Danse noire

by Nancy Huston

Dans un hôpital agonit Milo, veillé par Paul Schwartz. Celui-ci, réalisateur américain, se prend à rêver d'une dernière collaboration avec son ami, dont le destin hors du commun constituerait la trame d'un scénario. Ils reviennent alors sur le passé de Milo, qui a traversé le XXe siècle, ses tourmentes et ses joies.

Genres: Canada, Fiction, LGBT, France, Contemporary, Novels

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2013

About the author

(from Wikipedia)
Huston lived in Calgary until age fifteen, at which time her family moved to Wilton, New Hampshire, USA. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she was given the opportunity to spend a year of her studies in Paris. Arriving in Paris in 1973, Huston obtained a Master's Degree from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, writing a thesis on swear words under the supervision of Roland Barthes.

(Actes Sud)
Née à Calgary (Canada), Nancy Huston, qui vit à Paris, a publié de nombreux romans et essais chez Actes Sud et chez Leméac, parmi lesquels Instruments des ténèbres (1996, prix Goncourt des lycéens et prix du livre Inter), L'empreinte de l'ange (1998, grand prix des lectrices de ElleJ et Lignes de faille (2006, prix Femina).

Reviews

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Huston's BLACK DANCE is a powerful, provocative and highly original novel, published first in French (2013) and translated by herself in 2014 into English. What strikes the reader from the outset is the unusual structure: the novel is in part a work in progress for a film script, in part a memoir and a family chronicle and, set against the backdrop of the social and political realities of her characters' times, an astute commentary on the conditions that have formed them.

The novel opens with a hospital scene: Milo Noirlac is a dying man, his career as a successful screen writer at its end. Paul Schwartz, his friend and longtime lover is a famous film director. In an interplay of words and motions they embark on one more collaborative project: a screen play for a movie about Milo's dramatic life.

The novel is divided into ten chapters, each carrying the title of a movement of the capoeira, a Brazilian dance that is as much martial art performance as rhythmic dancing. Milo, Neil, Awinita each have individual sections in each chapter, told mostly chronologically. The chronology is, however, often interrupted by an ongoing interchange between Milo and Paul about the film script. Huston does this with fluidity, confidence and ease. Drawing on her own wide ranging experiences and research she presents the reader with an intricate multigenerational family portrait.

The novel's structure may seem complex and even confusing at the beginning but soon the different elements fuse into a symbiotic narrative. Nancy Huston weaves the novel's three narrative strands into a story of individual struggles for survival, of heartbreak and endurance, failure and success. Yet, when bringing the individuals' stories together, we discover a deeply moving story of yearning for love and understanding across cultures, language barriers and social strata.

The three central characters are connected by a family bond: Grandfather Neil, immigrant from Ireland, mother Awinita, a very young Cree prostitute in Montreal and her son Milo. Milo's father is Neil's son; neither parent can look after the boy and after being shifted from one foster home to another, one residential school to another, he is adopted by his grandfather... each story is deeply affecting on its own and even more so when seen together as each struggles against the odds in their lives.

Nancy Huston's BLACK DANCE could indeed be imagined as a film, as a novel about a film in the making. Her story spans one hundred years and gives a panoramic view of the countries of her characters. It is a richly drawn novel with many captivating characters. Huston's writing can be clear-cut and precise, at times raw and hard-hitting; her language can also be intricate and intimate, gentle and touching. It can be lyrical and imaginative. For those who have not read Huston's work before, this is an excellent beginning to get to know her and her extensive writing.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I wanted to like more. Why wouldn't I? Set in Northeast Brazil, Quebec Province, and Ireland at the time of the Easter Rising - it should be right up my alley. The main character is Milo Noirlac who is a bisexual, film screenwriter and the godfather of a Brazilian boy named Eugenio. Milo is the son of an Irish-Quebecois father and a Cree Indian woman who was a prostitute. His grandfather, Neil Kerrigan, was involved as a teenager in the Easter Uprising, and a friend of Yeats and "Jimmy" Joyce. Yeats urges him to run off the Canada to escape jail and execution. Capoeria, the African Brazilian martial art, is at the center of the Brazilian part of the story, and some "local" color is injected. Each of the 10 chapters is named with a Brazilian Portuguese word, related to Capoeira. Much of the novel is written as a screenplay for a film which is distracting, and adds nothing to the story. I imagine it is supposed to support Milo's character as a screenwriter. This is a novelist I didn't know and the accolades on the book jacket give the impression she is much admired. However after this novel, I don't think I will read anything else by her. The edition of the book though is a beautiful paperback with deckled pages and flaps inside the front and back covers.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Wow! Wow!

