Duende: A Journey In Search Of Flamenco - Hardcover

Webster, Jason

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385603614 ISBN 13: 9780385603614

Publisher: Doubleday, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

'A powerful, dangerous book that should win many prizes.' -- Conde Nast Traveller

'He has found his voice as a writer.' -- Sunday Telegraph, John Preston

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

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

'Jason Webster portrays the sheer anarchy and passion of the place as convincingly as any of his more illustrious predecessors.' -- The Birmingham Post, February 1 2003

'The traditions of the Bildungsroman and the rites-of-passage novel have migrated into the travel genre.' -- The Times Literary Supplement, Febraruy 7 2003

His greatest achievement is to involve the reader so deeply...a pageturner. -- Observer, January 5, 2003

Jason Webster is an exceptional writer, and this is a great book -- The Guardian, December 28, 2002

Ladies and Gentleman , we have a new star of the genre: Jason Webster.It's his first book. The night is young -- Daily Mail, January 3, 2003

Book Description:

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0385603614
• ISBN 13: 9780385603614
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304