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| Dancing in the Dark |  | Author: Caryl Phillips
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
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Seller: horizonbb
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,200,793
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 209
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 1400043964
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781400043965
ASIN: 1400043964
Publication Date: September 13, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A searing new novel that reimagines the remarkable, tragic, little-known life of Bert Williams (1874—1922), the first black entertainer in the United States to reach the highest levels of fame and fortune.
Even as an eleven-year-old child living in Southern California in the late 1800s–his family had recently emigrated from the Bahamas–Bert Williams understood that he had to “learn the role that America had set aside for him.” At the age of twenty-two, after years of struggling for success on the stage, he made the radical decision to do his own “impersonation of a negro”: he donned blackface makeup and played the “coon” as a character. Behind this mask, he became a Broadway headliner, starring in the Ziegfeld Follies for eight years and leading his own musical theater company–as influential a comedian as Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and W. C. Fields.
Williams was a man of great intelligence, elegance, and dignity, but the barriers he broke down onstage continued to bear heavily on his personal life, and the contradictions between the man he was and the character he played were increasingly irreconcilable for him. W. C. Fields called him “the funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew,” and it is this dichotomy at Williams’s core that Caryl Phillips illuminates in a richly nuanced, brilliantly written narrative.
The story of a single life, Dancing in the Dark is also a novel about the tragedies of race and identity, and the perils of self-invention, that have long plagued American culture. Powerfully emotional and moving, it is Caryl Phillips’s most accomplished novel yet.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
 Trite and unoriginal November 10, 2006
L. Stolana
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
I was looking for Mary Higgins Clark and came up upon this Mary Jane Clark book and thought I'ld give it a try. What a mistake! I found the book unbelievably trite and unoriginal. The story features quite a few girls in one small town who all have eating disorders and cut themselves. After meeting the rest of the characters in the town, I wanted to cut my own wrists! The protagonist was entirely one dimensional. The parents of the teen who was first kidnapped were pathetically weak rendering the whole relationship with the daughter impossibly plodding and unrealistic. The woman one of the kidnap victims babysits for is so boring and selfish that I found myself rooting for the husband to leave her! The author writes as if she is trying to tell us how much she knows about the news business without making it interesting or integrating it into the story therefore sounding altogether preachy without an ounce of vitality. The red herrings were obvious, the ending unsatisfying and the book was altogether an unpleasant read. I would definetely not recommend this book.
 well done but one dimensional August 6, 2006
Karen E. Hunt (Detroit)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Stylistically, this novelization of the life of comedian Bert Williams is a tour de force with its daring use of internal dialog and the mutliple points of view. The language is precise and intimate, although it occasionally lapses into the purple zone.
This book opens up the old discussion that is always debated in historical fiction: how true does it need to be? Phillips does an excellent job in describing the passive nature of Williams, and the fear he (and other Blacks) must have had about whites in that era.
Phillips, however, does a poor job in explaining Williams' need to perform, as well as other aspects of his personality that made him the most successful Black performer of his era.
Additionally, Phillips makes several errors in fact. He makes a theme through the novel on how Williams' proper father disapproved of his career. In reality, his father, a pool hall owner, was very impressed by his successful son. Another theme of the novel, of Williams drinking alone in solitude, is also wrong. Williams was a heavy drinker but always drank with friends and colleagues.
 I enjoyed it with some reservations December 1, 2005
Andre M. (Mt. Pleasant, SC United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'm a Bert Williams fanatic. I have all of the current cds of his 80 surviving recordings and DVDs of his surviving films "Fish" and "Natural Born Gambler", as well as having read all three of his other biographies. So I eagerly awaited this fictionalization of his life.
Caryl Philips did a lot of research on Bert Williams and his partner George Walker and it shows. A lot of this stuff is close to the fact. I especially loved the sololoquies that he has some of the major characters exhorting in the book, such as Bert's wife Lottie's expression of her love for Bert, George Walker's feelings on his partner's thoughts, and Betr's final meditation on his father. Phillips has a beautiful way with the King's English and wonderfully articulates the innermost feelings of his characters.
However, while I'm aware that this is somewhat fictionalized and some artistic license is inevitable, some things are too far off the mark. First of all, Bert and Lottie DID adopt the latter's three neices as their own children, contrary to the book (one of them spoke fondly of Bert in a 1946 interview in Negro Digest), and the scene where Aida Overton Walker (George Walker's Widow) makes an explicit, drunken pass to Bert and suggests that her husband was sleepign with Berty's wife is a bit off the mark. Yeah, it spices up the story, but considering that these were real people, it gives me some pause.
But that aside, I would suggest the reader familiarize themselves with Bert Williams via his nonfiction bios and his recordings as it would help in fully understanding this story. That said, be prepared for an interesting read.
Dancing in a Dark, Dark World November 25, 2005
Cecelia E Connally (Cleveland, Ohio USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Dancing in the Dark" is a biographical novel of Bert Williams, the black entertainer who performed in vaudeville in the early part of the 20th century. He was one of the finest dancers and comedians of all times and eventually became the first black person to perform with the Ziegfield Follies. In his act, Williams played the slouching Jonah man, the careless, unlucky black for which everything goes wrong - a sort of "sad sack" character. To be acceptable to white audiences he has to play the shiftless, coon. Unfortunately, it was one of the only ways that white Americans would accpet a black on stage at the time. When Williams tried other roles, he failed. To perform his act, Williams had to blacken his face with burnt cork to cover his his light complexion and his racial pride.
