{"id":494,"date":"2009-10-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T23:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=494"},"modified":"2024-12-31T13:56:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T00:56:45","slug":"dancing-backwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2009\/10\/05\/dancing-backwards\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing Backwards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>Sally Vickers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>HarperCollins<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times,  October 5th 2009<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ginger Rodgers supposedly did everything that Fred Astaire did-backwards and in high heels.\u00a0 Not an easy feat, but one that the protagonist of Sally Vickers\u2019 latest novel, <em>Dancing Backwards<\/em>, discovers an unexpected aptitude for.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Newly widowed and preparing to embark on a 6-day transatlantic cruise, Violet Hetherington is taking a major risk; at its destination she hopes to mend a decades-long estrangement from an old friend and mentor. Despite her apprehensions and natural reserve, however, she begins to relax as she settles into a voyage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Accustomed to pleasing others, she accepts her attentive stewards\u2019 suggestion that she try ballroom dancing and is pleasantly surprised to find herself a natural.\u00a0 Buoyed by this accomplishment, Violet begins to dance metaphorically as well as physically backwards, into memory. History is juxtaposed against on-board events, none of which are in themselves of great significance but all of which establish her as a person that others come to respect and depend upon-in sharp contrast to her own self-perception.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Although the adjective \u2019bittersweet\u2019 is on overused clich\u00e9, it perfectly describes the tone of this novel. Violet regrets the mistakes and lost opportunities of the past but is determined to follow her own desires after years of satisfying the expectations of others.\u00a0 The combination is satisfyingly optimistic, without the saccharin aftertaste that so often accompanies such \u2018uplifting\u2019 fiction. The secondary characters, too, are unexpectedly eclectic and interesting. As well as reveal Violet\u2019s strength, they offer insights into the diverse ways people discover and maintain relationships, even between the most unlikely of partners.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Light without being lightweight, <em>Dancing Backwards<\/em> is a graceful novel in high heels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sally Vickers<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Otago Daily Times review October 5th 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[88,370,18,106],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-88","tag-fiction","tag-odt","tag-sally-vickers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}