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Dance on My Grave |
Author: Aidan Chambers
Published: 2008-10-01 |
List price: $8.95
Our price: $7.61
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As of: January 07th, 2009 03:13:08 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 My favorite book
I originally ran across this book in the "young adult" section of the library, but I think it is just as rewarding for adults as it is for teens. The author has a wonderful flair for language, and the story is poignant and engaging. If you enjoy this, I'd recommend checking out the other books in this series... they don't share characters or story, but they do share certain thematic elements, as well as the author's unique style. My personal ranking for the series (from most favorite to least favorite): 1) Dance on My Grave, 2) Postcards from No Man's Land, 3) Now I Know, 4) The Toll Booth, 5) Breaktime... I have to admit that I haven't yet tackled This Is All.
 Adult love and grief
Hal Robinson is sixteen, has just finished his school exams and has no idea what he wants to do with his life. Will he stay on at school? If so what will he study? Or will he get a job like his father wants? Hal lives at Southend, the part of London where the Thames River meets the sea. One day he 'borrows' a friend's sail-boat without asking permission. A storm blows up and soon Hal capsizes the boat. Then into his life sails Barry Gorman, eighteen year old, expert sailor, who rescues Hal and who it seems will soon sort Hal's life out. Soon Hal finds himself falling deeply in love with Barry, and it seems his every fantasy is about to be fulfilled. But, as Hal reveals at the very beginning of the book, Barry's life is destined to be cut short.
This book is written in a quirky, interesting, experimental manner. The text consists of Hal's first person account, six "running reports" by Hal's social worker, two newspaper clippings, and a school essay. The personal account features "action replays" in which Hal goes over the scene he has just described filling in the psychological details that could not be included in the flow of action. One important theme to arise is the 'postmodern' question of how much a written account mirrors reality? Hal desperately wants to be honest, but no matter how much he tries his words fail to describe the true 'feeling' of events, or can be interpreted in a way that varies from the 'truth'.
While being an account of a death the book is often surprisingly funny. I found myself laughing out loud in several parts. Grief, however, inevitably takes the main stage at the end of the story, and is represented in some considerable depth. This is not really a tear-jerker though, as throughout the book we have always known that Barry will die.
Of course the book is also a description of first adult love, in all its depth and pain. As the story progresses Hal moves from confused teenager to wounded but wiser adult. While this could be described as a 'gay' story the book can be also enjoyed by 'straight' adolescent readers: love, death and truth are in fact universal themes no matter in what details we dress them. The story includes some sex but it is only very discretely referred to.
This is an English novel and some colloquialisms and cultural references are included which US audiences may find difficult to understand. There is not enough of this though to make the book inaccessible: in fact most of the text should be crystal clear.
A Hard Lesson in the Obsessiveness of Love
I first came across this novel in my eighth grade year at school. It had been the first homosexual novel that I'd ever read, and I found it both surprising and satisfying; it was a coming-of-age story about a pair of young men who happened to meet by chance of fate during the summer vacation and ended up spending several weeks together.
Hal seems much more committed to the relationship than Barry, who acts as though his time with Hal is merely an exciting fling. And one morning, Barry, filled with exhilaration, makes Hal promise that if one of them dies, the other must dance on his grave. For Barry to ask such a daring thing of Hal only serves to further arouse Hal's interest and he becomes more obsessively committed than ever, for he had always hoped to find the ideal, "bosom" friend, and he feels that Barry must certainly be "the one".
Dance on My Grave was like nothing I had ever read before, and admittedly, the novel seems targeted more towards a British audience and someone unfamiliar with British terms may have to reread certain parts several times to fully understand the book. But I have remained forever attatched to this book, for it evoked such emotions in me as I had never felt before. You can't help but feel sympathy for Hal, who, for his whole life, has been searching for the perfect friend and lover but could never find anyone that fit his ideals... until he met Barry.
The lesson of the desperate, clinging obsession that comes with true and unconditional love in this story seems to be like the young adult equivallent to Joseph Olshan's Nightswimmer. I highly recommend this book.
Great Story
I read this book a couple of years ago and I havent been able to forget about it. It was a great story of two young men who fall in love and find their lives turned around by their situation. I recommend it to anyone looking for something out side the norm!
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