Duende: A Journey In Search Of Flamenco - Brossura

Webster, Jason

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0552151602 ISBN 13: 9780552151603

Casa editrice: Black Swan, 2004

Riassunto

Having pursued a conventional enough path through school and university, Jason Webster was all set to enter the world of academe as a profession. But when his aloof Florentine girlfriend of some years dumped him unceremoniously, he found himself at a crossroads. Abandoning the world of libraries and the future he had always imagined for himself, he headed off instead for Spain in search of duende, the intense emotional state – part ecstasy, part desperation – so intrinsic to flamenco. Duende is an account of his years spent in Spain feeding his obsessive interest in flamenco: he subjects himself to the tyranny of his guitar teacher, practicing for hours on end until his fingers bleed; he becomes involved in a passionate affair with Lola, a flamenco dancer (and older woman) married to the gun-toting Vicente, only to flee Alicante in fear of his life; in Madrid, he falls in with Gypsies and meets the imperious Jesús. Joining their dislocated, cocaine-fuelled world, stealing cars by night and sleeping away the days in tawdry rooms, he finds himself spiralling self-destructively downwards. It is only when he arrives in Granada bruised and battered, after two years total immersion in the flamenco lifestyle that he is able to put his obsession into context. In the tradition of Laurie Lee's classic As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Duende charts a young man’s emotional coming of age and offers real insight into the passionate essence of flamenco.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"'It has the pace, crisp dialogue and narrative drama which characterized a certain kind of male, heterosexual Anglo-Saxon fiction. The traditions of the Bildungsroman and the rites-of-passage novel have migrated into the travel genre.'" (The Times Literary Supplement)

"'Hemingway, Orwell and Laurie Lee, to name but a few, have all attempted to capture the spirit of this fascinating country. In my opinion Jason Webster portrays the sheer anarchy and passion of the place as convincingly as any of his more illustrious predecessors.'" (Birmingham Post)

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'Wonderfully told ... his journey is recounted like a master.' Wanderlust

 

'If literary Duende exists ...then Jason Webster has it in spades.'

 

" (Elisabeth Luard Daily Mail)

"'His descriptions of troubled modern-day Spain are mesmerizing.'" (Daily Express)

"'Highly entertaining ... Music, passion, drugs, a 'beakerful of the warm South' - who could resist all that in these dark days?'" (Time Out)

Descrizione del libro:

Part travelogue, part picaresque adventures of a young man, Duende takes the reader to the emotional heart of Spain.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Black Swan
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0552151602
• ISBN 13: 9780552151603
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 352