Fatal Tango

by Wolfram Fleischhaner

Genres: Fiction

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Billie Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character is very annoying. Most of this book felt like a history lesson. The actual story was okay but not good enough to save the book. I wouldn't read another book by this author. "SPOILER" - I don't know why but I knew he was her brother the whole book.

[Dick Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

The following review contains spoilers, so do not read on if you are planning to read the book and want to be surprised. Giulietta Battin, struggling ballerina at the Berlin opera, falls in love with Argentinean tango champion, Damian Alsina. Giulietta describes tango music as being a combination of Dvorak, Rachmaninov, and Gypsy music. The dance is described as being a sort of tussle, with one partner trying to force the other to do something that he/she did not want to do. Damian tells Giulietta that he is appalled at how a rich country like Germany can have apartments with outdoor toilets. He also didn’t like it that young women didn’t shave their legs and armpits. G tells D that her father was from the GDR but was a vehement anti-communist, whereas her mother was from the west but was very left-wing. D and G’s father get into some mysterious fight, and D ties the old man to a chair and flees Germany for Argentina. G finds her father, unties him, and leaves Germany for Argentina to look for Damian. G finds out how dangerous Buenos Aires is, with armed gangs roaming the city, and 8 rats for every human. She finds a friend of Damian who tells her that many people hate him. It turns out it is because of some of his unorthodox dance moves. D’s long time dance partner in Argentina is Nieves. G finds out that D and Nieves have split up, and she thinks it is because of D’s involvement with her (G). G meets a Canadian woman named Lindsey who is doing research on the Tango. She explained that the reason there are so many homosexuals dancing Tango is that in 1880, when Argentina was undergoing a huge emigrational increase in population, that men outnumbered women 10 to 1. Lindsey shows G a film of D dancing, and G detects a code in his steps that spells out LAMBARE. Both G and Lindsey figure out that D is dancing out letters and words. G finds out that her father is there in Argentina, also looking for D. G talks to several people and finds out that (a) her father is living under an assumed name, (b) D was an adopted foundling, and has another name, (c) years ago her father had impregnated a young woman who had leftist views, (d) he betrayed the woman to the junta, she was arrested, gave birth to a son who was D, and then she was killed, (e) D when grown set out to find her father, and roughed him up when he found him, (f) knowing that the remnants of the junta were after him, D fakes his own death in a car accident. D leaves Argentina and finds G in Germany. He vows never to dance the tango (or any other dance) again. D and G renew their romance, although both now know that they are half-siblings. The author states that Argentinean state terrorism killed 30,000 victims between 1976 and 1983. This book understates the author’s obvious dislike of anti-communism and its manifestations in Germany, France, England, and the USA. He blames those countries for enabling the junta to murder thousands. However, he does not rub our noses in these opinions, but rather, emphasizes the world of tango and also the world of ballet. He also shows us some of the flavor of Argentinean culture. It is somewhat of a surprise that D and G turn out to be half-brother and half-sister to each other. This was a multi-faceted book, and my interest was held throughout. I would rate this an 8 out of 10.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good! Yes, yes, of course, it is initially extremely annoying to think this young woman would risk her entire future in ballet to fly half-way around the world, from Germany to Argentina, a country whose language she doesn't speak, to look for a guy who swept her off her feet, then disappeared. It is also bothersome to know that this young woman is so incredibly politically ignorant and naive. But then, I think about the serious young dancers I've known and guess what? All they do is dance. Many of them really do (or can) live in a dance bubble. As for the sociologist, I can only assume the author really knows nothing about how we work, so I will forgive that, albeit with clenched teeth. Those are the negatives, up front. Now, that's done. On to the ways in which this book is so incredible.

First, the dance. Reading about tango, through the eyes of a dancer, is an amazing experience. I knew next to nothing about tango when I began this book, but have learned so much! More than that, in the dance passages, I can feel it. If Fleischhaner had nothing more than this to write, I would love this book. But there is more.

It isn't until more than half-way through the book that Giulietta, our naive, but well-intended and very much in love dancer, gets to the point at which she should be catching on to at least some of the dark political currents swirling around her. She remains stubbornly oblivious for so long! There is so much in store for her! And so much for her to learn! Yes, there is Argentina's political history, including the Dirty War, the roles played by the U.S., Germany, and others, and ongoing reverberations. Fleischhaner does not flinch.

Despite the rather over-the-top romance between Giulietta and Damain and her rather extreme response to his leaving, both characters are "real." In fact, the characters all all well-drawn and suit the genre quite well.

And that genre? Well, this is "soap opera," but soap opera before it was hijacked to sell soap. Like the tango that is the soul of this tale, this is a peoples' art form, used to tell their most important stories. Melodrama is a tool in that telling. In fact, it might be necessary to the telling.

