A Dance in the Desert
Posted on | August 19, 2009 | No Comments
Originally published in 2001, our new edition of Mindy’s novel A Dance in the Desert is completely revised and typeset and with a new cover. It explores the effects of epilepsy on Matt Reynolds and his close friends.
Customer Review from Amazon for the original edition –
A Dance in the Desert is a powerful story which confronts many difficult issues. The principal character Matt is strikingly handsome, supremely confident, deeply humane with a magnetic personality. One day his life as a high school athletics instructor changes dramatically after an accidental fall which brings on epileptic seizures.
The story deals with Matt’s attitude to epilepsy, and the attitude of friends and colleagues towards Matt. We see how ignorance of epilepsy manifests itself in prejudice, especially in the workplace. The story turns on this incident, but there is also a study of a platonic friendship at the sexually tantalising threshold. Matt and Kate are colleagues, with Kate having been wounded by her failed marriage to an alcoholic. She has left her broken marriage in New York for a new lifestyle in Arizona.
Matt’s unsuccessful conventional treatment allows an exploration of spiritual healing, which does not find favour with Matt’s erstwhile girlfriend Julie. Here there is a real conflict between orthodox and radical courses of treatment for epilepsy.
A Dance in the Desert is well-constructed, capturing the dry, tranquil atmosphere of Arizona. It delivers a shock-ending, with a dance in the desert providing a cathartic closure.
This excellent book is now available from Ecademy Press at £10.99
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