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Astonish Me
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Astonish Me
Unavailable
Astonish Me
Audiobook10 hours

Astonish Me

Written by Maggie Shipstead

Narrated by Rebecca Lowman

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Unavailable in your country

About this audiobook

The New York Times bestselling author of Great Circle

‘Brilliantly written; the first ballet novel for grown-ups’ THE TIMES

‘A bravura display of high-performance art’ GUARDIAN

‘Brims with emotion … an accomplished novel embracing both domestic drama and the competitive quest for perfection’ SUNDAY TIMES

Astonish Me is the irresistible story of Joan, a young American dancer who helps a Soviet ballet star, the great Arslan Rusakov, defect in 1975. A flash of fame and a passionate love affair follow, but Joan knows that, onstage and off, she is destined to remain in the shadows.

After her relationship with Arslan sours, Joan decides to quit ballet and make a new life for herself. But as the years pass, Joan comes to understand that ballet isn’t finished with her yet…

From the prize-winning author of Seating Arrangements comes an exquisitely written, fiercely compelling glimpse into the demanding world of professional ballet and its magnetic hold over two generations.

‘Cleverly constructed with some elegant pirouettes of its own’ DAILY MAIL

‘A gripping mix of family drama and insight into the world of ballet’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

‘Shipstead is a gifted writer who examines families and relationships in a poignant, insightful way’ STYLIST

‘A dazzling story rooted in the competitive world of dance’ WOMAN & HOME

‘So graceful, so dazzling, so sure-handed and fearless, that at times I had to remind myself to breathe’ Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette

I will be paying close attention to Shipstead’s career from here on in’ Jeffrey Eugenides

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateMay 8, 2014
ISBN9780007543731
Unavailable
Astonish Me
Author

Maggie Shipstead

Maggie Shipstead graduated from Harvard in 2005 and earned an M.F.A at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She was also a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Her debut novel, Seating Arrangements, won the Dylan Thomas Prize and the LA Times Prize for First Fiction. Astonish Me is her second novel.

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Reviews for Astonish Me

Rating: 3.768292707317073 out of 5 stars
4/5

205 ratings21 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have read all 3 of Shipstead's novels and this one is good but not at the same level as the other 2. It deals with world of ballet and is probably accurate in its portrayal of the industry. This book constantly bounces around in time so it can be hard to follow but that worked for me. Joan is a ballet dancer who realizes that she will never be a star and the book shows her relationship to a star dancer, her "best" friend who becomes her husband, and her son. The story had some plausibility issues but the book kept me interest. If you want to look behind the scenes at ballet then I think this would be a good choice. The writing is excellent.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Astonish Me is set in the competitive world of American ballet. Shipstead dissects the disappointments of her characters at the gap between dreams and reality.The story jumps backwards and forwards in time between 1973 and 2002. As the novel opens in 1977, young dancer Joan has realised that she is never going to be a star, and when she becomes pregnant she drops out to marry her old schoolfriend Harry. She is also running away from a failed relationship with Arslan, another dancer, whom Joan helped to defect from the Soviet Union. Joan’s more talented friend Elaine continues her dance career.The story jumps forward a few years to Southern California, where Joan, her husband and son have moved in next door to Sandy. The competitive focus has shifted to the women’s ambitions for their kids.I was drawn to the ballet/theatre setting of the story, but there is little of the glamour and excitement associated with that environment here. What made it a good read was the characterisation, and Shipstead’s ability to maintain a fine balance of spiky wit and compassion. Shipstead’s characters are not always likeable, sometimes they do things which are frustratingly foolish, sometimes I found them really annoying, but they came to seem very real and I was drawn into caring about what might happen to them.I received a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine programme.Reviewed 9 September 2014.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's astonishing that Shipstead and I are the same age, yet she writes as if she's been doing it for decades. Absolutely loved this book, the timeline and narrator jumps. All of it. Also, the last page. This book has broken me of my habit to not read the last paragraph before starting at the beginning.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Bravo!
    Nothing earth shattering happens in this novel, but I found myself unable to stop turning the pages as if I was reading the most edge-of-your-seat thriller. Shipstead's ability to immediately hook the reader with her writing prowess isn't loud and aggressive, but more subtle and gentle, an enjoyable experience that leaves you wanting to read more by this gifted author even before the last page is turned.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Maybe my expectations were too high, but I felt very lukewarm about this book -- the milieu was interesting, but the characters weren't, and I thought that the whole thing was pretty predictable.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Joan Joyce, a member of the corps de ballet, realizes that she will never become the prima ballerina of her heart’s desire, nor will she be good enough for the Russian danseur she helped defect. She heads for Chicago where she marries her high school love; they have a child and she settles into being a wife and mother; ultimately, she becomes a dance instructor. When Joan’s son, Harry, and Chloe, one of her dance students, both show great promise as dancers, she finds herself thrust back into the world of ballet. But a long-held secret threatens to destroy the life she has built for herself. Although not particularly likeable, the characters are well-drawn and seem at home in the competitive world they inhabit. This tale of hopes, dreams, and of the pursuit of perfection plays out against the backdrop of the professional ballet and, despite the rather jaded outlook spun out in this narrative, the behind-the-scenes look at the ballet is a highlight of the book. Although astute readers will easily deduce the long-held secret long before its reveal, this nuanced, emotional tale will remain with them long after they’ve turned the final page.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Perfectly satisfactory novel that revolves around the world of ballet.

