The Complete Ballet
. . . is an intricate pas de deux in which five romantic ballets are threaded with the story of memory and fallibility set in a Technicolor Los Angeles. The reader inhabits the mythic stories of classic ballet—Nijinsky and Pavlova, George Balanchine and Joseph Cornell—while simultaneously entering into the life of a narrator who seems to resemble the film director John Cassavetes.
Haskell writes deftly, meaningfully, about the fluidity of experience and the self.
—Kirkus Reviews
Haskell is a choreographer of a dance in words. [His} achievement lies in both the sustained emotional stakes of his book and in the fruitful experiment in adaptation and ekphrasis.
—Jo Livingstone (The New Republic)
John Haskell writes deceptively breezy and engrossing fiction that simultaneously introduces readers to the future of storytelling. He has always been ahead of his time, and now, with The Complete Ballet, he proves without a doubt that he is among American fiction's most undaunted visionaries.
—Heidi Julavits
In this beautifully choreographed novel, John Haskell’s engrossing narratives dance with romance, history, and crime, each fascinating, brilliantly written. It’s a rare book that has so much emotional and intellectual excitement. I loved reading it.
—Lynne Tillman