Tango 101 Reading List
When I first began to be swept up by tango and it became a metaphor for everything, I found few books available on the subject that expressed what I was feeling (so, naturally I wrote my own). Eventually I realized that no one book can capture tango’s essence—just as no one book captures what Zen is (or isn’t). Now, however, I’m pleased to see the bookstore’s shelves accumulating volumes that reflect the many different personal takes on tango. I’m slowly working my way through them as they appear. Here is a handful of recommendations (check back for more):
Kiss and Tango, looking for love in Buenos Aires, by Marina Palmer This book, an enjoyable read, is at turns funny, sad, witty, dark, and always sexy and intimate. Her one-woman quest for one perfect man—on and off the dance floor—recalls Erica Jong’s entertaining novel, Fear of Flying. Marina’s book is written in diary form and is a highly personal and mesmerizing insider’s view of tango, milongas, and the dancers.
The Temptation to Tango: Journeys of Intimacy and Desire by Irene D. Thomas and Larry M. Sawyer This handy guide delves into tango’s “lure” and is also a practical guide with loads of information on tango etiquette, festivals, and events. The chapters are interspersed with Larry’s short fiction which captures various aspects of the ever elusive tango experience. You don’t have to be (or have been) Catholic to love the story of the secret tango life of a Catholic priest.
Paper Tangos, Julie Taylor This book gives a chilling portrait of what it must have been like to try to dance tango in Buenos Aires under the military dictatorship (1976 to 1983), when public gatherings were forbidden. It’s not an easy read. It took me a while to get into this book because the various threads were not clearly woven together. The author hints at a violent father but never completely develops that thread. “Paper” tangos refers to little cryptic handwritten notes she found in her coat pockets some time after they were put there. They were cryptic to avoid arousing police suspicion.
Tango, The art history of love by Robert Farris Thompson This is the most academic of all the tango books. It’s a great reference guide and I recommend any tango devotee include it on her/his shelf. It’s full of well researched information on the various origins of tango, the music and its composers, and the dance. It’s not a book I would read leisurely. Thompson’s thesis—that the contribution of Africans to tango has been underexposed and undervalued—is both interesting and compelling. I especially appreciate this book for its indepth index, indispensable in a book of this nature, with so many terms and proper names.