    Joan has been training to be a ballerina all her life. It is her only goal. She makes it into a crops in NY, and gets to perform in Paris. But somewhere along the line she realizes she will never be a soloist--no matter how hard she works, her body just can't do it. Should she just keep going until she is too old?

    In the meantime, she helps a Russian dancer defect. She then marries her best-friend-since-forever. They have son, move to CA, and she finally does start teaching dance, and her son and his best friend (the next door neighbor girl Chloe) both work with her.

    And so it goes. Can Harry or Chloe achieve Joan's long-ago dreams?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I think this is my new favorite author. She develops characters wonderfully, takes me to a new place I'd not been before and I feel at home there, and then ends her books in such a satisfying way. They just stop, but they stop in the best place. Can't wait for the next one she writes. And will own this when it comes out in paperback.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I, too, listened to the audio book version and really enjoyed it. I learned many previously unknown things about the world of dancers, ballet in this case. The plot is fairly thin, but it still made for an enjoyable listen.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is about ballet, striving for perfection, competition, dreams, reality, growing up, marriage, disappointment... Well, it's about everything seen in a new light, and I loved it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I checked this audio book out from my library without knowing much about it, and it ended up being quite a good story. The story centers around a mother and her son and their shared love of ballet. Joan was once a promising dancer. She helped Arslan Ruskov defect from the Soviet Union and had a brief affair with him. But she eventually quits performing, marries her high school sweetheart Jacob, and has a son. Harry is not interested in ballet at first, but eventually becomes an excellent dancer destined to follow in his mother's footsteps. The story is told non-linearly, so we learn more about the young Joan even as her son Harry is growing up. The two of them are extremely interesting characters, and their passion for ballet drives many difficult decisions for both of them. Although other characters are not as complex, I still found the story and its inside look at the world of professional ballet to be an intriguing one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having taken ballet lessons as a child and being fascinated by the defection of Rudolf Nureyev in the 1960s and having actually met him on the occasion of his performing in my home town, I was very interested in this book and its depiction of the world of ballet. It felt "real" to me, except for the collaboration between two of the principal characters near the end which I think needed to be fleshed out more because it seemed kind of odd.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In Maggie Shipstead's first novel, Seating Arrangements, she managed to brilliantly capture the voice of a middle-aged man contemplating an affair during the weekend of his daughter's wedding. I was so impressed with Shipstead's beautifully crafted sentences, it was like she spent hours making each one perfect.In Astonish Me, Shipstead once again drops us into a world we don't know. We feel what it's like to be a part of a ballet company, the competition, the discipline and way one must give oneself completely over to become a dancer worthy of being part of a ballet company. Like athletes, at some point everyone must come to the realization that they are no longer good enough to go to the next level.The novel moves back and forth in time, and we see Joan as a young dancer and then as a wife, mother and teacher. Joan's husband has loved her forever, but sometimes he feels she doesn't love him or their life as much. He says to Joan:"Most of the time now you're here with me- really here, invested; it's not like it was at first- and I think, she's letting me know her, really know her the way people do when they're married. And at other times you're so distant it's like someone's swapped you out for a forgery. You seem like you're going through the motions."One of the most interesting characters in the novel is Elaine, Joan's friend from the dance company. She is a better dancer than Joan, and has a long-time relationship with the dancer who founded their company. Shipstead could have another entire novel from Elaine's point-of-view.Astonish Me is another brava performance from Shipstead. Joan is a fascinating protagonist, so complicated and although she is so closed up, Shipstead lets us see inside to who she really is. Fans of ballet will definitely like this insider's look.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If you are in the mood for a novel with true heart and pure emotion there's no need to look any further than Maggie Shipstead's 'Astonish Me'. Shipstead has an undeniably remarkable way with words that transcends any boundaries we may have thought were securely in place. Ballet is not a passion of mine, it has not been a part my life - I never took ballet classes, like so many parents automatically send their little girls to. Even so, this book spoke to me in a way that's so reflective of Maggie Shipstead's talent it is impossible to deny.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Entertaining and well written, though the ballet stuff was over my head and made it hard to visualize what was happening in many instances. Not sure if I missed an important piece of the story because of that.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a wonderful book! This is so smart and quietly propulsive, and the writing is positively beautiful. This is about the world of dance and the people who live in it, but it is much more. There are huge themes here. How important is art? Does art have to be great to be worthwhile? Is art inextricably wound with politics and commerce? What is the price of secrets kept and what are the justifications for deception? What is love? There are also complex and true characters with very beautiful and very ugly and very important relationships. I had gone through a run of books that were not very good, but this restored my faith in the power of good books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Completely immersed in the world of ballet, Joan helps a Russian star defect and then becomes romantically involved. Their relationship has long term affects of them and the other people in Joan's life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Enjoyable. If you enjoy ballet this is a lovely novel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The basics: Stretching from the 1970's to the early 2000's, Astonish Me is the story of Joan, a young ballerina good enough to make the corps but not good enough to ever be a star. Joan's story is told in chapters and vignettes that move back and forth in time.My thoughts: As someone who has little coordination and even less grace, my fascination with ballet and dance truly stems from appreciation. Maggie Shipstead clearly shares my fascination with ballet, and the characters in this novel are at times both reverent and critical about ballet. These complicated feelings about ballet extend into the characters' lives too, and Shipstead's prose is astonishingly good. For so much interior insight, there is also a lot of action. Joan is at the center of this novel, but the secondary characters are actually more intriguing. From Joan's roommate and fellow dancer Elaine, to Russian defector Arslan Rusakov, to Joan's husband and son, as well as her neighbors, Joan is enhanced by each secondary storyline.Shipstead's observational writing reminds me of Curtis Sittenfeld and Susanna Daniel (all three are graduates of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, for what it's worth.) I'm a reader who likes to know it all: I want plot, but I want to understand each character's feelings and perspectives. Shipstead delivers, and the non-chronological structure adds layers and layers of emotion, knowledge and understanding for the reader without, thankfully, distracting from the narrative itself.Favorite passage: "When they are alone, lying quietly, he holds her the way a child holds a stuffed animal: for comfort, for security, out of a primate’s urge to cling, to close one’s arms around a warm, soft object."The verdict: Astonish Me is a novel that feels so much bigger than its pages. It's a family saga of sorts, but it's greatest achievement is in combining a compelling plot with well-developed characters, and both are as good as they are thanks to Shipstead's wise, observant, and descriptive prose.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Full immersion into the world of a professional ballet and the dancers, their world, their hopes and dreams. The struggle to be better, jump higher, despite injuries and bleeding feet, to be noticed. Yet this story is so much more. What happens to the dancers when they cannot dance? How do they make a new life for themselves? Joan is one such dancer, who falls in love with another dancer, who does not stay. Her story and her sons, who becomes a ballet prodigy himself. Well written with a quiet wisdom, this is an enthralling read about families, secrets and sacrifice.It is based on some actual well known dancers, and it was easy for me to guess who was represented by whom in this novel. Loved every minute of this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this book, it made me think of Raising Jake which is a parallel telling of the lives of father and son.

