Three Muses tells a tale of Holocaust survival venturing through memory, trauma, and identity, while raising the curtain on the unforgiving discipline of ballet. In post-WWII New York, John Curtin suffers lasting damage from having been forced to sing for the concentration camp kommandant who murdered his family. He meets, Katya Symanova, a dancer climbing the arduous path to Prima Ballerina of the New York State Ballet while enmeshed in an abusive relationship with her choreographer, who makes Katya a star but controls her life.
How characters react to their historical moment is a major theme of the novel, but Three Muses is neither pedantic nor philosophical ... Toll infuses the behaviors and beliefs of the time with a contemporary understanding of psychology and power ... There is an audaciousness to Toll’s ambition in taking on both the Holocaust and the mid-century dance world, and she mostly pulls it off ... Toll’s language often strains to capture the passion and intelligence of Katya’s dancing, and Yanakov’s choreography comes across as more pretention than genius. However, the characters are engaging, their situations and their choices seem real, and the narrative of their coming together pulls one along convincingly ... It is not hard to admire Toll’s craft.
A sweeping romance ... Toll’s dialogue is well-worn, the plot twists familiar. She does utilize cliché effectively, however, and there is true pleasure and a sort of comfort in reading this romance ... Toll has crafted an engaging, albeit conventional, romance, with poignant reflections on the ritual of remembrance.
Empathetic ... Toll creates a sense of mystery as to whether the bond between these two people will solidify or end in a rupture—and throughout, these flawed characters facing complex decisions are given their due ... An affecting chamber piece with plenty to say about art, trauma, and healing.
