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Review by Alice Cary
In "Dancing on the Edge" I encountered some of the most intriguing fictional characters I've met in a long time. Dysfunctional families have become such a staple in novels that sometimes they all start to sound alike. The McCloys, however, are fresh, and, even though there's a Southern Gothic streak running through them, they don't fit into the usual mold.
At the heart of the novel is young Miracle McCloy, a girl who feels like a misfit but who has been told time after time how special she is, because she was a "live baby coming out of the body of a dead woman," or, as her grandmother Gigi puts it, "the greatest miracle ever to come down the pike." Miracle's pregnant mother was killed after being hit by a speeding ambulance, but the baby girl, Miracle, was saved.
Her remaining parent, Dane, is hardly nurturing. Instead, he's a strange, brooding bird. A prodigy novelist at age 13, he now sits in his bathrobe in his basement room, "The Cave," pacing, ruminating and hoping for inspiration to strike. Meanwhile, his mother Gigi delves in the occult, conducting seances and casting spells. One day, when Dane suddenly disappears, she tells Miracle that her father has simply "melted."
After this bizarre catastrophe, Gigi and Miracle leave Alabama to go live with Gigi's ex-husband, Granddaddy Opal. For weeks Miracle doesn't even see her grandfather, despite being in the same house, but the seemingly gruff man turns out to be one of the few sources of stability in her life. He secretly arranges for her to take dancing lessons and gets her a bicycle. Finally she has a sense of freedom, and she discovers that dancing is the love of her life, the one activity that truly makes her feel special.
All of the secrets and strangeness in Miracle's life begin to boil over when Miracle starts imitating Gigi by casting spells and making love potions for her classmates. When another outcast girl accuses Miracle of being phony, Miracle sets fire to herself and is placed in a mental hospital.
"Dancing on the Edge" is an excellent book for mature young adult readers ready to handle such themes as mental illness and suicide.
Author Han Nolan is winning deserved acclaim for this fine novel, one of five finalists for the 1997 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. With "Dancing on the Edge," she took some mighty big chances by exploring such dark themes as reliance on the occult, mental illness and family deceit, but she skillfully manages to maintain the balancing act. Nolan doesn't take the easy way out, such as letting Miracle be "delivered" by dance, having an outlet that magically sweeps all of her many problems away. Life is never so easy, and neither are fine novels such as this.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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