false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166504670m/12560.jpg 12560 9 As a teenager in Oak Ridge, Illinois, Walter McCloud is desperate for adventure, hoping for love and success as a dancer. "If life for Walter was composed in part of confusion, shame and deception, the ballet was order, dignity and forthright beauty." In 1995, at 38, nothing has turned out as he had expected. Having spent years working in a dollhouse shop in New York and engaging in that city's ready sexual excitement, Walter finally returns to his Midwestern roots, accepting a teaching job in Otten, Wisconsin--a place that might have little to recommend it save its proximity to his family's summer home. ("It had taken Walter several years to admit to himself that he couldn't go on indefinitely selling Lilliputian Coke bottles and microscopic toilet-roll dowels.") In this new community, he will have to keep his head down, a stance that has long suited him, because he prefers to hold one memory of lost intimacy and perfection in high, private relief. <p> Walter's exile, or new start, allows memory to come to the fore, particularly that painful year in which his brother was dying of Hodgkin's and he and his fellow dancers were dying for experience. Jane Hamilton explores the distance between desire and reality, satisfaction and secrecy, irresistibly alternating between past and present. At first, we can't wait for Walter to break through, and it's tempting to race through her prince's history--one which is, happily, not that short. But to do so would be to miss out on Hamilton's fine major and minor characters and her exploration of competition, complicity, and silence. At one point, Walter fears that his pupils have "no clue that there was pleasure to be found in observing character. They seemed to be afraid to look around themselves and find a world every bit as amusing, ridiculous and unjust as Dickens's London..." Hamilton's readers, however, will find this pleasure in abundance. 758679 1998 The Short History of a Prince total:405|5:68|4:150|3:132|2:46|1:9| 405 1437 545 32 4 1 false false Tue Jun 19 19:55:42 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 19 20:04:42 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 19:25:55 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 11:51:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Jun 15 06:23:35 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 06:23:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jan 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 10:41:59 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 10:45:49 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 10:23:56 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 10:25:26 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri May 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 16:46:32 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 16:51:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 09:40:13 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 10:42:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Thu Aug 13 08:52:51 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 08:53:19 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 28 15:33:33 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 18:04:54 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 10 17:42:47 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 25 20:57:19 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 13 07:39:35 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 13 07:43:50 -0800 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Apr 03 10:00:50 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 10:01:06 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Tue Aug 04 18:56:02 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 18:58:56 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Sat Nov 29 12:40:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 29 12:40:16 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Thu Jun 12 13:59:20 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 11:19:16 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jun 17 03:59:42 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 04:00:01 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 13:57:34 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 17:00:18 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Dec 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 17:00:59 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 10:52:21 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 27 15:22:03 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 15:46:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 06 15:53:46 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 06 15:56:26 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=12560