[Kara Jorges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giulietta Battin is a ballet dancer embarking on her career in Berlin when a love affair with a tango dancer sends her tumbling headlong into a world of intrigue. She falls in love at first sight when she watches Damian Alsina practicing for an upcoming show, and the two begin a passionate love affair that suddenly derails when Damian meets her overbearing father. Giulietta returns from a trip out of town to find her father bound to a chair in her living room, and Damian has gone. Her father won’t tell her anything, so in desperation, Gilulietta takes leave from her ballet corps and flies to Buenos Aires to find him and get some answers. She immerses herself into the world of tango there, but instead of finding answers, or Damian, she befriends a Canadian writer and learns about Argentina’s recent bloody history. It is not until she returns to Berlin that the truth begins to come clear, and she learns both Damian and her father’s secrets.

This book was darkly compelling from the very beginning, where Giulietta is looking over her shoulder while waiting for the next plane to Argentina, to the very end when she has her answers, but another dilemma on her hands. Its threads were cunningly interwoven, leading from ballet workouts in Europe to political unrest in South America in the 1970s. I found myself drawn in every time I picked it up, and wanting to go back to it every time I had to put it down. Giulietta is a compelling character, as well, devoted to her art and not quite independent from her parents. Her relationships with both of them are complicated, as well. Damian is a shadowy figure, someone about whom Giulietta knows many things, but she finds there is a lot more beneath the surface.

I had an inkling about some of the things Giulietta would learn, but wasn’t quite sure how all the pieces would fit together, and had to keep reading to find out more. Along the way, I learned quite a bit about tango dancing and recent world history that has been swept under the rug. I definitely recommend this well-woven tale of dancing and intrigue.

[Alex Renwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book in 2014 and only got a couple of chapters in as it was a little slow, although well written with very descriptive passages. In fact I thought that the book may not be worth pursuing. I picked it up again last week, 20 months after and for some reason immediately found it much easier to get into. It is basically a love story, but with many twists and turns and elements of the tango, ballet, the Stasi and Argentinian death squads. In the end, the more I read, the quicker the pace and the more enthralling. I would recommend this, even though the tango descriptions were way over my head, they did add to the atmosphere of the story. Well researched and for me thoroughly enjoyable.

[Karen Lowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to rate this book. It was an interesting and intelligently written piece of research on the history of tango, and on Argentina's political history, which was useful and seemed to me to be pretty thorough. However, the actual storyline didn't get going, for me, until over half way through the book, and even then it was continually slowed by lumps of research/history. I found it difficult to believe in the main character, the ballerina Guilietta: her ignorance of tango/Argentinian history was simply the conduit for unloading the research. Considering its main subject was a passionate dance form, it was a strangely dispassionate book.

[L.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Fatal Tango" dances from Germany to Argentina and back to Germany. The dancers are Giulietta (ballet) and Damián (tango) both from different cultures whose mysterious love story weaves through the Second World War and Argentina’s brutal post-Peron military regime and the horrific era of the desaparecidos. The past make both of these characters a present-day representation of that past that must overcome their parents roles in order to solve the mystery of their present ones and move on. There is much to be learned here history wise along with a mystery resolved with an unexpected twist. Not for traditional mystery readers perhaps, but a good read none the less.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. There's a bit of a history lesson intertwined with the plot, which I thought at first was hindering the story's advancement, but then I found the history to be more interesting than the plot itself. It started strong, dragged in the middle, picked up about 65% of the way into the book, then ended abruptly without addressing any of the issues I had by then considered important, which made me feel a bit robbed of some of the drama I felt Fleischhaner was surely building up to.

[Marina Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conveys perfectly the brooding, menacing, tense mood of the tango and of a country only just recovering from the grip of dictatorship. I also liked the author's observations of cultural differences between Germany and Argentina, and between East and West Germany. Engaging and strong-willed main characters.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brooding love story set against an intriguing background. Although at times tricky because of the history and politics of Argentina and Germany, the story is fascinating and the characters all at once tragic and strong. The dance elements of the story are captured beautifully. I'd recommend you give it a go.

[SK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a good - and somewhat different and unique - story. I liked the tango element and how the author interweaved history into the story. After an intriguing start, felt that it ran out of puff a bit midway, but then it picked up again.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good mystery read for summer. Learned a lot about the history of Argentina after the Second World War. I also never realized that choreography was written on a staff similar to music.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really strange story.

[Molly Johnson malsam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average mystery, with a different locale and central theme (tango). Kept my attention mostly through the end but like most mysteries, I felt disappointed by the resolution.