Flamenco, says a character in Sarah Bird’s dramatic
and well-written novel, The Flamenco Academy, is
an “obsessive-compulsive disorder set to a great beat.” The novel
weaves the history of flamenco with the search for identity and the
power of obsession.
Albuquerque high-school seniors Rae
and Didi make an unlikely duo. Rae, the narrator, is a math whiz,
and flamboyant Didi is obsessed with becoming
someone. They bond because both their fathers have
cancer, and Rae is happy to live in Didi’s shadow.
But
after Rae spends a life-altering night with Tomas, a tormented
flamenco guitarist visiting Albuquerque, she becomes obsessed with
transforming herself into his perfect woman. She and Didi enroll in
flamenco classes at the University of New Mexico and are taught by
the famous Dona Carlota Anaya de Montenegro, Tomas’ great-aunt.
Whenever class goes well, she rewards the students with tales of
her Gypsy life in 1930s Spain.
Although Rae and Didi are
not gitano por cuatro costaos – “Gypsy on all
four sides” – they excel at flamenco. Dona Carlota calls Rae
La Metronoma for her precise footwork and Didi
La Tempesta for her passionate dancing. When
Tomas returns three years later to find a dancer for his guitar
tour, Rae and Didi compete against each other for the position.
Tomas chooses Rae, and they become lovers. However, when Didi and
Tomas begin an affair, Rae is forced to analyze her life.
Dame la verdad: Give me
the truth. This is the essence of flamenco, and it turns out, the
most difficult aspect of both art and life. Bird’s characters are
so enmeshed in personas and obsessions that they cannot face
reality. It is only when Rae accepts the truth, not the fantasies
she has created, that she can free herself from Didi and Tomas and
build a future that simultaneously accepts and releases her from
the past.
The Flamenco
Academy
Sarah Bird
416 pages,
softcover:
$13.95.
Knopf,
2007.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The power of music, the power of obsession.
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