I often forget where I heard about books. They end up on the list of books I've requested from the library, and when I check them out, I sometimes wonder how such a book came to be of interest to me.
Such is the case with Megan Abbott's The Turnout. It's a drama based in a family-run ballet school, which places is well outside of any topic that I'm typically interested in. I've never read so many pages about The Nutcracker. I've actually never given any thought to the Nutcracker, or to ballet. There was quite a bit of discussion about the symbolism present in the Nutcracker. I suppose the book was educational in that way.
The book begins and ends with fire, wrapped around a murder, and is filled with intrigue all the way through. There are two sisters, each with lives shaped around ballet, their lives marked by trauma and yet graced by the beauty of ballet. One of the sisters has a husband, Charlie, who is physically handicapped due to the bodily sacrifices necessary to excel in ballet. It's painful to read, and it touches an ancient theme -- that of an artist sacrificing for the muse, for the beauty of art.
Mostly, as the book hauntingly ends, I was left with a question about families. Our families are all we know growing up -- they shape us and mold us in ways we often realize much later (if ever) in life. Since our family is all we know, we think that it is normal, whatever it may be. Each family is uniquely singular, and how does one recognize dissonant chords in the family one grows up in? I suppose each of us, in looking back, can see how things might have been different, but as a child, on what basis would you determine that something should not be so?
It's a humbling thought for this parent of small children. Such responsibility is laid upon parents, and I give thanks for those who surround us and help us through.
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