Dance Real Slow: A Novel by Michael Grant Jaffe

From the Publisher

In this luminous debut, Michael Grant Jaffe tells the story of Gordon Nash, a part-time lawyer whose wife abruptly walks away from both marriage and motherhood, leaving Gordon sole responsibility for raising their child, Calvin. Father and son settle in a small Kansas town, "the very solar plexus of the country," where Calvin dreams of owning a horse someday, and where he displays the quirks and curious habits of a precocious four-year-old: toting around a dead man-o-war in a mason jar, filching disinfectant pucks from urinals, and sleeping on the closet floor. Though Gordon shows far more love and empathy than his own father, a college basketball coach, ever exhibited toward him, be learns that parenting holds as many frustrations as joys, and involves as much unqualified love as uneasy ambivalence. The delicate balance Gordon achieves in making a life together for Calvin and himself is suddenly jeopardized by the reappearance of his ex-wife, who threatens not only Gordon's relationship with his son but also that with his newfound love, Zoe.

Library Journal

After his wife leaves, Gordon Nash does his best to provide a loving home for his four-year-old son, Calvin. He takes an undemanding job in a small-town Kansas law firm, eventually coaching the high school basketball team as well. Although he is an affectionate dad and easygoing coach, Gordon fears he will become like his own cold, uncommunicative father, who was a tough college basketball coach. He begins dating Zoe, a self-sufficient college student and waitress, adored by Calvin because she lets him ride her horse. When Gordon's ex-wife secretly steals Calvin away, Gordon falls apart and depends on Zoe to help him find his son. This promising first novel is an absorbing, introspective domestic story. Jaffe, a writer for Sports Illustrated, captures the small, intimate, humorous details of a child's life as well as the fierce, protective love of a single father tormented by doubts and fears. Gordon, Calvin, and Zoe are characters to care about. Recommended for all public libraries.-Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio

BookList

Attorney Gordon Nash has been struggling to take care of his little boy, Calvin, in the two years since his wife abruptly walked out on them. They have settled in a small town in Kansas where Gordon has scaled back on his ambitions to become a big-time litigator, opting instead to work for an old college chum in a low-key law practice. Deeply shaken by his wife's departure, Gordon has nevertheless managed to settle in, taking on a coaching job for the local high-school basketball team and becoming involved in a new relationship. Out of the blue, he receives a call from his wife, and he must decide whether he's ready to let her back into their lives. In this gracefully written first novel, Jaffe captures the mixed joys of parenting, including both moments of unabashed tenderness and supreme irritation. And his winning characterization of four-year-old Calvin--who carries around a dead Portuguese man-of-war in a mason jar and stuffs his pockets full of slugs--is right on the mark.

Kirkus Reviews

Jaffe's debut novel, about a divorced father and his young son, recalls the better domestic realism of the past two decades. But, as with the work of writers like Ann Beattie and Richard Ford, his quotidian drama and mundane observations seldom live up to his exacting style.

Nothing in life has worked according to plan for Gordon Nash, who'd dreamt of becoming a high-powered, big-city litigator. When his twentysomething wife abandoned him and their boy, he instead opted for partnership in a small firm in tiny Tarent, Kansas, in the wholesome heartland of America. A single father, he hopes to avoid the mistakes made by his own late father, a hotheaded college basketball coach. Meanwhile, Gordon's widowed mother sends four- year-old Calvin all kinds of odd gifts, including a pickled Portuguese man-of-war, which he names "Mom" and carries around in a Mason jar. The confused little boy also steals urinal disks, and has to endure his father's occasional outbursts of cruelty. When the local high school asks Gordon to coach the basketball team, he decides to use the occasion as a way to bring himself and his son closer—the opposite of his experience with his volatile father. Feeling cheated by life, Gordon craves an unencumbered existence but mellows somewhat when he falls for Zoe Ward, a veterinary student who adores Calvin. Then Gordon's ex-wife suddenly appears, actually running off with Calvin until she realizes why she felt inadequate as a mother in the first place. For all its sensitive- guy posturing, the story builds to a well-deserved (in its opinion) slap across the face of Gordon's selfish ex.

Jaffe's agonizing over the violent instincts of men will resonate with both genders, even if it amounts to such disposable insights as "being a father is difficult." Too bad the novel suffers from the baby boomers' parental conceit that they've somehow reinvented parenthood.

Product Details