Slow to get in step with this novel, once I caught it's rhythm, I couldn't resist the heart-echoing beat.

The story gradually reveals the terrible, marvelous life of Milo Noirlac. We experience Milo both entering and leaving life.

Milo is the abandoned child of a heroin-addicted teen prostitute and a drunken Irish-Quebecois father. He is also a talented screenwriter who suffers dark deep silences.

Milo's Irish grandfather rescues him from foster care and brings him home to raise on a Quebec farm.

The grandfather's early life in and eventual exile from Ireland, the mother's horrific daily struggle and Milo's lifetime influences are beautifully braided -- over, under, and in between, in the form of a screenplay that transforms into a love letter from producer Paul Schwartz and then into something more, still.

The exquisite personal portrait is enriched with Irish history and compelling comparisons to life in Quebec.

And, then there is the Capoeira -- the rhythmic fight-dance Milo reveres, and the book takes it's chapter headings from. It's beat reverberates through Milo's mind and heart. And mine.

[AnZo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficile d'y accrocher dans les 50 premières pages environ mais au final ça vaut le coup de tenir. Ecriture qui sort de l'ordinaire entre le dialogue entre un scénariste et son amant, et l'écriture d'un scénario un peu spécial.
On traverse le XXe siècles à travers les vies de 3 générations d'une même famille, et d'origines différentes. Une 2e lecture ne serait pas superflue!

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Black Dance was a great idea, executed poorly. A failed lawyer and poet at heart from Ireland during a rebellion, an under-aged Cree prostitute in Montreal, and the violent and tragic life of a boy who calls them family. Milo, the child of the aforementioned Cree prostitute, is writing his last screenplay from his deathbed.

Sounds pretty good, right? It would have been an amazing story, if it had been told a little differently.

The narrator is the dying protagonist's lover, Patrick. The voice flips from 1st person as Patrick recalls moments with Milo to 2nd person as Patrick recalls Milo's life to him. The majority of the story is told in 3rd person, as Patrick describes what the movie will look like from the audience perspective. I get that this was supposed to show the reader Milo's life from birth to death and weave the theme of how generations affect each other, but it just added extra complication to an already overly complicated story.

The imagery of the characters was a little lacking for me as well. There were sparse details given, and many of them far too late to do any good. A lot of the scenes are in places I have never been, and couldn't begin to imagine, and not much was done to help me create a mental picture.

Black dance gets into a lot of different cultural themes in its span across continents. One of the themes is based on a South American dance. The author doesn't reveal the significance of the dance to Milo's life until the very end of the book, so the reoccurring references are confusing instead of adding meaning to the tale. Most of the book takes place in Canada, which wasn't clarified for the first quarter of the book. The French Canadian accents that are present in dialog from the beginning were coming off as bad English from someone uneducated as opposed to being from a French speaking person. To make it more confusing, there is a fair amount of French throughout the book, which I had to stop and translate for the scene to make sense.

There were a few creative surprises throughout the story that kept me turning the pages, otherwise, I would have called it quits on this book after the first 2 chapters.

[Charlène · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grand ouvrage, complexe aussi. Avec Huston les débuts sont toujours difficiles, le temps de rentrer dans l'histoire, mais la suite est toujours prenante.

[Mladoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livre complexe à mi-chemin entre le journal intime et le scénario cinématographique sur trois générations, on est happé par ces descriptions percutantes comme un rythme de capoeira à la lecture.

Beaucoup de texte en anglais (c'est pourquoi je le déconseille si vous avez du mal avec cette langue, car la traduction en québécois courant voire familier n'est guère compréhensible si vous n'avez jamais été sur place, même connaissant le québécois je comprenais mieux l'anglais que la traduction c'est dire), ce qui est plutôt inhabituel et plaisant si vous versez dans la langue de Shakespeare.

