I admit it. I am a sucker for a nice book cover. And while the story appealed to me anyway, it was even more attractive when I found the cover illustration so elegantly designed. Elizabeth J. Church's All the Beautiful Girls was my choice for last month's prompt, "I could have danced all night'. It was and wasn't a difficult story choice. I have lots of good books that in some way have a dancing theme, but I knew going into the selection that the Church novel had been sitting at the top of my reading pile for a while.
A story with dancing. When I came up with the prompt the book that was the impetus was Rosamund Lehmann's Invitation to the Waltz, which I read just last year. The story is a coming of age novel set in post-WWII England about a younger sister who is preparing for her first dance. I could and should read it again, but with so many other books waiting for a little attention I decided on something a little bit different.
Different setting, different era and different circumstances. I had no idea just how different it would all be. It's funny how our perceptions of a story can end up being a world away from the reality of it. With such a pretty cover I was expecting something charming and slight, but it was so much more in so many ways. Even the cover with the girls elegant but bright dresses weren't exactly on the mark. And that's okay--sometimes subverting expectations is a good thing.
All the Beautiful Girls ended up being a much more serious and occasionally even darker read than I anticipated. The setting shifts from the conservative midwest to the heady excitement of Las Vegas. The era is the anything-goes Bohemian 1960s. And the dancing is not your mother's waltz but showgirl style glitter of the world of entertainment. If you are willing to bare a little skin, it's a place you can make a lot of money and live a whirlwind life, though not one without cost.
Possible spoilers in the next paragraph.
Lily Decker has not had a good start in life. The only surviving family member of a horrific car accident, she is left to be raised by an aunt ill-equipped to raise children and an uncle who takes advantage of a child by visiting her on the sly in her bedroom. Needless to say Lily is confused and doesn't understand her situation. She doesn't know how to cope and takes to cutting herself to feel something other than the dirtiness her uncle heaps upon her. She has only one 'savior' in the form of the 'aviator'--the man who was involved in her parents accident. He carries a burden on his shoulders despite the accident being only a matter of unhappy circumstances and not intentional. He tries to make reparations by sending her books or helping financially so she can do the one thing she is drawn to and is good at--dancing.
End of spoilers.
Lily is ready by the time she graduates to reinvent herself in a new place and in new circumstances. A teacher, knowing her ability to dance well coupled with her attractive looks, suggests she try something new--Las Vegas is all the rage and their are opportunities for dancers that might suit her. So the first day she gains her independence she sets off for a new city and takes on the guise of a new identity hoping to leave behind her scarred childhood.
Lily becomes Ruby Wilde. Her intention is only to dance in the chorus, fully clothed and respectable, but her style and looks are not what the casinos are looking for. Rather, she has all the looks for stardom--a full and proper showgirl--clad in far less than the girls shown on the book's cover. Ruby is reluctant to take such a leap, but as her money runs out and her opportunities dwindle she feels she has no other choice. When Ruby takes that grand leap, she becomes a star, but it is not an easy lifestyle and she finds it is not so easy to leave her childhood unhappiness behind.
I really enjoyed the story, though it was surprisingly more sobering than I thought when I picked it up. I was happy to discover it actually had far more substance and was more thoughtful and thought-provoking than a simple fluffy entertainment. Lily/Ruby was an interesting character, sometimes prickly and not always easy to warm up to but understandable considering her situation. Despite the hardships life presented her with, and the occasional really bad choice, I had a feeling she would ultimately be triumphant. Happy endings are not always in the cards, but sometimes satisfying endings, which this story had, are even better.