Tap Dancing on a Hot Skillet

Tap Dancing on a Hot Skillet is Gabrielle's debut memoir-a coming of age story about growing up in a Jewish family of six in the Deep South of the 1950s and '60s. As if navigating the racially charged atmosphere of the times is not challenge enough, the secrets her father has brought into his marriage causes him to swing from loving to unpredictably volatile at the spin of a dime. As the oldest, her desire to protect her three younger siblings from the chaos and injustices inside and outside her home is made harder by an emotionally absent mother. Using a combination of personal stories set against a backdrop of cultural context-the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam war, and pop culture references of films and music (from Elvis to the Beatles)-Gabrielle creates a scaffolding by which to hang the evolving angst of the '60s contrasted with the naivet of the '50s told through the eyes of a young person caught at the center. The stories are told with a keen sense of visual detail, southern wit, and an authentic adolescent voice that helps the characters dance off the page and sit right along next to you.