Obviously another of the foreign novels from Amazon. I'm thinking I got my ninety-nine cents worth with this one.
It is intense, perverse, political and the ending is just a touch ambiguous. The opening is well-done, with an opening sequence that does not become fully explained until well into the story. The early events are told as flashback during this sequence. The chronological story begins as a young ballerina in Berlin seeks out a tango company from Argentina as research for an audition for the performance of a ballet with tango as a theme. She finds them and that is about the last normal event in the story.
The events of the story play against a background of the previous generation's nightmare in Argentina. Death squads, torture, the desaparecidos, the involvement of the US and most of the west as, at the very least, complicit in these events - it is a horrific setting for what might have been a story of a romance between two young artists.
The telling did seem to drag a bit as Guilietta (doesn't sound German, does she) seeks Damian in the wilds of Buenos Aires, and the crux of the story, as well as some of the informative supporting events, seem just a bit too coincidental for any pretense at even fictional "reality." For example, when Guilietta stumbles into a tango bar speaking no Spanish and really knowing nothing about the history of tango or Argentina, the first person she encounters is a gay American sociologist whose research in hand is on tango. Her new best friend fills her in on all the inside info, let's her weep on her shoulder, and has access to all the right places and people.
Still, I guess it didn't drag too much, since I finished it today (I meant to read the last chapter in the text for the Curriculum History course, oh well). He did keep me guessing. My first thought was that the story would reenact the story of the tango which Damian and his partner perform - not exactly.
I've been trying to categorize this by genre. I suppose mystery/suspense would be first choice, but historical/political is also a major contender.
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