Review "It took me ten years to understand that the story of the Polytechnique Massacre did not belong only to me but belonged to my society of feminists, of artists, of those who wanted to bear witness, to understand. My private story, however, belongs to me. And the Polytechnique massacre story is built on thousands of private stories of victims and their families, of all Polytechnique students, teachers, employees, and of all those whose life was transformed on that day. In Dancing In Red Shoes Will Kill You, Donna Decker re-imagines private stories to transcend December 6th and bring back to life the memory of my classmates."--Nathalie Provost, P. Eng., wounded on December 6th, 1989"This novel, based on the tragic events of December 6th 1989, is an important commemoration of victims of the Montreal Massacre. With convincing characters and meticulous reconstruction of details, Donna Decker shows us that the killer was not a lunatic, but that his actions were a direct consequence of the negative attitude towards women in society. This is a very important point, because once you proclaim someone like him a monster, it means he is an exception and therefore society is not to be blamed for his actions. On the other hand, if you make a reader aware of the atmosphere of hatred towards women, the whole society becomes responsible for his heinous crime. This book is also a strong condemnation of society's negative attitudes towards women's emancipation. I am grateful that Donna Decker, with this book, has made me aware that in modern times, in a civilized country, women were killed just because they were women."--Slavenka Drakulic, author of Holograms of Fear, Marble Skin, and S. A Novel About the Balkans"Each December 6th since 1989, I gather with women working against male violence from Vancouver, Montreal, Moscow, London or Paris to acknowledge the importance of the Montreal Massacre but also to organize a better future for women. Still Donna Decker, in her novel Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You, through excellent journalistic research, reveals and conveys some social and political realities that I didn't know. She links historical facts with the story-telling techniques of fiction to help us imagine how other men and women lived those days. Most importantly, she commits to women and to honesty about this specific group of women. Time, unearthed details, and her feminist sensibility holds out for us a perspective on the truth of those public and private events. Sparked by both the murders and the responses of our institutions, thousands of women took over Canadian streets protesting murderous male rage. After twenty-five years, extreme events of male violence worldwide again illuminate the rape culture that spawns them. Reading this book puts us in good company while we consider when and where to run for shelter from men's violence against women and when and why to defy it."--Lee Lakeman, author of Obsession, with Intent"This historical novel could not be more timely. Anchored in the events of the Montreal Massacre, the book imagines in rich and carefully researched detail the possible lives of the women engineers attacked by the shooter on December 6, 1989, and the lives of their friends, family members, and others affected by the shooting, including engineers, feminists, and even feminist engineers on other campuses. In doing so, the novel does a justice to the women the world lost on that day. In addition to humanizing those affected by the Montreal Massacre, the book expertly contextualizes the misogynist school shooting in the broader settings of sexism in engineering, violence against women on college campuses and gender-based violence more broadly. A must read for anyone seeking to make sense of the all too real connections between gender-based violence and barriers to advancement of women in stem fields."--Donna Riley, Professor, Department of Engineering Education, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"This book is immaculately researched, and the characters empathetically imagined. Given the recent media scrutiny of gendered crime on college campuses, it is a must read!" --Kevin O'Hara, author of Last of the Donkey Pilgrims Read more About the Author Donna Decker is a writer and an English professor at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire, whose teaching includes a seminar on school shootings. In 2010, she was one of 25 professors selected from among 150 applicants to be a Ms. Magazine Feminist Scholar based on her project about the 1989 Montreal Massacre. "Intentional Venom: Making Meaning of School Shootings." The course, created by the author several years ago, has become a popular elective, and grew out of her research on the Polytechnique murders. A mother of three, she lives in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Read more
I**C
Brilliant, compelling, with lingering impact.
