Dance Lessons

March 21, 2011
When New Englander Ellen Boisvert journeys to her deceased husband Fintan Dowd's seaside village in Ireland, she comes face to face with Jo Dowd, the embittered mother he once claimed was dead. Separate narrative strands of flat, present-tense prose focus on Ellen, Jo, and the now-teenage daughter Fintan had with his first love. As family secrets are gradually revealed, Ellen must reconcile the sometimes-violent man she knew with new perspectives. With its depiction of troubled mother-son relationships, follies of youth, the limited choices to be found in rural Ireland, and of consequences wrought by lies of omission, Greaney's second novel (after The Big House) depicts grief with trust in the reader's empathy. The author is able to capture emotional nuance with minimal flourish; her characters emerge as strong individuals confronting unexpected pain. Unfortunately much of the book exists to establish a background counterpoint, and Fintan himself remains elusive, this is a frank exploration of adult concerns.

April 15, 2011
Recently widowed Ellen Boisvert, a middle-aged American high-school French teacher, has recently discovered that her late husband, Fintan, lied when he told her he was an orphan. Through a serendipitous meeting at her schools cafeteria, Ellen discovers that Fintans mother is actually still living at her country home in Ireland. Jo Dowd is a fierce, saturnine woman but slowly warms to Ellen, who begins to visit her. After a lifelong habit of smoking, Jo has developed lung cancer and needs constant care. Ellen agrees to watch over her for the summer and begins to tease out the mystery of why Fintan hid Jos existence from her. Growing up, Fintan faced cruelty and abuse but also fell in love and had a child, Cat, unknown to Ellen. Negligence and violence are part of Cat, Ellen, and Jos lives, and they all must learn to overcome the ways in which their men have failed them. A beautiful examination of three womens lives, this novel deftly explores both relationships and solitude, with Irelands gorgeous countryside as backdrop.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)