Review: Dancing with Duality: Confessions of a Free Spirit.
Posted: Friday, November 25, 2011
by ngoldman
Norm Goldman
Author: Stella Vance
ISBN: 978-1-4663266-5-1
Publisher: CreateSpace
If you met Stella Vance at a dinner party and listened to some of her life experiences, your immediate reaction would probably be that she has enough material to write a book, and that is exactly what she did with her Dancing with Duality: Confessions of a Free Spirit.
Traveling with Stella through various stages in her life from the early 70's to the 80's, 90's and the new millennium, we observe how she creatively adopts the perfect canvas to relay to her readers her many experiences on her own terms which may prove shocking to some readers with a low tolerance for such behavior. Nonetheless, as she reminds us throughout the memoir, “don't judge others for the actions which you judge them might well happen in your life. Your negative feelings toward another's behavior can actually manifest those same temptations or event in your life.”
Dancing with Duality is not flawless and what I found a bit too much and tiresome was that Stella becomes too caught up in reminiscing about her multiple love relationships and those of her friends that after a while I had difficulty keeping score. I wasn't sure who was sleeping with whom! Are readers really interested in hearing about the continuous exchanging of partners as if it were the popular children's party game musical chairs? In other words, it reached a point where I screamed out so what, who cares! Yet, on the other hand, I have to confess that the memoir did oblige me to keep my opinions to myself, abstain from negative feelings concerning Stella and adhere to the clich é “different strokes for different people.”
It is best to be open-minded when reading this memoir even though you may not condone Stella's behavior. In fact, probably most readers would not want to have lived Stella's life, nevertheless, we must bear in mind that to write an entertaining memoir worthy of spending a few dollars there must be elements that would keep you turning the pages. And that is exactly what Dancing with Duality does as Stella bares her soul revealing her most private inner thoughts and feelings as well as allowing readers to have access to a very colorful individual. Moreover, Stella's unique and original voice gives this book that special quality where at the end we have to commend Stella for her passion and determination to accept whatever is thrown her way, accept that nothing can hurt her and her belief that life is really a game where we are merely the players.
Click Here To Read Norm's Interview With Stella Vance
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