Dancing on the Edge

Bibliography:

Nolan, H. (1997). Dancing on the edge. New York: Penguin Group, 214 pp.

Genre and Awards:

Fiction

National Book Award, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Booklist Editors’ Choice, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Dancing on the Edge opens bizarrely, Miracle McCloy is invited by her highly spiritual (CRAZY) grandmother Gigi to participate in a séance to contact Miracle’s dead mother. Miracle received her name because she was pulled from her dead mother’s womb after a tragic accident. During the séance, Miracle’s mother’s spirit notifies the family that Dane, Miracle’s depressive writer father, is gone. Gigi claims that Dane has melted when the family finds his bathrobe and other clothing heaped in a pile in his room full of burning candles.

Miracle accepts this explanation for his absence and takes to wearing her father’s bathrobe to school because she misses him so much. Miracle and Gigi’s wacky claim that Dane melted does not go over well in their small Alabama town and they relocate to Atlanta to live with Miracle’s grandfather Opal.

Gigi resumes her odd spiritual activities in their new hometown: conducting séances, reading auras, and placing great emphasis on colors and energy fields. Opal realizes that Miracle is lonely and bored and helps her sign up for dance lessons, which Gigi strictly forbids. Miracle attempts to use her spiritual knowledge learned from Gigi to make friends, but the “normal” kids view her as a freak.

When Opal’s home is destroyed in a tornado, Miracle looses her grasp on reality. She badly burns herself attempting to melt, as she believes her father did.

Miracle is taken to an institution and finally begins to get the help she needs to establish her own sense of identity thanks to her Aunt Casey and a physician named Dr. DeAngelis. Gigi comes to the institution and kidnaps Miracle, but in a strong statement of independence Miracle asks Gigi to take her back. Gigi refuses to take her back to the hospital, but eventually drops Miracle off at a train station.

This bizarre novel conveys a strong account of healing from the damage caused by a dysfunctional family crippled by mental illness. Miracle has to reject her Grandmother’s brainwashing to see the truth regarding her past so that she can grow up and function in normal society.

I recommend this novel for literature circles and individual reading. I think females age 13 and older would enjoy reading this book.