Dancing With Ana – Review

Author: Nicole Barker
Publication Date: 2009
Publisher: The Golden Road Press
Pages: 170

“Christine McCady’s hair is especially shiny today,” Jenny told the three girls sitting with her at the lunch table.

In sunny Florida, where more skin is bared than not, appearances are constantly evaluated, especially by the young. Among those doing the evaluating is Beth Baxter, a smart, pretty and confident high school student who is falling in love with her neighbour, Jeremy Duscana. She seems like she should have it all together, and that makes her descent into weight-loss obsession more intriguing to follow in “Dancing With Ana“.

One day over lunch, Beth and her closest girlfriends – Rachel, Melanie and Jenny – discuss the school’s It girl, Christine McCady. Popular, rich, and thin, Christine seems to be someone the girls ought to emulate, and so they agree to join in together on a diet to lose weight. Of course, Christine only serves as the superficial catalyst for their individual decisions, and the story delves into several of the body-image issues confronting the girls, particularly as it relates to the divorce of Beth’s parents, and Rachel’s terrible home life.

Without getting into minor spoilers, the book handles issues from the viewpoint of the teenage girls well, in that their actions make sense based on how they are looking at their problems and what they want to achieve at the time. The book lays out how these events could plausibly unfold, and this is why I’d recommend the book to younger aged girls, their parents, educators, coaches, and others who interact with young girls.

Also, the dialogue and reactions, based on how I’ve overheard nieces and nephews, seem to be on-target, and if anything, slightly less sarcastic and cynical, although Billy comes pretty close in those departments.

Speaking of Billy, this brings me to my main reservation about the book, and it has to deal with the male characters. The teenage boys all have amazing bodies, while any man that has more than a passing mention is either an aspiring rapist or a neglectful walkout. Certainly there are plenty of all of those in the world, but the choice to have essentially no positive male figure over the age of 18 sticks out. It feels especially pronounced in contrast to the thoughtful and careful presentation of Beth and her friends. Granted, there are limited adult characters in the book as it is, but something as simple as having Jeremy’s father, instead of his mother, pointing out to him the absence of Noel Baxter from Beth’s life may have been a good way to resolve the absence of positive male role models, and would have augured well for Beth and Jeremy’s relationship.

There are various romantic subplots, and although convenient in how the story wraps up in that respect for the girls, I won’t hold that against the story, and instead consider it a happy, youthful joy amid the wreckage strewn in Beth’s life during the aftermath of her parents divorce, and as rewards for Rachel, Jenny and Melanie. Likewise, the other subplots are serviceable as well, and wrap up definitively.

Finally, there are parts of the book where the author writes about despair and a desire for change in a way that can be understood across generations, and for me those are the strongest parts of the book. I used one such passage as part of an ongoing blog event called “Teaser Tuesdays” earlier this week:

“She felt like she didn’t know how to talk to people anymore, she’d forgotten their language. She was living in slow motion, while everyone else seemed sped up, living their lives.”
- p. 131

The comments from that post reflected that people found in that writing a sentiment that was meaningful yet easy to grasp, just as I did. The passages like this lead me to determine that, although I have some reservations about this book, there is evidence of dedicated craft at work in “Dancing With Ana“, and I consider it to be overall a good book.

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Last week, just after I had received my copy of “Dancing With Ana” in the mail, I read online articles that I can’t help but link to here and here. In fact, the second post is short enough and covers the issue well enough that I will reproduce it here:

“Self magazine editor Lucy Danziger has been the target of much feminist scorn recently for the magazine’s decision to dramatically retouch a photo of Kelly Clarkson for their September issue, slimming down the curvy singer. This morning, Danziger went on “The Today Show” alongside plus-size model and “More to Love” host Emme to discuss the scandal. She was unapologetic about the Photoshop debacle, claiming that “a cover is a poster, and the thing about a poster is that you want it to capture the essence of you at your best. So we’re saying to women: ‘Look, everyone can love who they are from the inside and out and want to achieve their goals.’” I winced when Danziger proclaimed that “no one can make you feel bad, only you can feel bad inside yourself.” That kind of self-help jargon may sound good in theory. But when Self magazine’s goal is to help you feel better about your self — should they really be sending the message that “looking your best” can only be achieved using computer intervention?”

- Salon.com (from the second of the pair of links above)

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There are many resources available online, and as a starting point for learning more about anorexia, you can check out WebMD.

The author also has an interactive website which you can visit at http://www.dancingwithana.com/.

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Note: This review copy was provided to me by the author, Nicole Barker. Thank you, Ms. Barker. As per my review policy, this copy of “Dancing With Ana” will be given to my local library shortly.

© 2009, A Few Minutes With Michael. All rights reserved.