Dance Move, Wendy Erskine
‘The drawer beside Roberta’s bed contained remnants of other people’s fun.’
Northern Irish writer Wendy Erskine’s second collection of short stories, Dance Move, is a propulsive and unmissable collection of tales full of piercing detail and observations. Running throughout the collection is an idea of alternative possibilities, roads not taken, and lives not lived.
With an almost ghostlike feel about them, Erskine’s stories are preoccupied with the unlived life; wishing that a child hadn’t died or had been born to begin with, that a momentary encounter had lasted longer, that a defining moment hadn’t occurred – and her deft narrative creatively expresses her characters’ subsequent feelings regret, longing, and tragedy.
With her characteristic deadpan and often humorous voice, Erskine manages to express warmth and compassion in the same breath as devastation. The quiet yet brilliant stories that make up Dance Move will not only leave a lasting impression, but they will also cause readers to reflect on what it means to live in this world and what it means to yearn for an alternate existence.