3 tranches de vie dans lesquelles on se plonge avec le narrateur (compagnon de Milo) qui suit le fil du "scénario" de la vie chaotique de celui-ci à travers celle de la jeunesse d'un grand-père adulé et d'une mère inconnue pour ainsi dire et l'enfance de Milo (jusqu'à sa vie adulte).

Un livre dur mais qui prend aux tripes. J'ai beaucoup aimé et je serais curieuse de voir une adaptation filmée de cette œuvre et croyez-moi si vous ne l'avez pas lu, il y a tout ce qu'il faut pour en faire un grand film

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading other reviews here, this strikes me as a particularly good example of how the same book comes across so differently to different readers. It's not that I disagree with any of the criticisms I see - too many viewpoints, elements that reoccur sporadically, skipping across cultures at a breakneck pace - it's just that they didn't bother me. Nancy Huston was born in western Canada but lived most of her adult life in Europe, and I always find that this sensibility comes across vividly in her books. I felt like she captured and rendered Ireland, Quebec and Brazil admirably in this story, as well as a variety of viewpoints both male and female, young and old, privileged and very much not (Awanita's story is profoundly disturbing). I also loved the conceit of the proposed screenplay as dictated by Milo's lover by his bedside - I felt like I could visualize much of it as I was reading. I played capoeira music on my phone beside me as I was reading.

[Filipa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I was expecting but it was definitely a good surprise. I was not very enthusiastic at the beginning of the book but as I was reading it, I was surprised not only with the writing but also with the plot itself.
I must say that I probably wouldn't choose to narrate like this, but in the end it made total sense for the story to be narrated as it was.
It was an interesting book: completely out of my comfort zone but good.
I liked it.

[Stephanie Carne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to give up reading this - too many depressing stories. Drug addition, prostitution, painful. I felt like Houston was trying to be overly explicit for shock value. Disappointing compared to Fault Lines.

[valerie QUICHAUD · Rating 3 out of 5]

une histoire sur trois generations dans trois pays .. dommage que le language soit si simpliste .. attention beaucoup de passages en anglais traduits en quebecois familier ..

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing Visually

This coruscating novel follows three protagonists in its span of almost a century. The earliest is Neil Kerrigan, a young Dublin lawyer and would-be writer, contemporary with "Willie Yeats" and "Jimmy Joyce," who leaves Ireland after been implicated in the Easter Rising of 1916, and emigrates to Montréal, changing his name to Noirlac (black lake, which is what Dublin means in Gaelic). Moving forward to the 1950s, we get Awinita Johnson, a Canadian Cree, the illiterate teenage prostitute who falls in love with Declan Noirlac, Neil's ne'er-do-well son. And finally Milo Noirlac, their son, who after a childhood in care, enters the film industry and becomes highly successful as a screenwriter. And the secret of his success? That he "has hit upon the perfect compromise between Neil's ultra literary tradition and Awinita's oral one—writing orality." An ideal talent for the movies. And to this, Nancy Huston adds her own special skill, seeing everything through the eye of the camera—writing visually.

The novel opens in 2010. Milo lies dying, presumably of AIDS. His long-time lover and artistic collaborator, the film director Paul Schwartz, discusses a movie based on the life of Milo's family. It may sound artificial, but the frequent jump cuts, visual descriptions, imagined sound effects, and snatches of dialogue make a propulsive verbal rhythm that keeps all three time frames spinning and somersaulting with scarcely a pause for breath. The various sections of the novel—musical movements, I should say—have names like Ladinha, Ginga, Moleque, and Malícia; all are terms from Capoeira, the Brazilian art form that is half street fight, half choreographed dance. This is a multicultural novel, with settings from Québec to Rio, and cultural echoes from Gaelic to Cree. Like most of her novels, Huston wrote it first in French then translated it into English; both languages appear in its pages, with traces of many more.

