Customer Reviews

The Tango Singer: A Novel

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Tomas Eloy Martinez is a superlative writer. He has written about his native Argentina in award winning books such as 'Santa Evita' and 'The Peron Novel' and though he has been on the faulty of Rutgers University (Latin American Program) since 1982, he first wrote THE TANGO SINGER in Spanish in 2004. It comes to us through the English translation by Anne McLean. Many idiosyncrasies here, but at least we finally have access to what is one of the finest novels this reader has read this year!Martinez writes with a flowing, dancing style and with a technique that obliterates the lines between the past and the present in such a unique manner that his style is utterly mesmerizing.

Bruno Cadogan lives in Manhattan and is writing a dissertation on Jorge Luis Borges' essays on tango and discovers a clue to understanding Borges' words about the famous Tango singer Carlos Gardel (in early 1900s) in finding information about a current tango singer Julio Martel whose strange life and lack of recordings drive Bruno to fly to Buenos Aires in hopes of not only hearing Martel sing but to also engage him in conversation to further define his dissertation. Upon arrival in Buenos Aires Bruno meets a fellow he calls El Tucumano and they room together (we are not sure to what extent these two attractive men are bonded) and together they search the city for performances by Martel. Every performance location, though thwarted, introduces them to different characters who relate different aspects of the history of Buenos Aires: the rooming house where the two live is also the location of a librarian Bonorino who lives in the cellar and is convinced he has found Borges' 'aleph' ('a point in space that contains all other points') and Bruno falls under the spell of the new information. But the main goal of finding Martel overtakes him and eventually he is on the trail of the mysterious tango singer who was born a hemophiliac and has a distorted body and health. Ultimately Bruno meets Martel's lover Alcira and meets Martel in an ending to the novel.

The story of Martel's strange life is alone fascinating enough for the novel to hold the reader's interest, but Martinez doesn't stop there. He finds ways of reviewing the long history of Buenos Aires from 1810 when the Spanish domination was ended through the many trials of political upheaval, through the Peron era, to the present 2001 period when five presidents were elected and rejected within a week's time! He lets us get to know the mysterious city of Buenos Aires: 'the shape of a labyrinth is not in the lines but in the spaces between those lines'...'the true labyrinth of Buenos Aires is its people. So near and at the same time so distant. So similar on the outside and so diverse within. Such reserve, which Borges tries to assert as the essence of Argentina, and at the same time such shamelessness.'

Tomas Eloy Martinez' style of writing takes some mental adjustment to keep the timelines clear and he uses no quotation marks making it difficult at times to differentiate between conversation and reportage, but the style once understood is like the music about which he writes. This little novel has all the seduction and romance and challenge and lust of a tango. It is brilliant! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, June 06

If you love Argentine culture, literature and her people, this is an extremely satisfying novel. If you don't know a lot about Borges or Argentina in general, it may not be the best Martinez novel for you.

A short but intriguing novel set in 2001 from Eloy Martínez, a writer whose work battles between history and literature. Whereas 'Santa Evita' (****) and The 'Perón Novel' (****) saw history dominant, here it is the literary side that provides an (allegorical?) framework for an almost mystical search through the horrors of Argentina's recent history. Best read if you have a knowledge of Buenos Aires and Borges - and a map handy!.

Tomas Eloy Martinez recently died but he has left behind some very special novels. He is one of the great portayers of the Argentine experience in the last half of the 20th century.

The Tango Singer is a magical small tale. It captures the mysteries of the culture of Buenos Aires- the allure of tango, the vastness of the city with its unique barrios and the strange writings of Borges.

If you love the tango or the writings of Borges you will enjoy this strange alluring tale.

This is the English translation of El Cantor de Tango. It slowly becomes a very surrealistic book with magical realism thrown in all over the place. Toward the last 100 pages of the book, you find yourself in a town that is a labyrinth of facades and moving landmarks that makes you feel either dizzy or crazy. Maybe it reads better in Spanish, but I doubt it. I still have a few pages to go and maybe I'll get into it soon.