Lead Review (The Dancer)
- Book: The Dancer
- Location: Reykjavik
- Author: Óskar Gudmundsson, Quentin Bates (Translator)
The Dancer is unusual, tense and involving: it’s a crime novel but it’s much more. Tony is a trained ballet dancer, taught by his alcoholic mother, who tragically lost her own brilliant career. Tony was bullied and brutalised when young and he is now physically and emotionally damaged. How is he connected to the death of a former pilot from America? In this plot-driven story, author Óskar Guðmundsson cleverly explores the consequences of Tony’s tormented childhood to the extent that his crusty old detective, Valdimar, is almost peripheral to the plot.
For his part, Valdimar is struggling with his health but he knows just which questions to ask, has all the right contacts and a deep instinctive feel for how to make progress with his investigation. His junior, Ylfa, is an excellent foil with her youthful energy and her own emotional backstory.
The theme of ballet is approached from the perspective of a male dancer, which is a first in my experience. It’s interesting to see how the protagonist, Tony, channels his energy and his emotions into his dancing – and in other ways that are not always for the good.
For me, this book is much more tightly written and engaging than The Commandments, by the same author. The setting is still Iceland and, yes, it snows, but The Dancer could have been set anywhere and still have been a triumph. Unusually, I had a few niggles with the translation – some odd tenses made me stumble when reading – but I’m still seriously indebted to Quentin Bates for bringing Icelandic literature to an English-speaking reader. Congratulations as ever to Corylus for another excellent book.
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