You would never know it, such is its exuberance, but it is a book about failure. Neil Kerrigan fails in his attempt to free his country from British rule, and watches its further struggles from an alien land while his hopes of writing literature to stand alongside Yeats and Joyce slowly die. He sees his daughters raised in a tongue and tradition not his own, and his son Declan turn away from the life of the mind. Awinita's natural intelligence and beauty is eroded by the realities of her life as a prostitute, and she is unable to look after her son. Milo has mixed luck with foster-parents, but even the good times come to an end. He is taken in by his sanctimonious aunt, who loses no opportunity to remind him that he is a mixed-breed bastard whoreson, before sending him off to boarding schools where he is prey to the prying hands of priests. But he does develop a very special relationship with his grandfather that is treasured by both of them. His adult life is sketched more briefly, but it too ends in a tragedy that Huston will not reveal until near the end of the book.

But tragedy overall? No way! So brilliant is the narrative device that carries the book, so rich the characters, so strong their aspirations that, failing or not, they sweep the reader up in headlong flight. The book cover prints a glowing endorsement from Paris Match: "A blazing ode to freedom." Better believe it!

[Aurelie 732 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comme à chaque fois, la magie Nancy Huston a opéré sur moi.
J’ai été immédiatement transportée et passionnée par les destins croisés des 3 personnages principaux, vivant à 3 époques différentes et issus de la même famille.
Ce roman est très particulier à bien des égards.
Tout d’abord dans le fond : il s’agit d’une tentative de Paul Schwartz de raconter l’histoire de la vie de Milo dans une adaptation cinématographique. La narration est donc émaillée de "c’est pas mal, ça" / "Bon, on réécrira ce passag" / "Fondu au noir". Cela surprend un peu pendant les 3 premières pages, et puis… on s’y fait.
Mais aussi dans la forme : Bon, c’est du Nancy Huston ce qui veut dire que c’est superbement bien écrit. Mais il y a surtout une originalité au niveau des dialogues, avec un incessant mélange de langue : les personnages sont irlandais ou québécois, et parlent dans leur vraie langue, un peu comme dans le film "Babel". Ainsi, une discussion entre deux anglophones sera écrite en anglais dans le texte (traduite en français… ou plutôt en québécois, en bas de page).
On sent que Nancy Huston, elle-même canadienne anglophone vivant en France et écrivant en français, s’est fait plaisir et a pu donner libre cours au melting-pot linguistique qui s’agite dans sa tête, sans restriction. Cela ne m’a pas du tout gênée (au contraire), mais si vous n’aimez pas lire en anglais, cela risque d’être assez fastidieux.
Les personnages, quant à eux, sont très différents, mais tous très attachants :
• Neil l’aspirant écrivain, rebelle idéaliste dans sa jeunesse irlandaise, qui finit par ressasser les mêmes regrets et souvenirs, devenant un papi radoteur plus vrai que nature à la fin du roman.
• Awinita la jolie indienne blonde, prostituée, enceinte et droguée, tout ça à même pas 20 ans; on peut dire qu’elle cumule les ennuis… On tremble pour elle à chaque instant.
• Milo, fils d’Awinita et petit-fils de Neil, abandonné à la naissance, ballotté d’une famille d’accueil à une autre, battu, maltraité, malheureux, mais aussi extrêmement intelligent et brillant, aux humeurs changeantes, pour ne pas dire bipolaire.
Contrairement à ce que j’ai pu lire dans différentes critiques, je n’ai pas trouvé que le livre soit difficile à lire; au contraire, la structure du roman m’a parue très claire et fluide, comme une évidence.
Si vraiment je devais trouver un point négatif à ce roman exceptionnel, je pourrais dire que Nancy Huston commence peut-être un tout petit peu à se répéter : eh oui, les thèmes abordés (transmission, filiation, histoire familiale, héritage lourd à porter) ainsi que la structure (roman polyphonique donnant la parole à plusieurs personnages d’une même lignée à différentes époques) sont très semblables à celles de son chef-d’oeuvre, "Lignes de faille"…
Heureusement, Danse Noire est un roman suffisamment solide pour exister de lui-même sans souffrir d’aucune comparaison.

[Tex Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 of 5 stars – Well Written, Quietly Sad Story of Three Family Members and Their Struggles.
(I'm excited to have won this as a Goodreads First Read – so thanks!)

