TEST
Sometimes, despite an author’s obvious writing skills, a book just fails to get off the ground. For me, Dance With Me was one of them. Although technically well-written, it reminded me of several other authors who write in this same style. The characters are so middle-America as to be bland and uninteresting, and the plot points on which the conflict of the novel rests were stale and unoriginal. Bluntly, this book just didn’t do it for me.
Jane Porter is a New York baker famed for her special cakes, into which she pours all the frustrated maternal love she feels for the baby she gave up as a teenager after conceiving out of wedlock. When she can no longer avoid it, she makes her way home to Twin Rivers, Rhode Island, to take care of her aging mother and be reunited with the painful memories from her past. Almost from the beginning, she is unable to resist revisiting the places of her youth where the tormented memories that made her alienate herself from her charming childhood home are finally brought out to the light of day.
While Jane has been doing her own thing in New York, her sister Sylvie stayed behind to handle the awesome job of caring for their diabetic mother, now slipping away piece by piece. Both Sylvie and Jane are struggle to come to terms with the idea that their mother may need to go into a nursing home, something their mother obviously does not want. Meanwhile, Jane has a few bones to pick with her mother concerning the fate of her baby girl. When Jane sees a young girl working at the local orchard, she is immediately drawn to befriend her. This girl, Chloe, confides in Jane about her troubles with her adoptive parents, and her bitterness yet longing for the birth mother she has never met. Can you guess who Chloe is?
Meanwhile, to complicate things further, Chloe’s uncle Dylan Chadwick, who works the local orchard, is having his own problems. A former government agent, he was present at the murders of his wife and his own daughter, who would have been Chloe’s age had she lived. He is tormented by Chloe, who is a constant reminder of his daughter. His determination to throw himself into the livelihood of an orchard owner is a wild attempt to bury his painful feelings, and to escape the memories that trail him through life. When he finds out that Jane is a famed New York baker, he involves her in baking apple pies for Chloe to sell at the orchard’s roadside produce stand, where Chloe and her best friend are working their summer jobs.
By this point, the novel screamed “cheese!” at me. The simplistic manner in which these characters’ problems were resolved left the impression of a superficial, half-written story that could have had far more impact. The theme of an adopted child reuniting with her birth mother is not a new one, and the way it was told certainly didn’t add any new or interesting twists to this staple of Women’s Fiction. I also felt that several melodramatic and schmaltzy events were designed purely to manipulate the readers’ emotions, in a way that was not genuine, but overly calculated and contrived. Many major incidents occurred that were facilely resolved later on, including Chloe’s traumatic experience at the hands of a local bad boy, and her uncle Dylan’s melodramatic hero routine.
Not only was the plot itself contrived and unoriginal, the number of uncanny coincidences, such as Jane and Chloe both being vegetarian animal-lovers who are highly emotional individuals, meant that the characterization also left a lot to be desired. Dylan Chadwick as the tormented ex-government official didn’t bring anything new to the story with his tired “tragic cop” routine, and the lame way in which his and Jane’s conflict was finally resolved didn’t elevate him to any great heights as a character. Jane herself veered from being a cardboard cut-out loner-rebel type, whose supposed edginess left me cold, to being completely unlikable. It seemed to me that she stalked her daughter, and I found her unsympathetic in how she resolved her mother’s situation.
Authors with similar writing styles – such as the incomparable Alice Hoffman (author of the brilliant Illumination Night), have done this type of story with far more heart. While there is no doubt that Rice is a skilled writer, this book relies on the same trite plotting and heavy-handed symbolism that we’ve seen too often. I felt manipulated by the cold attempts to tug at my heartstrings. Perhaps it’s time for Rice to change the record and her formulaic approach to writing, and to consider something a bit more groundbreaking and less safe? This reviewer thinks so.
Grade: D+
Book Type: Women's Fiction
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 11/07/04
Publication Date: 2004
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.