{"product_id":"the-complete-ballet-a-fictional-essay-in-five-acts-9781555977870","title":"The Complete Ballet: A Fictional Essay in Five Acts","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA dark-hued, hybrid novel by a writer who \"delivers our culture back to us, made entirely new\" (A. M. Homes)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Complete Ballet\u003c\/i\u003e, John Haskell choreographs an intricate and irresistible pas de deux in which fiction and criticism come together to create a new kind of story. Fueled by the dramatic retelling of five romantic ballets, and interwoven with a contemporary story about a man whose daunting gambling debt pushes him to the edge of his own abyss, it is both a pulpy entertainment and a meditation on the physicality--and psychology--of dance. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe unnamed narrator finds himself inexorably drawn back to the pre-cell phone world of Technicolor Los Angeles, to a time when the tragedies of his life were about to collide. Working as a part-time masseur in Hollywood, he attends an underground poker game with his friend Cosmo, a strip-club entrepreneur. What happens there hurtles the narrator down the road and into the room where the novel's violent and surreal showdown leaves him a different person. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs the narrator revisits his past, he simultaneously inhabits and reconstructs the mythic stories of ballet, assessing along the way the lives and obsessions of Nijinsky and Balanchine, Pavlova and Fonteyn, Joseph Cornell and the story's presiding spirit, the film director John Cassavetes. This compulsively readable fiction is ultimately a profound and haunting consideration of the nature of art and identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-2214103\"\u003eJohn Haskell\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Graywolf Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/19\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781555977870\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1555977871\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC019000\"\u003eLiterary\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Haskell\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the story collection \u003ci\u003eI Am Not Jackson Pollock\u003c\/i\u003e and the novels \u003ci\u003eAmerican Purgatorio \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOut of My Skin\u003c\/i\u003e. His stories and essays have appeared on the radio, in anthologies, and in many magazines. He lives in Brooklyn.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Graywolf Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43305303048429,"sku":"9781555977870","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_8eec1064-5512-4ea6-bd4a-0024e799e2ef.jpg?v=1662783580","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/the-complete-ballet-a-fictional-essay-in-five-acts-9781555977870","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}