This was a melancholic story, told in an interesting way with good characterization, of a grandfather, mother and son (Milo), mainly reflecting on the unfortunate aspects of their lives.

The story is told by Milo’s sometime lover and filming partner as if creating a life-movie script (with scene setting, camera shots and all), as he sits next to Milo in his hospital bed. Maybe due to having to figure this out, the book initially started in a jumbled, disconnected, and to me confusing manner, but it soon evened out and I got into the rhythm and flow of the narration (as the book’s title suggests, based on the MC’s love of capoeira). From there, Nancy Huston did a good job of organizing the story by rotating sections around the POVs of the three MCs.

I liked the many multicultural aspects, from the locations, art forms, race, class, national identities, and sexual identities. As for the latter, it turned out he was bi, Milo’s sexuality was not a big part of the story, just part of it. No crisis in sexual identity, it just was (kind of like how Milo took most things in life, learned from coping with the abuses he’d experienced). While I do like gay stories in various genres, it seems many make it the primary focus, blurring anything else that might be happening in people’s lives. And this story was not about that, and I found that refreshing and appreciated.

Huston’s scenes, characters and dialogue are well written and descriptive, yet it seemed Milo’s passive, subdued character made for a passive subdued story. And in that sense it was good. But as a result, I never was truly engaged, didn’t emotionally connect with the MCs, and while what happened stirred my feelings, it felt like I was observing it from the outside.

Throughout, while you may find in this your own version of hope (if you’re wanting that), this is an interesting, sometimes tragic depiction of how people’s hopes meet the realities of life.

[Sally Balboa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this novel from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. I was confused when I started reading, because the novel is written in someone giving directions for a movie. A really interesting way to write a novel but it took me a while to get with the program, but after a while I was enthralled.

Black Dance is told from technically one point of view, but told from three different people all related in one way or another. The first is Milo who is a small boy in the beginning, growing up in cruel foster homes and constantly being told what a piece of trash he is because he's half Indian. The next is Neil, who is Milo's grandfather and his story takes place way before Milo was ever thought of, Neil is a writer from Ireland. The next is Milo's mother Awinita, a teenage Indian prostitute. Throughout the story Milo is now grown and dying, beside his lover who's telling the story.

My favorite part in the novel were definitely Awinita's parts. I guess she just had a more dramatic thing going on, like the life of a prostitute, heroine, and pregnancy's. Milo was my second favorite because he had a sympathetic plight, a terrible family and some pretty awful things that happen in his life because of his family. Neil was my least favorite, I just couldn't get interested in him, he felt in his younger years to be stupidly ambitious even if it would cost him his family. I just couldn’t like him until he became Milo's grandfather.

There are some reasons why someone might not want to read this book, there are homosexual relationships, rape, prostitution, and some other sexual deviant things discussed in the book. But I'd lie it known that a lot of these are necessary to the story and enhance it to make it more life like, to give the characters a more real feeling.

I like the style of writing of this novel, it gives it a different kind of depth then the kind we see in novels that are written as they usually would be. A new perspective on scenes because the person telling it gives there own opinion on what's going on or talks to Milo on his deathbed.

[Antonio Marrero Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, by the 5 star rating its pretty clear I liked this book, I like it a lot... I mean a lot. The story itself it really good and interesting but the writing style of Nancy Huston was the cherry on top. The dialogue is fast paced and there was no filler. In a 260 page book there was more character development, more creativity, and more complex intertwining plot than books of almost twice the amount of pages that I've read. Masterful storytelling.

Each chapter is divided into three parts, each part follows a different character (Milo, Milo's grandfather Neil, and Milo's mother Awinita... did I spell Awinita right? Let me check... Yes, yes I did, awesome). Every one of these characters has a pretty intense story, Awinita is a prostitute dealing with two pregnancies and her leech of a boyfriend (Declan), Neil the lawyer and political activist who can't seem to write his "classic", and the main main (super main if you will) character Milo who is just hit with every tragedy life can throw at him. I think the author does an amazing job not only telling each individual's story but connecting them at various points.

