Review: The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

Title: The Cranes Dance

Author: Meg Howrey

Publisher :Knopf Doubleday, Vintage Books

Publication Date: 5/15/2012

Source: NetGalley








Summary from Goodreads:

I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake last night.
So begins the tale of Kate Crane, a soloist in a celebrated New York City ballet company who is struggling to keep her place in a very demanding world. At every turn she is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who has recently suffered a breakdown and returned home.

Alone for the first time in her life, Kate is anxious and full of guilt about the role she may have played in her sister’s collapse.  As we follow her on an insider tour of rehearsals, performances, and partners onstage and off, she confronts the tangle of love, jealousy, pride, and obsession that are beginning to fracture her own sanity. Funny, dark, intimate, and unflinchingly honest, The Cranes Dance is a book that pulls back the curtains to reveal the private lives of dancers and explores the complicated bond between sisters.

My review/thoughts:
The Cranes Dance is about the Crane sisters: Kate and Gwen. They are both ballerinas and this story gives you a glimpse into the New York ballet world. Kate is the oldest of the two sisters and narrates the story. She talks to the reader and tells us how she has been dealing with her sister's downward spiral into craziness, while showing that she herself is a little crazy as well.  After Kate feels she can no longer handle her sister, she calls their parents. The story goes from scenes of what Kate is doing in the present to when Gwen was acting weird and paranoid. The story got really interesting when you dug a little deeper into the book. It was a fabulous read. If you want to read a book about sisters dealing with mental illness and are curious about how the ballet world, then works this the book for you.