DancerColum McCann, hdbk; Weidenfeld & Nicholson, £12.99.
Awardwinning Irish writer Colum McCann's latest novel 'Dancer' is based on the life of legendary ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev who became an international celebrity after defecting from the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
McCann, himself now living in exile in New York, uses the novel format to get to the heart of his character and opens the book with a riveting description of the young dancer entertaining wounded Russian troops at the end of the Second World War.
Much of the most poignant prose comes from fictitious characters, particularly from the aged Russian ballet dancer who gives her all to teach the young Nureyev, and her husband, exiled by Stalin's police to the freezing, poverty ridden wastes to the east.
Nureyev's wild and selfish personality is not glossed over. He certainly doesn't come across with much humanity and in his single-minded and obsessive climb to international fame, anyone who is in the way is brutally brushed aside. This was the age when shallow modern celebrity culture came into existence and the time when the paparazzi was invented; the duo of Rudi and Margot Fonteyn became the Posh and Becks of their day.
Nureyev had a prodigious sexuality and stories of his excessive proclivities have pervaded gay culture over the last 40 years. McCann doesn't gloss over these either and has the dancer nipping out of Covent Garden during the ballet's interval for a shag in a local public toilet and later spending days on end in New York bath houses having non-stop sex. Perhaps this is an inevitable prelude for what is to come with his sad decline as a dancer and descent into death from Aids in 1994.
Some of McCann's writing is clichéd and predictable. Despite this, the novel is remarkable and gets deeper into the wild heart and soul of Nureyev than endless turgid biographies. MF
Adele Minchin. Livewire ppbk £5.99.
Fifteen-year-old Leyla wants to escape life at home in Bury near Manchester. The routine of fry-ups, Daily Mail sentiments, and mum's constant nagging is getting too much. Being a drummer and into music is Leyla's only escape, that and the fun she has with best friend Emma.
Only problem is, out of the blue, Emma confides that she has HIV and Leyla's world begins to turn around. Both Emma and Leyla end up frequenting a local HIV support group. Leyla joins a band through it and word gets out to her local school that she's mixing with other kids who have HIV. The inevitable bullying incidents ensue. In the last chapter, there's tragedy and hope. Leyla's CD is played on the radio while she and her mum hurtle along to visit Em in hospital with her first serious bout of illness.
This is Adele Minchin's first novel and it's told with honesty and sensitivity. The issues of life and friendship from the perspective of an HIV-affected, frustrated teenager today in the UK, are dealt with upfront and without sensationalism. Minchin has been involved with Body & Soul's Teen Spirit group for five years. RdF
