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Kiss and Tango: Looking for Love in Buenos Aires
Should you ever give up the fast track? Could you settle down with the spirit of adventure still in your blood? And just how do you say "Mr. Wrong" in Spanish anyway? Fueled by tango addiction, the hope of romancing a sultry porteño, and a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires, Marina Palmer is about to find out. Approaching her dreaded thirtieth birthday -- without a doting husband, a fabulous apartment, or children and a nanny -- Marina Palmer suddenly found herself adrift in anxiety. She was a successful advertising executive but was bored by her job. Lasting love was proving elusive and her weekly visit to the therapist had multiplied by three. Then, on a whimsical vacation to South America, Palmer discovered the passion that her life was missing. At a steamy two a.m. milonga, she caught her first glimpse of Argentina's signature dance and fell head over heels from the sidelines. Leaving behind her fast-track career and her desperation to meet "the One," Palmer returned to Buenos Aires to pursue a new dream. Moving thousands of miles from friends and family, she arrived in Argentina seeking a dancing partner, storybook love, and the tango lessons that might ultimately help her earn a place on the professional circuit. Exploring her new city by day and seducing sexy Argentines on the dance floor by night, her tango obsession ruled her life. She'd never been thinner -- tango is the world's most erotic weight-loss plan! -- more confident, or closer to her definition of having it all. From auditioning for the Broadway hit Forever Tango , to becoming a street dancer on the infamous calle Florida, to discovering just how irresistible the sizzling porteños can be, Marina Palmer chronicles her exhilarating misadventures in Buenos Aires in no-holds-barred diary-style confessions full of adventure, romance, heartbreak, and steamy sex. Inspiring, outrageous, and bursting with passion, Kiss & Tango is the ideal book for anyone secretly daydreaming of taking their own gamble of a lifetime.
- GenresMemoirTravelNonfiction
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 28, 2005
3 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 20, 2009
Like a TV show you don't want to admit you're watching, you follow Marina through her transition from advertising agent to tango addict.
i felt a little dirtier, but i didn't stop reading!
i felt a little dirtier, but i didn't stop reading!
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August 14, 2009WORST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ
July 11, 2019
La cosa più simpatica e triste che ho letto sul tango. Diario di una trentenne single che, folgorata dal tango, decide di abbandonare il lavoro per diventare una ballerina professionista. Il sogno finirà...
Viaggio politicamente scorretto, sincero fino ad essere imbarazzante, spesso divertente, nel tango e nella psiche degli argentini, oltre ovviamente in quella della protagonista. Molte curiose osservazioni sul tango e sul suo rapporto con il sesso. La domanda è : ma questa è nata imparata?
Viaggio politicamente scorretto, sincero fino ad essere imbarazzante, spesso divertente, nel tango e nella psiche degli argentini, oltre ovviamente in quella della protagonista. Molte curiose osservazioni sul tango e sul suo rapporto con il sesso. La domanda è : ma questa è nata imparata?
January 23, 2020
A well titled book.
The blurb from the Washington Post was about right:
"A sexy cross between Bridget Jones and Stella's groove with fishnet stockings and a Spanish accent."
The blurb from the Washington Post was about right:
"A sexy cross between Bridget Jones and Stella's groove with fishnet stockings and a Spanish accent."
March 11, 2015
Looking for Love with Lustrada and Lapiz
Marina Palmer has the kind of courage that is hard to imagine. I can scarcely conceive of the bravery required to abandon a well-paid Manhattan marketing job, an apartment walking distance from New York City’s high-end shops and restaurants, for a student’s life dancing tango in Buenos Aires.
At 31, Marina Palmer did just that. She became enganchado (hooked) on Argentine Tango during a vacation trip to Buenos Aires. On her return to Manhattan, she found her life had changed forever. Productivity and attention at her job were sacrificed to late nights of dancing at New York City venues. Her usually-lively conversations became focused on the dance, and friends began to edge away from inviting her to dine. Her criteria for dating came to include “must dance Argentine Tango,” then further changed to “must dance Argentine Tango well.”
After several increasingly frustrating years, a chance comment by her therapist (What would you do if money weren’t a concern?) led Palmer to a breakthrough. Life would be much simpler if she could concentrate on tango. From there, it wasn’t a long step to convincing her father (The way I see it, the next couple of years are an MBA equivalent…) and her mother (You wait and see: I am going to make you the most beautiful grandchildren…) to provide a stipend for her studies.
And she was off to Buenos Aires.
