Del autor de la colección de relatos El mismo sitio, las mismas cosas, llega esta novela impregnada de un extraño y marcado sentido de la tradición y las nuevas oportunidades. Paul Thibodeaux es un atractivo joven casado con Colette, la mujer más hermosa del pequeño pueblo de Luisiana en el que crecieron. Para Paul, la vida es plena, con una mujer a la que ama, máquinas que reparar, y un bullicioso local al que ir a bailar. Pero Colette aspira
a más. Y cuando se desplaza a California en busca de una vida mejor, Paul la sigue para luego volver, a la espera de que ella se replantee su vida junto a él.
Cómo llegan a darse cuenta de la importancia de su hogar y de su matrimonio hace de esta novela una aventura durante la cual tomará forma una historia de amor. Un retrato viviente de un lugar y una cultura poco explorados por la ficción contemporánea. Tim Gautreaux escribe con ingenio y compasión, pero también con un ojo clínico para los detalles de una vida al más puro estilo sureño.

THE NEXT STEP IN THE DANCE (1998) was Tim Gautreaux's first novel and a pretty good one. Only a buck at the local GoodWill store, so a real bargain. About a young Cajun couple, Paul and Colette, in small town Louisiana. He's a machinist who loves his job and has no further ambitions. He also loves his extended family, dancing, drinking and brawling - the local pastimes. Colette, a bank teller, thinks she wants more. So she serves him divorce papers and moves to California. Paul follows her. They both prosper there but then things kinda go south, and she moves back home. Again, Paul follows her. She's pregnant, her mom dies, her father has dementia, and the local economy bottoms out. Very hard times ensue, but Colette works hard at various things and makes do, with help from friends and family. There is a Texas villain who wants Colette. Villainous, vicious things happen and Paul is grievously injured. His recovery is slow and painful. Eventually the two join forces to raise their son and buy a shrimp boat. There is a terrible storm in the Gulf. The boat and crew go missing. And so on. No more clues. You'll have to read the book.

The story starts out slowly, almost too slow, because, after almost a hundred pages, I didn't like Colette much and almost quit reading. But then I had spent that buck, so I stuck with it and the story got better, picked up momentum, and I developed a grudging respect for Colette and her grit. The last couple hundred pages really rolled downhill and I couldn't wait to read what happened next. Turned out to be quite a ride. And I liked how it all turned out

I'd never heard of Tim Gautreaux. He did write a couple more novels, but, well ... Never heard of him. But this was a pretty good read. Lots of local color and an inside look at blue collar life in bayou country. Highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

El autor retrata los paisajes y gentes de Luisana con precisión y delicadeza. Esta novela es una elegía y una celebración de la vida sureña.. Un verdadero contador de historias... ( )

Set in the swamplands of Louisiana this is the story of Colette, a highly determined and ambitions bank employee and her husband Paul, who is quite happy with his life as a machinist and has no ambition beyond being able to go to a bar and have a beer and a dance after work. It begins with Colette catching Paul out with another woman, and the reader's assumption is that he is a habitual philanderer. However I was surprised how quickly I realised my sympathies were largely with Paul, and despite the feeling that the intention of the book was for them to separate and then ultimately realise they were made for each other, it never did seem to me that they were a great match, and maybe they should have separated right then and there and have done with it.

My edition the book was the output of a small press who declare that their specialism is 'resurrecting under-celebrated, beautifully written books with a strong sense of place'. The book was originally published in 1998 and I wonder why it had been so 'under-celebrated'. For me, the problem was that it was so long winded. The writing was fine, and it did indeed have a strong sense of place, but for example setting page after page after page on a boat floating in the Gulf of Mexico wasn't going to give me a better sense of place than one more concise page might have done. Scenes just went on too long and had little to differentiate them. I hardly ever found myself on the edge of my seat. Perhaps the only time was the scene inside the boiler - now that was drama.

It was a relief to get to the last page, as it had been quite clear where the book was heading, I just had to slog along a long road to get there. I don't do book groups, but two book-group type questions did occur to me. Firstly - would the trajectory of the story have been different had the characters not been Catholic, with Catholic ideas of marriage and divorce, and secondly - did either of the protagonists really change at all - other than physically - during the course of the book. I'm not sure they did. ( )

An incredible writer, definitely one of my "re-read books". This man is a genius. ( )