by Emily Kate Long

Meg Howrey’s novel The Cranes Dance (Vintage Contemporaries, on sale May 15) is the twisted portrait of New York ballerina Kate Crane, as told from Kate’s point of view. She is funny, stubborn, jaded, guilty. She is a dancer. She has a sister. She lies to herself. She questions her own sanity. She is trying to decide what she wants and who she should be. Even when I didn’t like her, I still liked her because I knew her. Reading this novel, I felt about Kate the way you would feel about your sister or a longtime friend, which is appropriate considering Kate’s love/hate/jealousy/admiration/guardian/saboteur relationship with her younger sister Gwen.

The reader is plopped down right in the middle of what turns out to be a pivotal season in Kate’s career. Howrey opens her novel with a hilariously irreverent description of Swan Lake: “…here we are in the Village Green of Wherever filled with people who like to greet each other maniacally every ten seconds and then in walks Prince Siegfried…” Kate’s description is that of someone who has become disenchanted with ballet’s magic on the one hand but on the other hand cares desperately about her work, although she isn’t always sure why.

We are introduced bit by bit to Kate’s sister Gwen, though Gwen as a character is never fully fleshed out. Kate alludes to Gwen’s final breakdown, at which point Kate feels compelled to call their father to take Gwen back home to Michigan where she is treated for an unidentified psychological condition. As the story progresses (related as Kate’s day-to-day mixed with flashbacks and background information concerning the events leading up to Gwen’s departure) Kate’s world is turned upside down with each discovery she makes about her role in her sister’s breakdown, her own mental state, and whether or not any of her relationships actually matter. [Read more…]