Come Dance With Me

Russell Hoban never seemed particularly interested in writing ordinary novels. While the rest of the literary world was busy colouring neatly inside the lines, Hoban preferred to wander off into strange landscapes where reality, memory, imagination and the occasional talking object all agreed to coexist without feeling the need to explain themselves. Come Dance with Me is no exception. It is the sort of novel that quietly sidesteps convention, smiles politely, and carries on regardless.

Published in 2005 by Bloomsbury, the novel follows Christabel Alderton, a woman whose life has become unexpectedly entangled with mystery, coincidence and the unseen connections that seem to lurk beneath everyday existence. As chance encounters accumulate and familiar certainties begin to wobble, Hoban invites the reader into a world where grief, love, loneliness and hope intermingle with a touch of the surreal. Like much of his work, the story resists easy categorisation. It is part literary fiction, part philosophical meditation and part gentle dream, stitched together with Hoban’s unmistakable wit and elegant prose.

Reading Hoban can feel rather like listening to someone describe a dream that somehow makes perfect sense while you’re hearing it, only for you to spend the next three days wondering how on earth he managed to get there. His writing has an effortless quality that disguises just how carefully constructed it really is. Beneath the playful surface lies a thoughtful exploration of human relationships, ageing, memory and the curious ways in which people find meaning in lives that rarely follow the tidy scripts they imagine for themselves.

There is, naturally, a delicious irony in the title. Dancing usually suggests certainty, rhythm and confidence, whereas many of Hoban’s characters seem to spend much of their time improvising their way through existence, occasionally stepping on life’s toes before discovering that the missteps were part of the choreography all along. If life is a dance, Hoban seems to suggest, then nobody has been given the instruction manual—and perhaps that’s exactly as it should be.

This copy is in Fair condition and is an ex-library book. It has clearly spent part of its life doing exactly what books ought to do: circulating among readers rather than languishing untouched on an immaculate shelf. As such, you should expect the usual library stamps, labels or other institutional markings, together with signs of honest use. None of that detracts from the novel itself; if anything, it feels entirely appropriate that a book concerned with lives accumulating stories should have accumulated a few of its own.

Whether you’re already a devotee of Russell Hoban’s wonderfully unconventional fiction or you’re curious to discover why he commands such a loyal following, Come Dance with Me offers a rewarding read that lingers in the mind long after the final page. It is thoughtful without being heavy, whimsical without becoming frivolous, and quietly profound without ever announcing the fact.

Sold, as always, by Crappy Old Books—because the most interesting novels rarely arrive in immaculate condition, and library books generally have better conversation starters than pristine first editions.

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