Dancing on Knives by Jenny Pausacker

I ending up liking this book, to my surprise. The first 2 pages were boring, and I only kept reading as I had vague memories of hearing Pausacker commented on favourably. The next section, teenage girl (Rochelle) behaves oddly under stress, wasn't all that interesting.

Then Rochelle gets involved at a bookshop that specialises in fairy tales, and starts to think of situations and people she knows in terms of fairytales. This is not an escape from how things are for Rochelle, so much as a tool to help her think. It isn't always easy to apply your mind to your own emotions, and fiction (written and visual arts) can be a help for many people, though used less often in fiction than in real life from my observations.

I wonder if this book would be less or more interesting to people who don't already know lots of fairy tales and myths. There was only one story mentioned I didn't know, an Aboriginal story from the dreaming about how a local bay was made (I live on the other side of Australia to the city on the story). I know from talking to otherwise well read friends that some of the fairytales mentioned are not widely known, such as East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and Rose Red and Snow White.

I borrowed this copy from the library, but I may well buy it. There are lots of books on 'teenager struggles to cope with fallout of parents separating, especially if parent/s aren't coping too', but I liked the references to tales and story telling.

"People say that our lives aren't stories and fiction makes stories out of them, but I think one of the things fiction does is remind us our lives are stories. The trick is, there are three or four or eight different stories going on simultaneously, overlapping and with other crap happening that is not related to one particular story. ... Fiction gives us a sense of perspective, a sense of purpose. We don't have to turn our lives into stories; we just have to dig out the story that's there as a natural result of living." quote from Rosemary Kirstien in an interview.

Dancing on Knives first published 2004