There Should be More Dancing took me far longer to read than it should have, largely because I was not compelled to keep on, despite its many fine qualities. Humour is so subjective - for me there were no 'laugh out loud' moments, but enough 'smile in recognition'. It's largely black humour, and the whole tone of the book is a dark one.

Margery Blandon is an interesting protagonist: woman of nearly 80 who has lived for the past 60 years in the Melbourne working class suburb of Brunswick. On page 266, well into the book, she muses:

It's never occurred to me that there was anything wrong with my little family, but as I sit here in this room ...
You could say that, in hindsight, the signs were all there.
They were never apparent though.
Well, alright then, I just never saw them.

And this, essentially is what the book is all about.'This room' is on the fourth floor of a hotel (a countdown room, 4321) where she is planning to plunge to her death after realising that her little life has amounted to not very much at all. Her children are appalling: the aspirational Judith and her real-estate-obsessed husband Barry; the never-present Morris (he's languishing in a Thai prison) and Walter who is brain-injured after a boxing injury, but who presents as the most sympathetic of the lot in his simpleminded way. Her husband Lance has been dead 20 years but is still very much present as Margery reminisces and he has a great deal to do with the denouement.

The 'signs' certainly are all there to the reader as the voice switches from Margery's second person conversations with her dead twin Cecily, and the third person. Margery's philosophy of life is summed up by the sayings that she works in cross-stitch and covers every possible surface of her cottage, as well as foisting them upon the neighbours, and there is a sound-track of references to the music of Margery's younger days.

The story explores the gentrification of Brunswick with long time residents having to cope with the ways of incomers, including immigrants. It's a story of many betrayals and secrets, but also kindnesses. Margery and Walter's relationship with next-door Mrs Parsons is touching, and Mrs Parsons' death and the backstory of her life that we gradually become aware of is moving.

Many of the characters - and they are memorably depicted - are elderly, and the novel serves to highlight elder abuse, neglect and the availability of services, but too often the black humour slips into farce, and for me the awkward structure and changes of voice interrupted the narrative flow.

I haven't read this author's highly acclaimed The Dressmaker but I will add it to my list as she makes sharp observations and creates larger-than-life characters. This one though, was a bit of a disappointment, despite some real strengths.