Review: Vivien Horler
The Favourites, by Layne Fargo (Chatto & Windus)
Ice dancing on television is lovely – gliding, serene, the smiles, the gorgeous costumes, the wonderful music, the balletic beauty of it all.
But according to this novel – and author Layne Fargo gives every indication of having thoroughly researched the world of competitive ice dance – it’s a savage, even cutthroat, business.
Ever since Katarina Shaw was four and living near Chicago, she has dreamed of skating glory. She wants to emulate her hero, Sheila Lin, winner of two golds at the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988.
Kat is 16 when this novel begins, skating with Heath, the survivor of many foster homes. Kat wants to win gold, Heath wants Kat, and so he learns to be her ice partner.
They have a sort-of coach, but little is professional about their operation. They have almost no money, and both of Kat’s parents are dead. However, they’re good, and make it into the US Figure Skating Championships.
They know this is important – unless they are recognised on a public stage, they have little chance of attracting sponsors or a decent coach.
At the championships Kat is thrilled to see Sheila Lin, now coaching her twins, Bella and Garrett, who are entered in the same event as Kat and Heath. But their first on-ice encounter is a disaster – during a practice session they collide, sending Kat sprawling with a wrenched hip.
Eventually Kat and Heath are placed sixth, while Bella and Garrett get silver. It’s an ignominious start, but what happens next is extraordinary. Preparing to drive back to Chicago in the driving snow, ready to slink home humiliated, Kat encounters Sheila Lin who congratulates her on their dance.
She then invites them to spend the summer at her skating academy in Los Angeles, a facility with many coaches and two Olympic sized rinks. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and Kat is ecstatic. Heath is less enthusiastic.
Their lives change and their skating improves radically.
But drama dogs Kat and Heath. Heath never feels comfortable in the Lins’ rarified world and despite the pair’s mutual passion, resentment creeps into their relationship. Kat wants to win, and is driven by ambition; Heath merely wants to be with Kat. Bella too is driven, Garrett less so. Kat and Bella become uneasy friends as well as rivals.
Kat and Heath’s first big win comes at Skate America 2001 in Colorado Springs. “You never forget the first time,” Kat muses. And she’s not talking sex. They win gold, and suddenly are the focus of everyone’s attention.
There is bad news ahead – on her 18th birthday Kat is due to get her half of the inheritance from her father, but when she contacts the bank she is told the account is overdrawn. Kat’s ne’er-do-well brother Lee has gone through everything her parents bequeathed to them. All that is left is the house, and Kat does not intend to live in it with Lee.
To make some money, Kat does a modelling photo-shoot with Garrett, and is then appalled to see their pictures on a giant billboard. A jealous Heath is outraged, and they have a fight minutes before they are due to skate in World Dance Championships in 2002. They don’t make it to the podium, and Kat is furious.
And so it goes on for a couple named ominously after the Wuthering Heights characters, up and down, triumphs and losses, joy and pain, love and icy fury. The Olympics are ahead – but can they pull themselves together?
There is a lot about ice dance in this novel, but also there is a hard look at the strain of being a world class athlete. Unrelenting work, training, unforgiving coaches, the professionalism of smiling even when your dreams are crashing.
The narrative is written by a toughened Kat, who reacts to a documentary on herself and Heath by producing her version of events. She says: “By now I’ve heard it all: Katarina Shaw is a bitch, a diva, a sore loser, a manpulative liar… Call me what you want. I don’t give a damn anyore. My story is mine, and I’ll tell it the same way I skated: in my own way, on my own terms. We’ll see who wins in the end.”
The Favourites is a great, entertaining read.
- The Favourites is one of Exclusive Books’s top reads for March.