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Title: Repercussion by India J. Podjen, Dan Mauiner, India J. Podsen ISBN: 0-9672557-0-8 Publisher: Mindscapes Publishing Pub. Date: June, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.57 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A true to life story of a dancer's triumph over amputation.
Comment: Book Review by Richard L. Mooney Co-Director, Amputee Resource Center
Repercussion, by India J. Podsen, Ph.D. with George Velazquez; Mindscapes Publishing, Alpharetta, GA. 1998.
Repercussion is the true-to-life, but fictionalized, story of George Velazquez, a professional dancer who loses his left leg below the knee to a hit and run driver, decends into the black pit of dispair and self-pity, and climbs out the other side to dance again. As George said to me, "I would have certainly rather not have lost my leg, but it did open up a world of opportunities to help others that I never would have discovered otherwise."
This 340 page soft-cover book is well written, fast moving, and realistically gripping. For new below-knee amputees it can be both instructional and inspirational. For health care professionals who work with amputees this book is a virtual text on psychological and prosthetic rehabilitation. Even those who have no connection to the amputee community will find Repercussion both interesting and heartwarming.
In Repercussion, George's name is Antonio Rubio, a Puerto Rican immigrant. He is an up-and-coming dancer, seeking fame and fortune in the dog-eat-dog New York dance scene where "dancers are a dime a dozen." He finally lands a job as an exotic male dancer. He is good looking. He is skillful, And he is creative. He makes a lot of money - enough, at least, to enroll in Julliard's prestigious theater arts school and to begin searching for the Broadway jobs he has longed for for so many years. He meets and eventually marries Rachel, another dancer. Rachel is the love of his life and on the dance floor they seem truly made for each other.
Antonio and Rachel soon become tired of "life in the fast lane" and move to Atlanta to become ballroom dance instructors. Both they and their students do very well. Antonio becomes the studio's dance director. The studio owner sponsors Antonio and Rachel as a professional couple in the ballroom dance competition circuit.
Antonio is celebrating at a local watering hole after he and Rachel win the semifinals in the Latin Dance Championship. The finals are the next afternoon. As he is walking to his car at the end of the evening, a hit-and-run driver runs him over in the club's parking lot. Antonio wakes up in the hospital minus his left leg. It is 4:15 p.m.. The Latin Championship round has started - without Antonio and Rachel.
The most heart rending, yet true-to-life part of the story begins here. Antonio thinks his life is over. He is alternately angry and depressed. He feels self-destructive. He lashes out at others. He grieves his loss with a vengeance. He is visited in the hospital by a peer visitor from the local amputee support group. Antonio rebuffs him. As it turns out, Rachel can't handle Antonio's disability and she rebuffs him. Their marriage eventually ends. Antonio is at the bottom with no place to go but up. His students need him. It's "dance or die." He starts his long road back.
As mentioned earlier, Repercussion, is a book every new below-knee amputee should read. It accurately portrays the physical and emotional challenges they will probably face. The scenes in the hospital, the surgeon's office, and the prosthetist's office are accurate and vivid. Antonio's recovery isn't easy. But he perseveres. It's hard and sometimes discouraging work. But Antonio is a winner. His attitude is everything. The reader's conclusion is inescapable. If Antonio can do it, so can I.
The book jacket credits India J. Podsen as an author of books in the field of education and a competitive ballroom dancer. Repercussion is her first novel. Impressive! Her dance background has enabled her to write convincingly about the highly stylized and competitive world of ballroom dancing. Her close association with George Velazquez has enabled her to write equally convincingly about life as an amputee. She has penned an easy-to-read, engrossing tale.
Finally, it's hard to write about Antonio without writing about George. Today, George is not only a successful instructor for non-disabled, wheelchair, and amputee dancers, but a clinician for amputees who want to use dance as a way to improve their physical skills and self esteem - or just to enjoy dancing. He is a motivational speaker, role model for juvenile amputees, sponsor of the Captain Pegleg George Cruises - a support group at sea with sun, fun, and dancing - and he competes against non-disabled dancers -- and wins! I've seen George dance. If I told anyone he has a mechanical leg, they wouldn't believe me.
Rating: 1
Summary: Waste of Paper
Comment: This book is a waste of paper. I don't think the person that wrote it realizes the importance of re-writes. Seems like she read one of those "How To Write A Novel" books and tried to write this book afterwards. Just plain bad. I'm surprised Amazon is even stocking it.
Rating: 2
Summary: Of Limited Value
Comment: Oy! On one hand, what can you say about a book that describes gay men as "young men who mimicked the act of love with their own kind," and portrays the newly disabled protagonist as determinedly uttering the words, "No more acting like a victim, no more thinking like a cripple, no more walking like an invalid. No more!" To call this book politically unaware would be a vast understatement. An amputee myself, I did, however, appreciate the descriptions of prosthetics, rehab, the Paralympics, and the strong rebuttal of the assumption that people with disabilities are tragic and impotent. However, it would have been a better novel if it had touched on the lives of all the people with disabilities who aren't athletic, white/Latino or middle-class. (And the NY dance world is strangely devoid of gay men - go figure!) I also found it poorly written, edited (I couldn't believe the punctuation!) and predictable. Still, I think it holds some value as a portrayal of an amputee's rise from self-hatred to success as a professional dancer, activist and teacher. I just wish the authors had been a little more concerned with avoiding the implication that the only good crip is an athletic crip, particularly if he's a straight, good-looking, middle-class Latino.
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