This is a brilliant book, elegantly written, compelling and disturbing, and deserving of a wide audience. Decker draws us into the lives of Montreal college students in the late 1980s as they struggle with interpreting “no means no,” the rigor of an engineering curriculum, academic ambitions (or not), romantic relationships, family, and friends. Her finely sketched portraits are fictional representations of the 14 women who were murdered simply because they were female engineering students, a horror that I thought I understood but comprehended far more deeply after reading this book. She also creates a strong sense of place and Quebecois culture without losing the sense that this could have happened anywhere. And although this event took place nearly 30 years ago, much of what she conveys is relevant today on college campuses - the sexism in many STEM programs, issues of date rape, the meaning of consent, the confusion of parents (mothers, in particular) who may be disturbed about their sons’ attitudes towards women but are clueless how to intervene. Yet this is no diatribe, and Decker skillfully manages to humanize these women and tell a powerful story, with psychological insights that rippled long after I finished the book.
C**O
A must read for everyone who loves a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister
I read this book right after reading Jon Krakauer's Missoula. It is a terrific work about an important issue, one told with empathy and grace. It is rare that stories of mass murder, which this is, focus on the victims: their lives and loves and the horrific costs paid because a man with a gun has grievances against the world. This book should be part of college curricula and I sincerely hope it sparks a national discussion about rape, about misogyny, and about how we can stop the senseless violence against women.
K**P
Five Stars
Great read couldn't put in down
N**B
Five Stars
A must read book. It is hard to believe that so recently so much sexism existed.
B**A
Wonderful story line
Well written. Interesting unable to put book down!
L**N
Powerful story
Donna Decker's DANCING IN RED SHOES WILL KILL YOU is a moving tribute to the fourteen female engineering students who were shot and killed in the 1989 Montreal Massacre. Decker's account is written as fiction, but it is meticulously researched and full of detail. The novel brings to life a time and place that many would rather forget as too painful, too monstrous. The second half of the book is especially powerful, as Decker shows the devastation that followed the shootings.With carefully drawn characters, Decker imagines the possible lives and loves of these women -- what they hoped for, what they feared. In the process, she illustrates how misogyny can poison the lives of both men and women in ways that are sometimes subtle and sometimes catastrophic. Her book is an act of reverence and respect for the lives of the women who died on December 6, 1989. She ensures they will not be forgotten.
C**F
and the destroyed potential of the victims of violent crime and the impact of these crimes on the loved ones of the victims
For those of you who may be put off by some facet of the story, the feminist theory, the fictionalized tale of a real life tragedy, you are missing the point of this heart-wrenching yet critically important book. Decker's book reminds us of what we so often forget, the lives, the history, and the destroyed potential of the victims of violent crime and the impact of these crimes on the loved ones of the victims. Through Decker's outstanding writing, the reader becomes invested in the lives of the victims and their families, allowing the reader to feel a small measure of the pain that the loved ones felt when a seemingly senseless act of violence destroys what they had. Decker also provides the readers with an understanding of the context in which the violence takes place, to help the reader experience the confusion the loved ones feel when they lose someone, not because of who that individual is, but who that individual represents. This is the fundamental issue that Decker addresses so beautifully, if we forget the individuals that were killed and focus too much on the identity that their killer thrust upon them, we have ourselves marginalized the victims. In a time where school shootings, murders, terrorist acts, and ongoing wars fill our news, the temptation is to depersonalize the information, to focus on the event and not the victims. Decker's book instead encourages the readers to remember the victims, the victims' families, and those in the community affected by violence. No one should die anonymously. Decker's book reminds us that every victim of violence should be the story, not a statistic, and the impact of violent events doesn't end for those who lose loved ones. This book is a poignant eulogy for the victims and their families of the "Montreal Massacre" that puts the focus of our attention back to where it belongs, with the victims and their families, and the community that will never be the same.
E**E
Dancing in Red Shoes is a compelling and important story.
Dancing in Red Shoes is a compelling and important story. The historical events the novel is based on were illuminating to me. I was particularly shocked to learn about the push back to the "no means no" campaign, a concept which now feels pervasive and accepted. However, this perspective forced me to think about contemporary conceptions of rape and violence, e.g. debates over "yes means yes." Decker's feminist characters question the myth of achieved gender equality, and the narrative forces its readers to do the same. Why is there pushback? Debate? Defensiveness? Why, almost thirty years after the timeframe of this novel, is "feminist" still a dirty word? Decker gives loud voices and complex personalities to feminists, a perspective that rarely takes such strong and center stage in fiction.
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