- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Coffee House Press (Sep 1 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1566890861
- ISBN-13: 978-1566890861
- Product Dimensions: 22.5 x 14.8 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Light and lovely, Cooney's third novel (after Small-Town Girl and All the Way Home) is about the way one superb ballet teacherAindomitable, aging Irene KamskyAtouches the lives of her students and alters her community. From a dance studio in her ranch-style home, located in a suburb north of a nondescript town, she and her art shape the stories of many characters, each narrating his or her own chapter in this slender novel. Among the unpretentious ballerina's admirers (all refer to her, respectfully, as Mrs. Kamsky) are her devoted assistant, Margaret Dunlap, who gets the job under false pretenses, but learns to love her employer, doing everything from caring for Mrs. Kamsky's arthritic hip to monitoring her record collection; tortured Lisette, Mrs. Kamsky's legendary student, once a serious ballerina until foot injuries forced her to become a teacher herself, and who drinks to drown her sorrows; and Mrs. Kamsky's current class of "boy ballerinas" who describe, in first-personal plural, their feelings before and after their first public performance. While its plot is slight, the novel is full of warmth and insight. Cooney's not-quite-articulate characters are clumsily eloquent, whether it is Margaret describing her first glimpse of male dancers ("If I never saw the moon before, not even in pictures, and no one had told me that it existed... would I know what it was?") or the boys explaining how they learn to really listen to music ("the notes of the music are going into us in the part of the brain where we know basic things"). Though it favors abstraction at the expense of cohesion, Cooney's small novel is a valentine to the transformative power of art.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Who says all ballerinas must be beautiful and young? In her third novel, Cooney (All the Way Home) tells a story about dance and its restorative powers. Irene Kamsky is an elderly former ballerina suffering from orthopedic problems who earns her living teaching ballet. When her beloved proteg?e leaves her, a heartbroken Kamsky starts up a class for teenaged boys (some of whom are real troublemakers). As the boys learn to love ballet, Kamsky's passion for art and creativity is rekindled. Related by multiple narrators whose lives Kamsky has touched, this story showcases the author's talent for telling compelling tales and creating flawed but lovable characters. Feisty, eccentric, and independent, Kamsky is an inspiring protagonist. Recommended for public libraries.AEllen R. Cohen, Rockville, MD
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good book by Ellen Cooney, April 8 2002
By Sunshine Moday - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Old Ballerina: Novel (Hardcover)
In this novel, Ellen Cooney tells a story about the art of dancing. The Old Ballerina tells a story about teaching and learning. The book tells about how Mrs. Kamsky is recovering from a hip injury while teaching a class of teenage boys. The novel talks about how Mrs. Kamsky is dealing with her hip injury. The book will inspire you to never want to give up at something you love. The Old Ballerina is a book we will never want to put down. The book The Old Ballerina will help anyone realize the importance of learning. The author Ellen Cooney makes you feel as though you are right there watching everything that is going on, by giving lots of details about what is happening and what people and places look like. The Old Ballerina has now become one of my favorite books, because it has lots of excitement and you never know what will happen next.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ellen Cooney's THE OLD BALLERINA, Oct 1 2000
By Diane Curtis - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Old Ballerina: Novel (Hardcover)
There's magic at work here as Ms. Cooney reveals both the pleasure and pain that a brush with culture can bring to otherwise mundane lives. THE OLD BALLERINA raises several heavy issues too, but always with a gifted touch that's as light as the wonderful "tinkle tinkle tinkle" music one of its many characters plays.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Old Ballerina, April 28 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Old Ballerina: Novel (Hardcover)
"The Old Ballerina" is an exquisite portrait of a ballet studio run by a crippled old dancer in a crippled old New England town, It's about real people with real troubles finding sanctuary abd community in a world of honor and discipline and music. The writing is poetic, yet simple and clean, a series of melodies that flow with breathtaking grace, then linger and endure. Though the lives of the characters are hard, the book is about triumph. It is transcendent. I loved this book, a sanctuary in itself.
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