All this is being told from Milo's lover's/friend's point of view, who is telling the story like he is directing a movie, mentioning camera angles and how the scene is set up. I've seen in the reviews a couple people didn't like that but I found it refreshing and creative.

I don't really have an negatives for this book, the only thing I can think of is that there is some French that is sometimes translated (two or three times) but for the most part isn't translated, personally I'm currently trying to learn French so I can just add this to my daily practice but for other people I can see that being a bit frustrating. Also, if you get uncomfortable with reading about child abuse, rape, incest, and homosexuality then I wouldn't recommend this for you, since they do go into some detail with each of those.

I absolutely love this book and I am very interested in reading more from this author. I received this book from a Good Reads First Reads giveaway.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trois destins, un siècle et plusieurs langues. Je ne m'attendais pas du tout à ce que ce roman se déroule au Québec sur plusieurs générations. Au début, c'est un peu difficile à suivre mais un peu de patience et on embarque. Comme toujours avec Nancy Huston, les personnages ont des parcours difficiles - Neil, qui doit fuir l'Irlande en 1918 et tente de se refaire une vie au Québec; Awinita, une jeune femme autotochne travailleuse du sexe à Montréal loin de son peuple; et Milo, personnage central du roman né au début des années, pour qui la vie est un parcours de survie. Et, comme souvent avec Huston, la musique est présente et ici c'est la capoeira qui rythme le roman. Un roman de violence et poésie construit comme un scénario de film - une construction originale qui ajoute une toute autre dimension. J'ai trouvé le ton et les univers des personnages réalistes et respectueux. C'est tout un risque que d'écrire les dialogues dans la langue du personnage - anglais et français - et j'ai trouvé que ça fonctionne. Les thèmes de l'identité, l'exil, et dela langue, abordés dans d'autres romans et dans l'essai Nord Perdu, dominent le roman...et l'univers de Nancy Huston et c'est une des raisons pour laquelle ses livres me touchent.

[David Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Dance, by Nancy Huston, is my one hundred and forty-seventh book that I have received and read from Goodreads. This book is set in Northeastern Brazil and Ireland. I had a hard time getting started into this book, but it becomes more interesting as you go on. The story tells about the life of Milo Noirlac. He is on his death bed, he and his partner are writing the screenplay for the movie, telling about Milos life. The screenplay includes Milo' s family, mainly his grandfather and his mother, and how their lives led them to the point of their interactions with Milo. This clearly shaped Milo into the person he became.
Milo' s mother Nita had a really hard life, which led her to working as a prostitute, which in turn led Milo into the less than shinning path that he led in his life. The flip side was Milo' s grandfather who's life was a dedicated writer and professional reader, and how much it shaped Milo into the person he was.
I will not get into the story other than to say, how all three characters facing their own difficulties within their lives were interwoven. I would recommend this book to anybody. I would like to thank goodreads for choosing me as a winner to read this book.

[Megan Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a First Reads winner and when I finished it, I wanted to give myself a few days to think it over before I added a review. The style of this book is one that I've never encountered before and I think that in itself was quite interesting. Milo, the main character, is on his death bed and he and his partner are writing the screenplay for a movie detailing Milo's life. This screenplay includes Milo's family, mainly his mother and his grandfather, and how their lives led them to the point of their interactions with Milo which, clearly, shaped who Milo became. I think the most interesting story was that of Milo's mother, Nita. The rough life that she leads working as a prostiture absolutely played into the less than shining path that Milo had to walk. His grandfather's life as a dedicated writer and professional "reader" also shaped Milo into who he became. Overall, this story was a sad one with each of the three interwoven characters facing their own difficulties, some more extreme than others. When I began this book, I wasn't sure I'd stick with it or come to like it but the novelty of the style and emotional connection to each character kept me reading and in the end, I was glad to have finished it. Thank you for choosing me as a winner.