Caryl Phillips uses a style of writing that allows several voices to speak: Williams, his wife Lotties, his long time partner George Walker and also Walker's wife, Ada who eventually becomes Aida. (And one wonders if the change of names is a play on the opera of the same name that is alleged to be an improper characterization of a black woman.) Although the style allows the reader to get the perspective of various characters, there were times that I was confused and had to take a second look to make sure that I knew who was speaking. While this style of writing may be pleasing to some readers, I felt it distracted from the story. Williams story is one that should be told, but Phillips makes it difficult to hear.
The subplot regarding George Walker, Williams long time partner, and the relationship between the two makes for interesting analysis. Walker is the more business oriented partner and demonstrates more apparent racial pride, but is also a womanizer, often risking his career and that of Williams with his frequent liasons, espcially with a white female. But all the while his loyal wife stays with him.
Lottie has conflicts over her hair and it is not until Madam C. J. Walker develops hair products for women that she is able to deal with it. Like her husband, who uses burnt cork to cover his face, she uses hats to cover her hair. Is Phillips trying to say that like her husband, Lotties is unable to accept her image as a black woman? Is she in conflict because she does not have "good hair" like her sister, a sister who comes to a tragic end.
Willliams conflict is over his desire to be an entertainer. But his only option is to appear in black face. He desperately wants to entertain and he is excellent at his trade, however, society forces him to perform a role that demeans the image of black Americans. Was it his obligation to give up his trade for the greater good of the image of African Americans? That is what he is faced with when black leaders confront him. It is interesting that Williams is a native of the Bahamas who does not experience realy racism untl he comes to America at age ll. One also wonders if Williams would have had a better life if he had folowed his dreams and stayed in Europe, where he has major successes, like many black expatriates have done over the years. Phillips uses the symbolism of ocean voyages, on which Phillips suffers, as an analogy of this crossing over.
One also wonders if Phillips is trying to say that all of the characters are subconsciously unable to accept their blackness but spend their life trying to accept the world as best they can. Is there an analogy here between Williams performing in black face and the resulting conficts and tradegies in his life and Michael Jackson who had changed his image to appear in white face?
Philllips innuendoes about Willaims sexaulity is also interesting. While Walker's sexaul promiscuity leads to his death from syphilis, Williams life of non sexual relaltions with his wife, leads to a tragic life for both of them. Or does Williams have syphillis also and does not want to infect his wife? The reader does not know. This is just one of the dark sides of this very dark novel. Is it his conflict over color or his conflicts over homosexuality that causes Williams to spend most of his off stage life in dark bars with a bottle?
While I enjoyed the book, I felt that there could have been additional character development, especialy about Williams' youth. Also his relationship with his father, a proud black man who only goes to see his son perform one time. He is so replused that he can never undertake it again.
The subject of Bert Williams is ripe for further investigation and analysis. While Phillips scratches the surface and raise interesting issues he merely perks the readers interest. It many ways he fails to get at the real character of Bert Williams. He portrayal of the dark side of Williams life is so dark, that perhaps we miss the real man.
Enriching November 10, 2005
Maurice Williams (Chicago, IL USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Dancing in the Dark" is a fictionalize portrayal of the life of Bert Williams, an early twentieth century vaudeville and Broadway performer. Mr. Williams immigrates to America from the West Indies at an early age and takes to the stage in an effort to sharpen his talents and support himself. It isn't long before Mr. Williams learns that there is only role that the American audience is interested in seeing a black man play - ragged, dumb, high-stepping comedic "darkie". Early in Mr. Williams' performance career he meets George Walker, a starving street performer, and the two decide to team up and perform with medicine shows. Soon the two form their own company producing and staring in shows that play on Broadway and in Europe. As the success of Williams & Walker builds, the partners differ on the direction in which their performance company should move. Walker is forward thinking and would like for their shows to portray blacks, accurately, as the multifaceted, dignified people he knows them to be. Williams can't seem to move from the blackened faced idiot character that the white audience revels in observing.
Phillips does an admirable job with "Dancing in the Dark" which for this reader serves as a cautionary tale of sorts, warning of the dangers inherent in allowing others to define you. Both Williams and Walker are fully realized characters struggling with internal conflicts frustrations that must certainly have plagued black performers during the vaudevillian era. Phillips explores the affects of Williams' corked face buffoonery on his relationships with others, especially his wife and father, while at the same time examining the slow destruction of a soul trapped by the limitations that others have placed upon it. Williams' success definitely came at a price. How can you maintain a healthy self image when you earn a living that propagates the most negative and humiliating stereotypes of your own race; entertaining the very people who insist on keeping those stereotypes and daft images at the forefront of American minds?
For me, the atmosphere of the novel is somewhat melancholy, although Phillips' prose deftly renders the professional and emotional conflicts central to the novel. The narrative approach, used to deliver the story did create a bit of distance for this reader (third person unknown to first person, was there an interviewer narrating at one point?). However; the author's use of newspaper and magazine reviews drafted in the language and style of the era contributed greatly to the novel's setting. Including song lyrics and playbill text also added to the feel of the period. Most importantly, I learned a little about a period that until this novel I've only had a surface understanding of. I recall a few years back actually seeing some old footage of a corked faced performance and being very embarrassed by it. After this read, I can fully appreciate the embarrassment that the performer might have felt as well. A very enriching read. Enjoy!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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