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Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated The Sugarless Plum in Books

Apr 27, 2018  
The Sugarless Plum
The Sugarless Plum
Zippora Karz | 2009 | Biography
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Zippora’s memoir is touching, inspirational, dramatic, and profound. I felt 100% in her shoes through her story, not just because I am a dancer and can relate to a lot of the experiences, but because of the way she has written it. She writes like the whole thing is magic—because Ballet is magic. I just can’t think of words to describe how much I loved this book.

There was a lot of information about Diabetes in the text, and I did skip over a paragraph occasionally. But for the most part it all fit in perfect. She described how she worried about how much Insulin to take before a show so that she wouldn't faint on stage. She told about how she was in complete denial for a while. She told about the horror to find that after she broke down and tested her blood after eating off-diet for so long, and her reading was off the charts—and another time, while she was having short black-outs, her reading was so low she didn’t know that a human’s blood sugar level could get that low… and how she felt in all those situations.

How Zippora felt was a key element running through the book. It wasn’t just “this is my story, hope you enjoy.” No, it was “First this happened. It looked like this, it felt like this, it smelled and tasted like this. Then this happened!”

Would a non-dancer relate to this book? Yes I believe they would. Maybe they wouldn’t have the same respect for what she went through as I do, but they would still relate. I danced through injuries and illnesses and partnered people who could at any moment throw up all over me and had six hour rehearsals en pointe and stayed at the studio from 8:00am to 7:30 pm with only a few crackers and water keeping me alive and ate dinner at 11:30 at night. I remember how it feels. But Zippora’s memoir tells us how it is in the professional world—which is all that I mentioned to a higher degree—and does it in a way that you don’t have to have that background to understand and relate to it and feel it (Although dancers will know what a pirouette or a tendue is without the explanation that she gives. At least the better if they call themselves dancers :).

THE SUGARLESS PLUM wasn’t just for dancers. It’s for anyone who dreams of the stage. Any athlete who suffers from an illness or an injury, either Diabetes or otherwise. It shows people that although they may not be able to overcome or fix a chronic disease, but it is possible to achieve your goal and cope with it and still achieve what you dream of most.

Content: There is one scene with brief mention of sex but no explicit details, and there is no language.

Recommendation: Ages 12+ to anyone who has ever dreamed about the stage, any athlete who suffers from Diabetes and needs encouragement, or anyone who loves a touching and inspirational memoir.