    Ugh. That blurb makes this book sound terrible to me. I promise you, it's not. I picked up this book on NetGalley only because I knew (vaguely) who Maggie Shipstead was, because I had (kind of) wanted to read her largely celebrated debut novel, Seating Arrangements. I still haven't read Seating Arrangements. I probably will.

    Anyway, Astonish Me is not a love story, per se, but it does concern itself with the inner lives of a number of people. In this way it is a character study, with professional ballet as the backdrop. While there is action, it happens quietly almost as an aside, to better showcase the characters. I've never done ballet so I'm sure that I missed out on a lot of thrill that readers who have an intense interest in dance may have gotten from this novel. I can't speak to how close to reality the situations that the characters find themselves in are, but everything that happened seemed at least plausible.

    The prose is simple, yet elegant it's told with an omniscient voice but switches the character it is focused on fairly often. Because of this device it is sometimes difficult to figure out which characters and central and which are not. True, it is primarily Joan's story, but the reader is given insight into characters, like Elaine, Joan's one-time professional ballet roommate who while she is necessary for action in the story otherwise seems to be a peripheral character.

    Many reviewers complain that this book is not long enough. I agree. Shipstead could have fleshed out her characters more, she was on the road for greatness and had she done that with this novel she could have rivaled J.K. Rowling or John Irving. All the characters had plenty of story left to tell, many idiosyncratic traits left to discover. Maybe next time.

    The ending, while some of it not unexpected is appropriate and satisfying.

    I'd recommend it for people who generally enjoy character studies or those with a strong interest in the world of professional ballet.