...a deathly serenade...

find complicated: "The story is of course following
this famous Russian ballet dancer, living and
working in Soviet Russia, married to Jesu another
dancer he calls, throughout the novel, his muse
and reason for living…..The story unfolds and
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AA
Gordunov's prose is like a Russian Jean Genet…
tough but subtle….beautiful….It seems that it is a
love story, but tragically, Jesu; his wife and muse,
when she is being held up whilst executing a port
de bras with the famous dancer Jeanne Sylvanie
Arnould-Plessy at the Mikhaylovsky Theatre, falls
and breaks her neck. But here's the thing,
Gordunov depicts these scenes with so much
poetry, it literally touches your soul…. but the
protagonist goes through this complete existential
meltdown, authentically, and spirals into poverty
and a change in career as a writer, but forced to
dance again because the Theatre needs him and
him being the Russian President's favourite
dancer. He eventually does and performs the
famous play, Lonerism, with so much veracity and
electricity that all those in attendance had shivers
running down their spine for most of the play—
can you see the imagery? But, yes, how this book
remains so relatively unknown is amazing. But the
final scene comes, which is a five minute solo
dance by this protagonist―who performs with so
much poise, it was said that it was the best solo
ever performed by those observing this beautiful
but completely broken man dance. The solo
seemingly ends with rapturous applause, everyone
can't believe what they have seen, the president is
71