Title: Astonish Me
Author: Maggie Shipstead
First published January 6, 2014
272 pages, Paperback
Rating: 3.6
Overview
Maggie Shipstead’s “Astonish Me” is a spellbinding novel that delves deep into the world of professional ballet and the intricate relationships that define it. The story follows Joan, a once-promising ballerina who helps her lover, Arslan Ruskov, defect from the Soviet Union to the United States.
As Arslan’s career explodes in New York, Joan’s fades away, until she marries a PhD student and settles into a new life as a dance teacher in California. But when her son, Harry, becomes a ballet prodigy and crosses paths with Arslan, Joan is forced to confront the explosive secrets that have been hiding just beneath the surface of her seemingly perfect life.
With stunning prose and a brilliant eye for detail, Shipstead weaves a tale that is equal parts heartbreaking and inspiring, exploring the power of love, sacrifice, and the enduring legacy of the art we create. This is a must-read for fans of Shipstead’s debut novel and anyone who has ever been captivated by the beauty of ballet.
About the Author
Meet Maggie Shipstead, an accomplished author with two New York Times-bestselling novels under her belt: Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements. Her debut novel, Seating Arrangements, was recognized with both the Dylan Thomas Prize and the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction.
And now her highly anticipated third novel, Great Circle, is set to release in May 2021.
Maggie is no stranger to the writing world, having graduated from Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and serving as a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. She has also received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Her writing has been featured in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, Departures, Condé Nast Traveler, Outside, The Best American Short Stories, and The Best American Sports Writing. Her work has earned her accolades, as she was a National Magazine Award finalist for fiction in both 2012 and 2018.
When she’s not writing, Maggie calls Los Angeles home.
Editoral Review
Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead is a novel about the world of ballet and the sacrifices one must make in order to achieve greatness. Shipstead is an American author and journalist, and Astonish Me was her second novel, which was first published by Knopf on January 6, 2014.
The novel won critical acclaim for its beautiful prose and compelling characters and was a New York Times Bestseller. The story revolves around Joan, a former ballerina who left the prestigious American Ballet Theatre to lead a more ordinary life with her husband and son.
But when a famous Soviet dancer named Arslan Ruskov defects to the US, Joan sees an opportunity to reconnect with her past and help him achieve his dreams. She acts as his translator, guide, and confidante, and in doing so, she rekindles her passion for dance and becomes embroiled in a complex web of friendships, rivalries, and unrequited love.
One of the strengths of Astonish Me is Shipstead’s vivid and evocative prose. She transports the reader to the world of ballet, describing the beauty and athleticism of the dancers with a poet’s eye.
She also does an excellent job of creating fully fleshed-out characters, who feel like real people with their own desires, flaws, and fears. Joan, the protagonist, is a sympathetic and relatable figure, who struggles to balance her competing priorities and find her place in the world.
Another strength of the novel is its exploration of the sacrifices one must make in order to achieve greatness. Shipstead portrays the physical and emotional toll of ballet, as well as the cut-throat world of competition and the politics of race and nationality that underpin it.
She also raises interesting questions about identity and authenticity, as well as the tension between personal fulfillment and societal expectations. One of the weaknesses of Astonish Me, however, is its occasionally slow pacing.
While the novel is full of richly drawn characters and exquisite language, some readers may find the plot meanders at times, and the narrative tension is not always sustained. Overall, however, Astonish Me is a beautiful and moving novel that will appeal to anyone interested in the world of ballet, as well as those who enjoy character-driven stories exploring themes of love, sacrifice, and ambition.
At its heart, the novel is a poignant meditation on the fleeting nature of time and the price one must pay to pursue one’s dreams. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
