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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Together they will discover unforgettable surprises in this Eric Hoffer Award-winning novel. Highly recommended., October 6, 2007
This review is from: Dancing Backward In Paradise: A Novel (Paperback)
Dancing Backward in Paradise is the debut novel of award-winning theater actress Vera Jane Cook, about one young women's quest to find herself in "Paradise" - New York City in the 1960s, a place beset by hippies, ambition, and the turbulence of the civil rights era. At first, nineteen-year-old trailer park resident Grace Place enjoys amorous trysts with her lover, Lenny Bean, more than anything else; but urged by her mother to seek fame and fortune in New York City, she works as a cleaning lady for the wealthy Betty Ann Houseman. When her lover betrays her and seeks to steal Betty Ann's estate, Grace is shocked, yet remains intent upon fulfilling her mother's wish and seeing New York City with her best friend, Ginny Jo. Together they will discover unforgettable surprises in this Eric Hoffer Award-winning novel. Highly recommended.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic book!, May 6, 2008
This review is from: Dancing Backward In Paradise: A Novel (Paperback)
I absolutely cannot recall when I read a book that I enjoyed (loved) as much as I did "Dancing Backward in Paradise," written by Vera Jane Cook. Starting with that wonderfully apt title, I became so totally involved in this story that takes place in a tailor park called "Paradise," l was so totally fascinated with the characters who lived in the town of "Holy Horrible Hixon," that I couldn't tear myself away from that crazy, mysterious, wonderful trailer park world.
My favorite characters were Miss Grace Place ( Every single time I read that name, I just giggled, wondering how the author ever came up with it.), Mama Place, and Betty Ann Houseman. Poor dear! There was such warmth and love (and a bit of lust) in all three of those characters, and Vera Jane Cook portrayed them perfectly. Then there was also Mrs. Bean talking in verse all the time. What a stroke of genius Cook's part. Oh, and I also loved Miss Dorothea.
One of the very best things about Vera Jane Cook's writing is how she magically turn words into touch -- into feelings. For example, talking about a little boy, Chelsie, "I felt him wrap himself around me like gift paper on a birthday box." And about one of the several villains in the book, "He got meaner than a bumble bee shooed off a flower." And, "She curled up there every day just as happy as a fly on buttered toast." "I felt as high and as spry as a bumblebee let loose on a sunflower.....as effervescent as champagne on New Years." And so many, many other wonderful similes.
This book is filled with delightful characters, charm, warmth, love and last, but certainly not least, wonderful humor.
In closing, I will just say that I ADORED the book, and look forward to reading many books from a superb writer.
Arlene Uslander
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coming of age in the 1960s told with great characters, September 10, 2007
This review is from: Dancing Backward In Paradise: A Novel (Paperback)
(This book was a finalist in the Indie Excellence 2007 Book Awards)
The setting is Hixson, Tennessee, in the mid-1960s, but this story could be set anywhere, with any dialect.
The story is the step beyond the "coming-of-age" period for Grace Henrietta Place, who has lived all of her life in Paradise Trailer Park with her parents and her brother. Her life has been uneventful, and she and the country are still clinging to the last remnants of their innocence. It's a small-town atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and relationships are complex, complicating and confusing. These are not genteel Southern people but earthy and unsophisticated folk who use explicit language.
Grace's mother has had one goal for her daughter--to go to New York and become an actress. For Grace, getting to New York requires much more than just saving the money to go. People and unforeseen events keep threatening her move to New York. Grace has a new boy friend, Lennie Bean, whom she finds is not only unscrupulous but may be planning a murder. She enlists the help of her mother and a new friend, Ginny Jo (who thinks she is the only lesbian in Hixson), to prevent the murder. Determined not to disappoint her mother, Grace and Ginny Jo, in a junky car with little money and a Chihuahua, leave Paradise for New York. Grace's loyalty, compassion and determination bring her into a new circle of friends in New York as she creates her new life.
The author introduces a parade of personalities that you will recognize--people that you will want to know and that you will miss. The life and richness she gives to the people of Paradise will take you in like a welcomed stranger. You will love knowing Grace, her family and her friends, both in Hixson and in New York.
Life has its tragedies, humor and mysteries, and this story has all of that. Some really good novels slip through the cracks, don't let this be one of them.
Armchair Interviews says: Dancing Backward in Paradise is a story you do not want to miss.
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