Astonish Me: A novel
Page 26
A tiny, foolish tendril of hope unfurls.
“Please stay,” she says. “Stay until the end.”
V
FEBRUARY 1973—PARIS
ARSLAN STUDIES HIMSELF IN THE MIRROR, SURROUNDED ON THREE sides by lightbulbs. The girl had written her name and address in kohl pencil on a scrap of paper before she left. What kind of place is Virginia? He folds the paper carefully, places it inside an eye shadow compact, and pushes the compact to the bottom of his makeup bag. She must be a real dancer, this girl. She had the cursedness, the insatiability, the doom. Other girls, many girls, have wanted him, but their desire was always playful or sultry. Her desire was like a whip at her back. When he looked into her eyes, he could see she was suffering from it, the wanting, and for a moment, they understood each other. Tu m’étonnes, she said. You astonish me.
So there are real dancers in America. He had not been sure before. Now he will go. He will find this girl again and dance with her. When he is homesick or uncertain, she will remind him of this, the moment when he decided.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My first thanks are to my first reader: my agent, Rebecca Gradinger, who patiently guided this project through many incarnations. For that, and for being generally fantastic, she is the object of my constant gratitude.
Jordan Pavlin, brilliant editor and stellar human, always knows what is missing and what is superfluous and shares her insights elegantly and humanely. I can’t imagine a better reader.
At Knopf and Vintage: thanks to Kate Runde, Biz Lindsay, Andrea Robinson, Caroline Bleeke, and Alex Houstoun.
My extended publishing family lives in London and works at Blue Door and HarperCollins. Thanks to Patrick Janson-Smith, Laura Deacon, Louise Swannell, and Stuart Bache.
I’m privileged to work with Gráinne Fox, Melissa Chinchillo, Sylvie Greenberg, and Rachel Crawford at Fletcher & Co. and am thankful for their expertise, help, and good cheer. Thanks also to Fletcher alumna Mink Choi.
Much of this book was written while I was in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. I am grateful to that institution for providing space for artists to live and work and to Stanford University for giving me the opportunity to go.
Thank you, Lily Stockman, for so generously and patiently sharing your aesthetic wisdom and for your fanatical cheerleading.
The wise and wonderful Nina Schloesser might not remember the dog walk in Los Altos when we talked through how my short story “Battements” could be expanded, but I do. That conversation was a crucial spark. I owe you one, Nina.
Last, thanks to my mom, who started taking me to the ballet when I was a little squirt. Without lifelong exposure to her love for dance, this book would never have been written.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maggie Shipstead is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Her first novel, Seating Arrangements, was a national bestseller, a finalist for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, and the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction.
Astonish Me
By Maggie Shipstead
Reading Group Guide
ABOUT THIS READING GROUP GUIDE
The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of Astonish Me, Maggie Shipstead’s first novel since her award-winning, national best-selling debut, Seating Arrangements.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From the author of the widely acclaimed debut novel Seating Arrangements, winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction: a gorgeously written, fiercely compelling glimpse into the passionate, political world of professional ballet and its magnetic hold over two generations.
Astonish Me is the irresistible story of Joan, a ballerina whose life has been shaped by her relationship with the world-famous dancer Arslan Rusakov, whom she helps defect from the Soviet Union to the United States. While Arslan’s career takes off in New York, Joan’s slowly declines, ending when she becomes pregnant and decides to marry her longtime admirer, a PhD student named Jacob. As the years pass, Joan settles into her new life in California, teaching dance and watching her son, Harry, become a ballet prodigy himself. But when Harry’s success brings him into close contact with Arslan, explosive secrets are revealed that shatter the delicate balance Joan has struck between her past and present.
In graceful, inimitable prose, Shipstead draws us into an extraordinary world and into the lives of her vivid and tempestuous characters. Filled with intrigue, brilliant satire, and emotional nuance, Astonish Me is a superlative follow-up to Shipstead’s superb debut.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What does “Astonish me” mean, as a metaphor in the novel?
2. Who is the main character? Is that person also the hero?
3. Shipstead skips forward and backward in time throughout the novel. How does she use these leaps to fill in the story?
4. “Elaine ingests a steady but restricted diet of cocaine without apparent consequence. The key, she has said to Joan, is control. Control is the key to everything.” (this page) What does Elaine mean by “control”? Which characters in the novel lose control, and to what effect?
5. Jacob wants to live “an intentional life” but doesn’t really know what he intends. The dancers have been taught that “going through the motions” is preferable (this page). What role does intent really play in their lives? How does this connect to the notion of control?
6. And how does the perfectionism required of ballet dancers play into intent and control?
7. On this page, Jacob tells Joan, “Every family has a mythology.” What is his mythology for their family? How does Joan’s secret endanger it?
8. Is Joan’s aggressive pursuit of Arslan out of character for her? Why does she do it?
9. Throughout the novel, characters wonder why Arslan chose Joan to help him defect. Why do you think he chose her?
10. How does Sandy shape her daughter’s future? What effect does her behavior at Disneyland have?
11. “I think things can be true even if they didn’t really happen,” Jacob says on this page. What does he mean by this? How does it play out in his family’s life?
12. When Joan says to Chloe, “Ballet isn’t about you” (this page), what does she mean? If ballet requires losing oneself, how does it also lead to selfish behavior offstage?
13. Jacob adored Joan from childhood; Harry adored Chloe from childhood. How else does the younger generation resemble the older one? How do they differ?
14. Why do Harry’s feelings for Chloe change?
15. Discuss the roles of nature vs. nurture. Which is more important in Harry’s life? What about for Chloe?
16. What does “parent” mean, in terms of the novel? Which characters make good parents?
17. What is the metaphor of Emma Livry, the ballet dancer whose tutu catches fire?
18. Shipstead shows us how Jacob reacts to Ludmilla’s phone call, but we don’t see Harry’s reaction. How do you imagine it went?
19. What does Rodina, the title of Arslan and Chloe’s ballet, mean? (In Russia, it refers to “motherland.”)
20. Do you think Jacob decides to stay through the end of the performance?
21. What do we learn from section V? How does it affect your understanding of the novel?
SUGGESTED READING
Dancer: A Novel by Colum McCann; The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan; The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty; The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey; The Master’s Muse by Varley O’Connor; Three Junes by Julia Glass; Bel Canto by Ann Patchett; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
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