Various Positions

Finished January 19
Various Positions by Martha Schabas
This is a gem of a novel. Told in the voice of a teenage girl as she auditions for a place in the Royal Toronto Ballet Academy and then how things go for her there.
This is a story of wanting something and the lengths a person will go to to achieve their goals. This is a story of growing up, dealing with sexuality as one discovers it in oneself and becomes aware of it in those around us. This is a story of relationships: friends, family, teachers.
The writing is exquisite. One line that I loved: "...her eyes had the tender look of someone who's just taken off her glasses." I know exactly what she means by that.
It is set in the world of a ballet school around a ballet student, a world I am completely unfamiliar with. But one doesn't need to be familiar with that world to appreciate the story here, because it is about human behaviour.