3.5 stars ( )

Paris 1913. A motorcar stalls. The driver gets out to turn the crank to restart the vehicle, but the hand brake was not correctly engaged. The car hurtles down a hill, over an embankment, and splashes into the Seine. Three riders in the back seat -- a Scottish nurse and her two charges, a girl (aged 7) and a boy (aged 3), drown. -- The children (each by a different father) were those of the famed American-born dancer Isadora Duncan. -- These events mark the opening of this historical novel and cast a shadow over the subsequent action, as Isadora struggles to come to terms with her unorthodox life- and dance-styles. -- The author has a clever way with words, at times witty and humorous, sometimes viciously insightful, in her descriptions of various Duncan family members and associates. Perhaps it is the fact that none of the characters is particularly appealing that causes me to regard this novel less highly than I otherwise might do. -- One nice touch: upon departing for England with several of their dance students, Isadora's older sister Elizabeth leaves a gift for her sleeping sister -- a long red scarf, thereby foreshadowing the bizarre manner in which Isadora was to meet her own death in 1927. ( )