Mariner Books
Tango Lessons : A Memoir
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Tango Lessons
Author(s): Meghan Flaherty
From a dazzling new literary voice, a debut memoir about a young woman learning to dance tango, becoming comfortable in her own skin and in the arms of others
Tango was an unlikely choice for Meghan Flaherty. A young woman living with the scars of past trauma, she was terrified of being touched and shied away from real passion. But by her late twenties, she knew something had to change. She dug up an old dream and tried on her dancing shoes.
In tango, there’s a leader and a follower, and, traditionally, the woman follows. As Meghan moved from beginner classes to the late-night dance halls of New York’s vibrant tango underground, she discovered that more than any footwork, the hardest and most essential lesson of the dance was to follow with strength and agency; to find her balance, regardless of the lead. And as she broke her own rule—never mix romance and tango—she started to apply those lessons in every corner of her life.
Written in wry, lyrical prose, and beautifully enriched by the vivid history and culture of the dance, Tango Lessons is a transformative story of conquering your fears, living your dreams, and enjoying the dizzying freedom found in the closest embrace.
Review(s):
Praise for Tango Lessons Named one of the Most Anticipated Titles of 2018 by The Rumpus An iBooks Most Anticipated Memoir & Biography of the Summer A Rumpus Book Club Selection One of Charleston City Paper's Hot Summer Reads A Thrillist Best Book of the Year So Far One of HelloGiggles's Life-Changing Memoirs of the Summer “As Virginia Woolf wrote, ‘What a lark! What a plunge!’ Meghan Flaherty has written a wonderful book. Encountering tango, she encountered a series of cultures and histories: that of the dance itself; that of its impassioned students, teachers, and acolytes in New York and elsewhere; that of her own very particular desires. Like a first-rate piece of dance, she’s gotten the proportions right: the small details, the sweep of the whole, the use of space, scenery, the group, and the solo players. She is entertaining, thoughtful, and trustworthy because her self-examination—doubts, insecurities, grief—is never self-indulgent. I caught my breath at the end. Bliss indeed, those last sentences. I can’t wait to read what she does next.” —Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Negroland "A dazzlingly honest, unblinking memoir, it is also deliciously written, authentically romantic and enormous fun to read." —Phillip Lopate, author of To Show and to Tell and editor of The Art of the Personal Essay “Meghan Flaherty is simply an astonishing writer. Brimming with sensuous detail and sophisticated wit, every page of Tango Lessons seduces and rebuffs, beguiles and delights. This is easily one of the finest books ever written about dance, and every bit as graceful as the art itself.” —Bronwen Dickey, author of Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon "In Meghan Flaherty's Tango Lessons, tango plays a role similar to that of the fancy restaurant in Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter...Although Sweetbitter is fiction and Tango Lessons is memoir, the books have a similar tone, a dramatic, Sylvia Plath–like lyricism...Flaherty's writing contains moments of real beauty." —Newsday “Not only is this Flaherty’s triumphant account of overcoming her fears after trauma and learning to follow her dreams and trust in herself, but it’s also a beautiful look at the history of tango itself.” —BookRiot "As lyrically written as the steps she practices." —HelloGiggles "[Tango Lessons] takes Flaherty from humdrum New York City dance studios to an intoxicating subculture that had been thrumming, unbeknownst to her, under the surface of her city all along. That’s not all she discovers, of course—while she’s emphatic that tango isn’t the fishnets-and-stilettos dance of cultural stereotype, it is still powerfully intimate, physical, and sensual. Flaherty lyrically captures the essence of the dance, as well as her stumbling journey into self-discovery, with a bit of toe sucking and bad sex along the way." —Thrillist "You know right away, as a dancer does, that you are in good hands. Like Sweetbitter, this is a memoir of a young woman trying to make it in contemporary New York City. Like H Is for Hawk and Julie and Julia, it is also portra
ISBN: 9780544980709
Author(s): Meghan Flaherty
From a dazzling new literary voice, a debut memoir about a young woman learning to dance tango, becoming comfortable in her own skin and in the arms of others
Tango was an unlikely choice for Meghan Flaherty. A young woman living with the scars of past trauma, she was terrified of being touched and shied away from real passion. But by her late twenties, she knew something had to change. She dug up an old dream and tried on her dancing shoes.
In tango, there’s a leader and a follower, and, traditionally, the woman follows. As Meghan moved from beginner classes to the late-night dance halls of New York’s vibrant tango underground, she discovered that more than any footwork, the hardest and most essential lesson of the dance was to follow with strength and agency; to find her balance, regardless of the lead. And as she broke her own rule—never mix romance and tango—she started to apply those lessons in every corner of her life.
Written in wry, lyrical prose, and beautifully enriched by the vivid history and culture of the dance, Tango Lessons is a transformative story of conquering your fears, living your dreams, and enjoying the dizzying freedom found in the closest embrace.
Review(s):
Praise for Tango Lessons Named one of the Most Anticipated Titles of 2018 by The Rumpus An iBooks Most Anticipated Memoir & Biography of the Summer A Rumpus Book Club Selection One of Charleston City Paper's Hot Summer Reads A Thrillist Best Book of the Year So Far One of HelloGiggles's Life-Changing Memoirs of the Summer “As Virginia Woolf wrote, ‘What a lark! What a plunge!’ Meghan Flaherty has written a wonderful book. Encountering tango, she encountered a series of cultures and histories: that of the dance itself; that of its impassioned students, teachers, and acolytes in New York and elsewhere; that of her own very particular desires. Like a first-rate piece of dance, she’s gotten the proportions right: the small details, the sweep of the whole, the use of space, scenery, the group, and the solo players. She is entertaining, thoughtful, and trustworthy because her self-examination—doubts, insecurities, grief—is never self-indulgent. I caught my breath at the end. Bliss indeed, those last sentences. I can’t wait to read what she does next.” —Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Negroland "A dazzlingly honest, unblinking memoir, it is also deliciously written, authentically romantic and enormous fun to read." —Phillip Lopate, author of To Show and to Tell and editor of The Art of the Personal Essay “Meghan Flaherty is simply an astonishing writer. Brimming with sensuous detail and sophisticated wit, every page of Tango Lessons seduces and rebuffs, beguiles and delights. This is easily one of the finest books ever written about dance, and every bit as graceful as the art itself.” —Bronwen Dickey, author of Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon "In Meghan Flaherty's Tango Lessons, tango plays a role similar to that of the fancy restaurant in Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter...Although Sweetbitter is fiction and Tango Lessons is memoir, the books have a similar tone, a dramatic, Sylvia Plath–like lyricism...Flaherty's writing contains moments of real beauty." —Newsday “Not only is this Flaherty’s triumphant account of overcoming her fears after trauma and learning to follow her dreams and trust in herself, but it’s also a beautiful look at the history of tango itself.” —BookRiot "As lyrically written as the steps she practices." —HelloGiggles "[Tango Lessons] takes Flaherty from humdrum New York City dance studios to an intoxicating subculture that had been thrumming, unbeknownst to her, under the surface of her city all along. That’s not all she discovers, of course—while she’s emphatic that tango isn’t the fishnets-and-stilettos dance of cultural stereotype, it is still powerfully intimate, physical, and sensual. Flaherty lyrically captures the essence of the dance, as well as her stumbling journey into self-discovery, with a bit of toe sucking and bad sex along the way." —Thrillist "You know right away, as a dancer does, that you are in good hands. Like Sweetbitter, this is a memoir of a young woman trying to make it in contemporary New York City. Like H Is for Hawk and Julie and Julia, it is also portra
ISBN: 9780544980709