“Dancing in the Dark” by Caryl Phillips

c.2005, Knopf $23.95 224 pagesWhat would you do to become rich and famous?Would you do something that you find repulsive, in order to “make it big”? Would you live a lie to find a dream?In the new literary work “Dancing in the Dark” by Caryl Phillips, you’ll read about a man who found fame, but paid a personal price for it.It was 1893, and Bert Williams had come from Florida to San Francisco with a dream of being on Broadway someday, and he had big ideas. When he first laid eyes on George Williams, Bert knew that George was the kind of man who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. The two formed a partnership and performed wherever they could find a venue, taking odd jobs and struggling to find fame. Eventually, they re-created themselves and they began to perform in the minstrel style of entertainment.Suddenly, audiences loved them. One of their performances, called “In Dahomey”, was a musical set in Africa and was wildly popular. The show took them from Chicago to Philly to Broadway and eventually to England where they had a command performance for the Prince of Wales. Stage actors encouraged the pair, and fame finally found them. Williams and Walker became Broadway headliners.But something was missing.On a chance assignment as an advertising model, Bert met Lottie, and he fell in love and courted her but their romance was chaste; Bert never so much as kissed Lottie until the wedding ceremony that followed the formal courtship. George married Ada, who was also a performer, and was Lottie’s friend. But Bert couldn’t bring himself to touch his wife, and he spent much of his time with a bottle. George couldn’t seem to leave other women alone.And then there was Bert’s biggest shame: the dignified and highly sensitive man smeared burnt cork on his face and exaggerated his lips for each show. Performing this way made Bert deeply ashamed, and he felt that he was betraying his race and his family. He also felt that he couldn’t stop doing it, because his career depended on it.”Dancing in the Dark” is the most beautifully-written novel I’ve ever had the pleasure of struggling through. Based on real people and real events, this is a heartbreaking story of being true to yourself, and what can – and did – happen to one man who was unable to do so, because of the times in which he lived. I liked the story, but I had a hard time reading this book. Author Caryl Phillips has written what is called a “literary” novel, which is a short way of saying that the words have a lovely flow, but it can be very confusing to follow along. If you’re looking for something that will whisk you back to a long-ago time and you don’t mind that it requires a whole lot of concentration, pick up “Dancing in the Dark”. If you want something to relax with at the end of a long day, look for another book.