[Irina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most unique book I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The perspective is constantly shifting and we are pushed along across continents, across time and across several generations. I was a bit confused at first, especially reading Neil-centered chapters. I'm not that familiar with Irish history, but I was really into Milo's and Awinita's chapters. There is a fluid-like quality to this story, the memories change and morph into new memories (whether they are real or not is impossible to say). As Paul's character was providing a sort of voice over quality to the events, I found myself more and more intrigued with Milo's life. Although we are never told how he contracted AIDS, his impending death almost seems unfair given his extremely difficult life, riddled with obstacles and challenges. Whenever I have a hard day, I think of what Milo had to endure and become acutely aware that someone's life can be and probably is a lot worse. Although I really enjoyed this book, I don't think it will appeal to a mass audience. You have to be receptive to its idea and rhythm and be prepared for some explicit scenes.

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I feel I got a lot from this book in spite of the fact that I didn't especially like the style or the characters (one I found especially distasteful) I am giving it a 4.

This is a testament to the strength of NH's writing and her astute vision. And the book has some important points to make, sometimes a bit ponderously but mostly woven into the fabric of the story. There is no doubt in my mind that when she writes about prostitution and Irish nationalism and displacement and the immigrant experience, she knows what she is talking about.

"If you take it as your starting point that everything is unfathomable, and stick to it you will never be disappointed.". p45

NH is always making her readers work hard to enter her meticulously framed worlds, and even this awkward and uncomfortable book in the end did not disappoint.

I wonder about the movie...

[Bob H · Rating 4 out of 5]

An original method of storytelling, a coming-of-age in three plotlines: Milo Noirlac, who with his partner Paul Schwartz, is making a deathbed memoir in the form of a screenplay, in which he also tells of his Canadian-Irish father and First Nation mother and of his Irish emigrant grandfather. It's told in a choppy progression that evokes James Joyce, or maybe William S. Burroughs, at times. Still, the reader can follow and explore the lives and rich backgrounds. Set in Ireland at the time of the 1916 Easter Rising, early- and mid-20th Century Quebec, and early-21st Century Brazil, the backgrounds seem genuine (the Ireland episodes include cameos by "Jimmy" Joyce and "Billy" Yeats). It can be gritty at times -- it's a candid exploration of poverty, addiction and various sexualities -- but lively.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway, Thank you!

A unique story of three generations of men who face trials that shape their lives. Each man balks at the life imagined for him, choosing to follow his own path. This novel delves into the history of the Irish vs. English, French Canadians and the hardships faced by Native Americans.

I think this novel was well-written. I appreciate how the author didn't shy away from any details and let the reader experience the stories without any sugar coating. While I wouldn't recommend this to everyone I do think someone who has read and enjoyed Khaled Hosseini would also like this.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Canadian author Nancy Huston is one of my favorite working writers, and her latest novel, Black Dance, captures what’s so great about her writing. This multigenerational tale—think Zadie Smith or Michael Ondaatje—spans Dublin’s 1916 Easter Rising, rural Quebec, and Montreal’s midcentury underclass to tap into questions of (multi)cultural identity, creativity, and childhood awakenings. It quite literally braids together the lives of its characters in a fluid, sensory way. And with the help of the book’s screenplay framing, Huston, who self-translates her own work from French to English, packs all of this into a tight, fast read.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant as always, Black Dance tells the story of Milo Noirlac as he lays dying in the hospital. Told in tiny segments, the book details his,life, the lives of,his parents Nita an Indian prostitute and Declan, son of Neil and exiled Irishman. While a little slow,at the beginning, until I got into the rhythm of the book, the writing is evocative of the cadences of English, French and Irish as well as the Brazilian fight dance capoeira. An amazing accomplishment for this author

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspective for this story. A dying man and his lover, co-screenwriters writing one last film about the dying mans life. Following his family from 3 generations back till the present, we are introduced to a wide variety of characters. They are well described and believable, including the lead character, however the twist of plot at the end left me feeling the story was unfinished.

I received this book as part of a good reads giveaway.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great characters. Just a fabulous story. The key is to understand there are three points of view in each chapter, and in each chapter they are presented in the same order. And each of the points of view run chronologically.

[Alainfalque · Rating 2 out of 5]

All black .....and in the black you can t see anything . Very confusing and chaotic expressin

[Marlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been a much better story without the movie directer inserts and if the story was presented chronologically among the 3 main characters.

[Dominique Jacques]

Un "jeu" d'écriture entre roman et synopsis de film. Au bout du compte pour moi illisible!!