries, and he is in the air now, forcing the legs up beyond muscular memory, one last press of the thighs, an elongation of form, a loosening of human contour, he goes higher and is skyheld.” — 5 people liked it

“I could tell from Anna's face that she had already told him about dancing in Saint Petersburg and that the memory weighed on her heavily. What monstrous things, our pasts, especially when they have been lovely. She had told a secret and now had the sadness of wondering how much deeper she might dig in order to keep the first secret fed.” — 2 people liked it

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