2161  Tango is my passion

Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:58:22 -0000
From: John Ward <jmward@BUN.COM>
Subject: Tango is my passion

After nearly five months, I have just finished "Tango is my Passion" by M.A.
Numminen and feel I have to share it with somebody.

"Tango is my Passion" is the story of Virtanen, who loves tango more than
anything. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject, which he shares
with all and sundry, whether they really want to know or not. He goes
dancing every day, but only dances the tangos.

But Virtanen has principles, derived from a reading of Plato's philosophy
when he was 15. These principles demand that Virtanen preserve his virginity
until he reaches the age of 36. He is beset by difficulties. Unwanted
erections spoil the dance. He has to flee to the men's room and lash the
recalcitrant organ into flabbiness with a handful of birch twigs.

Women cause problems. Once he walked Irja home from the dance and, against
his better judgement, accepted her invitation for coffee. She disappeared
into the bathroom, came out naked, and made a grab for Virtanen, who barely
escaped. But at last Virtanen falls in love with Anja, but he still holds on
to his principles.

The dancer's world is perfectly described: the joy, the passion, the
awkwardness, the embarrassment, the humiliation.

Entwined with the story is a history of the tango, sometimes given by
Virtanen, sometimes by a third-person voice (identified by a different
typeface). Sometimes a whole chapter is devoted to the subject. This can be
a bit wearing, particularly when the same ground is gone over more than
once. But it illustrates Virtanen's obsessiveness.

Sometimes I feel desperately sorry for Virtanen: sometimes I find him
intensely annoying. Mostly I am horrified to see how much like Virtanen I am
myself.

The relationship between Virtanen and Anja goes fairly well in spite of many
difficulties, all created by Virtanen himself. But a scant six pages before
the end, this pretty little comedy of manners becomes very Scandinavian. It
was like a slap round the face. The penultimate chapter is the most
harrowing thing I have ever read. I wiped the tears from my eyes, furious
with myself. Why am I crying for Virtanen? He's a figment of someone else's
imagination, for goodness' sake! Something must be softening my brain:
perhaps tango, perhaps Fennophilia, perhaps salmiakki. I wanted to talk to
somebody, but what would they have said? "Pull yourself together! It's only
a story!"

In the final chapter the self-pitying and obsessive Virtanen destroys the
reader's sympathy as he has destroyed everything else.

Definitely a different sort of book. If you love tango as much as Virtanen
and I do, you will probably enjoy it. Or then again, perhaps not.

John Ward
Bristol, UK

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 08:14:03 -0700
From: Huck Kennedy <huck@ENSMTP1.EAS.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Tango is my passion

John Ward writes:

>
> In the final chapter the self-pitying and obsessive
> Virtanen destroys the reader's sympathy as he has
> destroyed everything else.

Funny, he's destroyed mine already, and I haven't
even cracked the book.

Huck