No Way Home: A Dancer's Journey from the Streets of Havana to the Stages of the World | 
| Author: Carlos Acosta
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $27.50
Buy New: $11.20
You Save: $16.30 (59%)
New (29) Used (8) from $10.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 120206
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 1416566295
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.8028092
EAN: 9781416566298
ASIN: 1416566295
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, never read. Immediate shipping.
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Product Description
Carlos Acosta, the Cuban dancer considered to be one of the world's greatest performers, fearlessly depicts his journey from adolescent troublemaker to international superstar in his captivating memoir, No Way Home. Carlos was just another kid from the slums of Havana; the youngest son of a truck driver and a housewife, he ditched school with his friends and dreamed of becoming Cuba's best soccer player. Exasperated by his son's delinquent behavior, Carlos's father enrolled him in ballet school, subjecting him to grueling days that started at five thirty in the morning and ended long after sunset. The path from student to star was not an easy one. Even as he won dance competitions and wowed critics around the world, Carlos was homesick for Cuba, crippled by loneliness and self-doubt. As he traveled the world, Carlos struggled to overcome popular stereotypes and misconceptions; to maintain a relationship with his family; and, most of all, to find a place he could call home. This impassioned memoir is about more than Carlos's rise to stardom. It is about a young man forced to leave his homeland and loved ones for a life of self-discipline, displacement, and physical hardship. It is also about how the heart and soul of a country can touch the heart and soul of one of its citizens. With candor and humor, Carlos vividly depicts daily life in communist Cuba, his feelings about ballet -- an art form he both lovesand hates -- and his complex relationship with his father. Carlos Acosta makes dance look effortless, but the grace, strength, and charisma we see onstage have come at a cost. Here, in his own words, is the story of the price he paid.
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| Customer Reviews:
Even if you don't care about ballet... June 12, 2008
...this book will fascinate you. This is ultimately a tale about finding one's place in the world; a place that seemingly evades and, at times, can appear as unattainable as a mirage. Carlos Acosta's descriptions of his familial and economic hardships are honest and direct without being either exploitive or self-deprecating. He states things as they are, but the lyrical quality of his writing lends his ultra humble origins an unmistakable air of dignity and pride. Even as he conquered the highbrow world of ballet, the boy who grew up in poverty in the Havana suburb of Los Pinos, never left his side. "Yuli" as his family called him, is ever present. The restless and truant boy who loathed ballet and dreamt of soccer and break-dancing is very much entrenched in the man who is considered the greatest classical male dancer of his generation. From playing "eating mud" to being the first ever black principal dancer of London's Royal Ballet, we come to know an individual who has struggled his entire life to stay close to people and places that his art necessarily pushed further away from him. Again, if you couldn't care less about ballet, you'll find a little bit of yourself within its pages, as this book will undoubtedly speak to everyone. At its core, it's a humanistic a tale as they come. Funny, moving, haunting and honest, No Way Home: A Dancer's Journey from the Streets of Havana to the Stages of the World is a deeply rewarding experience that reminds us of the price we must pay for the choices we make.
A thoughtful meditation on ambition and family May 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm not interested in dancing or Cuba. To speak plainly, I didn't expect to enjoy this book. But enjoy it I did.
From the cover, the book appears to be about the life of a fabulously talented dancer who begins his life is dank poverty in Cuba, and fight his way out of all that. Sounds like a well worn idea, right?
But it's far more interesting than that. Carlos Acosta actually didn't want to be a ballet dancer, and tried to stop being a dancer several times. He almost succeeded.
The book isn't really about dancing. You don't need to know anything about dancing to appreciate the soul of this man. Acosta could have had the same life and travels and written the same basic book even had he been a swimming star, a soccer star, film star, baseball star, a great break dancer or singer. The core question of the book would still have been the same: What use is ambition and earthly success if you lose your family and your sense of belonging in the world? Does having talent give you a responsibility to fulfill your potential?
Acosta comes off as a very likeable guy, even as he describes himself doing rather unlikeable things, at times. He is poor but does not hate poverty. He has troubles in his family but still feels that he belongs with them. He has troubles with his country but wants to stay. He acknowledges that he's in the minority-- that lots of his countrymen want to escape. He paints no rosy picture of life in Cuba. He sees the problems, he just doesn't mind them.
His family, teachers, and friends relentlessly push him to fulfill a destiny that they insist is his. At times he also becomes ambitious to dance well, but his thoughts always return to his family and the beloved dirty, terrible, dangerous neighborhood of his childhood. He travels far, but always finds a way to go back home. Perhaps the title should have been No Way to Stay Home.
I like Acosta because he doesn't buy into the philosophy of ambition for ambition's sake. Yet to please the people he loves he must leave the people he loves and appear to love something else. How he comes to terms with this makes for a book I felt compelled to read in one sitting.
Fantastic!! May 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am not a balletomane or even a big fan of memoirs, but I loved this book! The writing, the style, and the story pull the reader in to Acosta's world. This is a universal story, told brilliantly and with great attention to language and pace. A great story for all ages!
Transcending ballet, a moving & human story April 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought "No Way Home" because I heard Julie Kavanagh (she wrote the recent Nureyev biography) call Acosta the most charismatic figure in contemporary ballet. I am glad I bought it. It's an eminently readable and moving memoir. I am a big memoir guy, but hardly a ballet aficionado. The themes in this book transcend ballet. Acosta addresses universal human issues in relating his personal history (race, the idea of home, familial relationships, ...) and he probes these issues honestly and with a keen eye for detail.
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