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Award-winning author Lola Lafon continues her exploration of the psyches of young girls–their fragility, their resilience.
Fontenay, a Parisian suburb, 1984. Cléo is twelve when her parents prod her into taking ballet classes. She drops out after a long year of feeling lost, not classy nor graceful enough, and undoubtedly not as rich as the other kids.
By chance, she signs up for Modern Jazz class at a MJC–a state funded organization whose mission is to provide access to art and culture to all children.
Modern Jazz is her calling, and soon Cléo is transformed, working out constantly, dreaming of becoming a professional dancer. That's when she catches the attention of Cathy, an elegant middle-aged woman, who is a talent scout for Galatée–a foundation that gives fellowships to exceptionally gifted teenagers.
Fascinated by Cathy and the many gifts with which this providential "godmother" is showering her, Cléo introduces her to her parents, receiving their blessing to spend more time with her, ultimately falling prey to Galatée's trap.
"The great strength of Reeling is the way Lafon weaves together social failures that, on the surface, seem quite disparate." —Los Angeles Review of Books
"An immersive, captivating story." —Buzz magazine, UK
"An impassioned novel on the consequences of sexual exploitation and the dead ends of forgiveness." —Pages of Hackney, London
"Lola Lafon writes for all those who have stayed in the shadows, all those whose voices cannot be heard, shaking off the contemporary mythology of powerful women." —France-Amerique
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 8, 2023 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781609457327
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781609457327
- File size: 2164 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 15, 2021
French dancers reckon with the abuse they experienced as teenagers. In mid-1980s Paris, 13-year-old Cl�o is captivated by modern jazz. Her desire to become a professional dancer and her parents' obliviousness lead to her being recruited by older woman Cathy, who tells Cl�o that she can apply for a grant to pay for dancing costs from the Galatea Foundation if she can be mature enough to get through the application process. Cl�o is also asked to identify other girls who should apply, and she suggests Betty, a charismatic classmate with "amber skin" who's acutely aware of the racism within the world of dance. Cl�o remains haunted for years by her interactions with middle-aged men at the foundation's auditions and by her part in recruiting Betty. The following chapters explore what happened to Cl�o and Betty through the eyes of people around them--a school friend, a dance teacher, a girlfriend, a nephew--over the 35 years following their traumatic teenage experiences and the fallout from the investigation into the Galatea Foundation as part of the #MeToo movement. French novelist Lafon explores the toxic culture of dance and systems set up to exploit young girls filled with the desire for approval, those who live with "having said yes because we didn't know how to say no," as one later tells a documentary filmmaker. The swirl of characters surrounding and sharing their perceptions of Cl�o and Betty at times makes it difficult to follow the two characters, especially as the momentum of the sections is uneven. Yet the deep relevance and the nuanced portrayal of the myriad effects of abuse on their lives are skillfully done. Layered and disquieting.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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