go-go dancing for Elvis
go-go dancing for Elvis by Leslie Greentree is the story of two sisters: the beautiful sister, who travels the States as a dancer for an Elvis impersonator, and her more conventional sister, who stays home and renovates her house. It’s a story of love, jealousy, betrayal, and the people who used to have our phone numbers. Most of all it’s a story about Hawkeye Pierce and power tools.
Awards/Award Nominations
Shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize
Reviews
Leslie Greentree is a conversational poet whose artful talk is not afraid to engage any subject head-on. Her unpretentious, sometimes comic, lower-case poems have an irresistible charm. They pull us into the funk and drama of her everyday experience and, further, into the center of her interior life. ~The Griffin Prize Jury, 2004
Greentree’s careful attention to language, the confidence of her execution, and above all her wry and gentle humour keep go-go dancing fresh and interesting throughout. ~Ian Samuels, The Calgary Herald
Leslie Greentree’s highly readable go-go dancing for Elvis achieves immediate intimacy with a dishy, kitchen-chair voice… The book pleases honestly, in the way of a cotton dress that clings in all the right places. ~Sonnet l’Abbe, The Globe and Mail
go-go dancing for Elvis is as fun as the title suggests the book will be… The book is an easy, quick read, and … repays several readings and has an accumulative punch, rather in the way a good collection of linked stories or rites-of-passage or Roman à Clef novel does. ~Richard Stevenson, The Lethbridge Insider
Like Greentree’s first book, guys named Bill, go-go dancing for Elvis, is a rollicking read and a book to savour. ~Barbara Curry Mulcahy, Alberta Views
Leslie Greentree … takes us through a linear and hilarious story… She employs a clever, tongue-in-cheek tone as she tells of her narrator’s everyday existence. ~Diane Dechief, FFWD
With incredible insight, Leslie Greentree explores the dance of human relationships, the nuances of communication, and the intricacies of daily life. go-go dancing for Elvis performs with skill, humour, and tenderness; but be warned: Greentree is a scorpion-poet and her words always deliver a sting. ~Joan Crate
What a read! Greentree’s poems crackle with humour, self-deprecation, celebration and woe. The book is a domestic extravaganza of being single and female: the fear of inadequacy, the sense that others are having a much better time, the loneliness of love gone wrong, the carnival of house renovations and lust. This book is like a best friend who invites you over for a glass of wine and a gab session. Say yes, I’ll be right over! Cancel everything, grab the car keys, and crack open this book. ~Nancy Holmes
Samples
black go-go boots
it's stylized sixties the black boots are to her knees but the tank top with the silver spaghetti straps and her tiny skirt only nod to the originals the colours are carefully psychedelic the first photograph shows her and Elvis laughing her go-go boot draped lightly over his satin thigh hair pulled high on her head ponytail cascading over her shoulders slapping her in the face as she gyrates the second is of her in the classic pose arms pumping clenched fists hair flying boots planted firmly two feet apart her head is down eyes closed I can feel the music here something like Jailhouse Rock or his bastardized version of Hound Dog she’s having the time of her life when she wore her boots to supper she felt wild and mod getting such a kick out of this outfit like the kid who used to put on the old clothes from Mom’s dress-up box Elvis told her to go back to the room and change he’s had enough of looking at that crap every night does he really have to take his work with him to supper? part of me is glad to see that even a go-go dancer for Elvis can be made to feel like an idiot be spoken to in that way but I still want to drive to their hotel in Reno and kick his ass
