Customer Reviews

Memoirs of a Dance Hall Romeo (Windsor Selection)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Higgins is famed for his spy novels and thrillers; since I don't read those kinds of books, I had never read Higgins. (I do read mysteries, but only the "cozy" kind.)

But "Dance-Hall Romeo" is a a change of pace for Higgins -- no spys, no thrills, just a sweet, charming, coming-of-age story. This is the first book I ever bought mainly because its cover art was absolutely GORGEOUS (but of course, the story also sounded appealing).

Higgins' words were as much a feast for the eyes as was the cover art. Trust me, you'll enjoy this well-written story, and this book will be a keeper.

Who would be an author without a very thick skin?

The "Publishers Weekly" review said "slender yet interminable" and "abrasively sentimental". To whom is sentimentality abrasive, apart from this moronic reviewer?

The "Library Journal" review said "yet another sophomoric reminiscence". Has Nora Rawlinson suffered some kind of slight at the hands of the author at some stage? Or did she just want the dinner party cred of having given a famous author a backhander?

Perhaps the author would have been wiser not to use this pseudonym on this book, but his publisher probably demanded it.

Anyway, this is a gentle, reflective short novel about a young man learning about the infinite variability of women. It is well written and a pleasure to read.

This book is very poetic and flowing. I enjoyed it very much.

At twenty one, discharged from the military in 1949, former clerk Oliver Shaw, who had been stationed in Germany, was eager to make up for "lost time".

Like most youths at his time, that meant catching up on his shares of honey from girls. For his own life, he wanted to write, though he had yet to sell any of his writing.

The novel is written from a first person's narration. Oliver found himself at loose ends, trying to find some sense in his life even as he went gallivating to various dance halls, trying to pick up girls, at the same time earning a living until he could sell his writings.

He bounced from one girl to another, each different in her own way, some satisfactory, some not. Yet for this dance hall romeo, it seemed that it was the women who taught him something instead of the other way around - that was the very element in the story that defeated its title.

Told as a tale of a coming of age, it ended with the young man finally finding his feet and just about to embark on his life's journey properly, or at least, with some aim in life.

nice story element for teenagers. describe as it were real.