Monday, February 5, 2018

A Time To Dance

From the Publishers:
Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit.
 
Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.


My thoughts:
This is a novel in verse (poetry form) so I was hoping to continue my streak of finishing a book a day. However, despite being much easier to read, it took me about a week to finish because the verse itself was not really enticing as poetry. I was missing the kind of dripping imagery and crafted rhythm that pulls me into poems in the first place.

What intrigued me about this book was the chance to really experience a different topic - the power of bharatanatyam, and all dance, but especially this eastern Indian dance, to heal what is inside of us. Once Veda has her accident, the story got more readable because of her emotion and new understanding of what this dance could do for her. I'm glad I stuck it out, but it could have just been written in prose. 

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