In 1913, Isadora Duncan was at the height of her fame. Born in San Francisco, she became one of the early century's most celebrated dancers with works that broke free from the rigidity of traditional ballet. She sought "to capture in their ease of movement the vital, visceral expression of beauty's purest form," as Amelia Gray writes in Isadora, a work of historical fiction. The dancer had two children by two different men, the second being Paris Singer, heir to the sewing machine fortune.
But Isadora's world changed when a car carrying her two young children and their governess plunged into the Seine. All three drowned. Gray chronicles Duncan's attempts to deal with the deaths, her visits to such places as Corfu and the Tuscan city of Viareggio to ease her pain, and how the tragedy affected her career. Isadora shifts among several perspectives: Singer, who is "haunted by his father's success" and tends to the particulars of choosing the children's burial clothing; Duncan's sister Elizabeth, who runs the dance schools founded by her youngest sibling; and Max Merz, Elizabeth's companion. Some of the prose and dialogue are too florid, but Gray has a gift for encapsulating character and relationships with memorable lines like "Isadora would have hated Max if she ever cared enough to learn his name." An entertaining portrait of a modern dance genius. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer