Reviews for Heartbreak Tango

The average rating for Heartbreak Tango based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-11-15 00:00:00 Anton Demin "Heartbreak Tango" Manuel Puig. 11/11/12: Elevated now to classic status, the book is an indispensable source of inspiration to me. The novel's form is like no other'it's an exhilarating experiment done exactly right. Cannot be recommended by me enough times'READ IT! This was my previous review (11/18/11): Manuel Puig: I immediately place him above Garcia Marquez and Bolaño. No, really. He insists on writing love stories in the least-possibly direct way, which is certainly a gust of fresh air to all of modern lit. Through the use of love letters, one-sided conversations, seemingly-useless lists, mere brush-stroke observations of now-vintage minutiae, conversations with parenteticals attached (what the characters are REALLY thinking!), church confessions, police reports, news items… with everything unconventional and radiant and truly intelligent… the man understands how to evade the syrup of romance while still retaining it in a drastically-different form: encapsulated within objects of the everyday… & crystallized there FOR ALL TIME. I LOVE this book almost as much as his "Spider Woman," it having similar themes/poetics (non-linearity, off-stage violence and romance, good people acting badly and, inversely, bad people doing good…) and giving the reader an experience that's a truly genuine one. One simply cannot ask for more. Of course it was added to the 1001 List in 2010, and this gives much cause to rejoice… lost treasure has undoubtedly been (re)found. The romance is palpable, incredible, and the sadness of the piece will stay with you long after… far longer than any of Hollywood's fake and gilded turds. If any of the Latin American writers deserve your priceless reading time and attention, (it is my intuition as a romantic & lover of all lit.) to say that it is most definitely Puig.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-07-04 00:00:00 William Davies Two friends and three girlfriends - their fates turn out to be complicatedly and tragically intertwined… Letters, notices, diaries, remembrances, investigations: Manuel Puig tells his story with the documentary precision. But Manuel Puig is also very rich in style - he even manages to combine whimsically a stream of consciousness with the fragments of tangos… '…I was happy in the sweatshop, felt no need to dance at all…' those girls in Buenos Aires make more money in the sweatshop but they'll get theirs just the same, let them laugh at me '…till the day a gallant wooer came to take me to the hall…' he must have been dark and handsome, when Pancho holds me so tight it's as if he'll never let me go… I wonder why her boyfriend left that girl in the sweatshop? this comb in my hair so the wind won't mess it up on the street corner, it's so cold I better wear my coat - right? - such an old coat '…my obsession, heartbreak tango, plunged my soul to deepest sin, as the music of that tango set my poor heart all a-spin…' a step, then a turn, he moves his leg forward and pushes mine, I'm not too good at dancing the tango, going backward all the time, he would go forward while my part was to go backward, his legs pushed my legs to go backward and when he'd stop for a second waiting to start up again in time with the music, it was real lucky he didn't let go of me, because he'd suddenly stop dancing and I could have fallen on the floor, but he held me nice and tight, and the boyfriend left the girl in the sweatshop because she didn't have a new dress! '…oh such a lovely melody, it changed my destiny, my heart sang and bled that night… in the glow of candlelight…' Heartbreak Tango is a story of love: deceived love, unrequited love, lost love. And it is a story of regrets and human meanness. And the tale is told very powerfully. The past is always a mystery, however small but a mystery…