A Dance to the Music of Time

12 Volumes, and well over 3000 pages later, I finally finished Dance a few weeks ago and I miss it a lot. It was funny, charming, and, in a strange way, quite moving. I’m not being melodramatic in saying that it has changed the way I look at the world a little.  Admittedly I was ready for the end by the time it came round simply because most of the characters I’d come to know had died. It really is a wonderful novel (or novel series) and I’d recommend it to anyone. It sweeps through the 20th century carrying an enormous number of characters (over 300) with it. Their intertwined lives are the plot, and there isn’t really a wider narrative to speak of (as there is in, say, A Suitable Boy) ; this takes a little getting used to, but I now see it as part of the novel’s charm. If you have some time on your hands, give it a go.

Ballet, and steak and oysters

On Sunday we went to see Matthew Bourne’s modern ballet/dance/thriller, The Car Man  (based on Bizet’s  opera) at Sadler’s Wells, near Angel. Carmen’s 19th Century Spain becomes a 60s garage-diner in the midwest. It’s a rather raunchy affair, and the dancing is quite formidable; it’s great fun and I enjoyed it far more than I though I would. We stopped off at Fish Shop on St John Street beforehand which, though perhaps a little pricey, I thought had  a really nice feel to it. We sat outside and shared a dozen oysters, making the most of the only unbroken sunshine of the weekend. Somewhat unusually for us, we ate out on both days of the weekend, having dined at Chez Gerard on Charlotte Street on Saturday evening. I feel I should make mention of the steak that I ate there.  Chez Gerard is not somewhere I would immediately think to go for an evening meal. To me their restaurants always have had a business-lunch appeal to them (I had hitherto experienced only those in The City).  The one on Charlotte Street was, however, a revelation. The steak that I opted for was a French cut, an Onglet, that I had not tried before. I ordered it rare and it arrived cooked to perfection. Apparently, this steak is known as ‘butcher’s steak’ because butchers would often keep it for themselves rather than offer it for sale. It’s obvious why; I have never eaten meat so succulent or so intensly flavoursome.  I should add, for no other reason than to dispel myths about cheaper cuts, that it was the least expensive steak on the menu. It is the steak attached to the last rib and the kidney and apparently often ends up just being minced! The oysters I had to start were also excellent, although the following day’s perhaps had the edge, if only for the accompanying sunshine.