Kiss & Tango is Palmer’s excellent journal of her self-creation as a professional tango dancer. The book is structured like a tango dance, beginning with the Abrazo (embrace), and continuing into the Sacada (a displacement figure, also a “woman out of her mind”), the Gancho (a hooking movement of the leg, root of enganchado), and the Colgada (something like a dip, also “a girl who has been ‘stood up’ by her partner”).
The book’s title is a clear indication of Palmer’s main theme: She went to Buenos Aires seeking not only a career dancing tango, but the “perfect partner” to dance it with.
Palmer’s years in Argentina were some of the most troubled since the age of Juan and Evita Peron, yet her journal gives such matters short shrift. What is important to Palmer is the tango: who she danced with, who she can no longer dance with, and who she wants to dance with. Her revelation (over and over) that men dance tango to sleep with women, while women tease men so they will invite them to tango, gets far more attention than the devaluation of Argentina's currency. Palmer is pillowed in a parental stipend (in dollars); her complaints about the drop in her earnings have more to do with competition than penury.
As it happens, the author’s life in the tango has more parallels with the Argentine dance than the titles of her chapters. Tango songs have a common theme of loss: lost love, nostalgia for the lost past, lost innocence. This poignant yearning for what one can never have again echoes throughout Palmer’s journal. Her nostalgia for partners she has lost begins sweetly when she learns, months after her initial encounter with tango, that her first tango partner has died, and rises to a crescendo in the final pages of the book. “I remember every face and every name of every man I have ever danced with.”
In the end, Palmer’s account transcends the appeal of the dance to give a unique view of the desperate search for self that can take anyone—but particularly a woman—into many dead ends and dangerous situations. In that dance with self-recognition and fame that each of us enters, Palmer has found a way to keep to the rhythm and pay the piper at the same time.
Kiss & Tango is delightful in the same way as watching an expert tango couple dance, but has the lingering aftertaste of sadness that a tango song must create in the listener. Marina Palmer invites us all to the floor.
Come dance with her.
Notes: Lustrada is a Tango embellishment in which the follower slowly strokes her foot against the leader's leg as if polishing her shoe. Lapiz is an embellishment by either partner, a quick tapping of the toe of the foot several times on the floor behind the dancer, like tapping the point of a pencil.
Marina Palmer has the kind of courage that is hard to imagine. I can scarcely conceive of the bravery required to abandon a well-paid Manhattan marketing job, an apartment walking distance from New York City’s high-end shops and restaurants, for a student’s life dancing tango in Buenos Aires.
At 31, Marina Palmer did just that. She became enganchado (hooked) on Argentine Tango during a vacation trip to Buenos Aires. On her return to Manhattan, she found her life had changed forever. Productivity and attention at her job were sacrificed to late nights of dancing at New York City venues. Her usually-lively conversations became focused on the dance, and friends began to edge away from inviting her to dine. Her criteria for dating came to include “must dance Argentine Tango,” then further changed to “must dance Argentine Tango well.”
After several increasingly frustrating years, a chance comment by her therapist (What would you do if money weren’t a concern?) led Palmer to a breakthrough. Life would be much simpler if she could concentrate on tango. From there, it wasn’t a long step to convincing her father (The way I see it, the next couple of years are an MBA equivalent…) and her mother (You wait and see: I am going to make you the most beautiful grandchildren…) to provide a stipend for her studies.
And she was off to Buenos Aires.
Kiss & Tango is Palmer’s excellent journal of her self-creation as a professional tango dancer. The book is structured like a tango dance, beginning with the Abrazo (embrace), and continuing into the Sacada (a displacement figure, also a “woman out of her mind”), the Gancho (a hooking movement of the leg, root of enganchado), and the Colgada (something like a dip, also “a girl who has been ‘stood up’ by her partner”).
The book’s title is a clear indication of Palmer’s main theme: She went to Buenos Aires seeking not only a career dancing tango, but the “perfect partner” to dance it with.
As we stood there, waiting for the music to start, I planned the next five years of our life together. Guillermo and I would become partner-lovers immediately, thus fulfilling my dream of reconciling tango with romance once and for all. He would move in with me and within a year or two… we would travel the world, teaching sold-out workshops during the day and performing in Una Noche de Tango by night. None of this, however, would interfere with our starting a family… It would be just perfect.
The combined strains of violin and bandoneón cast their spell on me and I was falling fast… when I was forced to realize there was a glitch in the plan: Guillermo could barely dance. —Kiss & Tango by Marina Palmer
Palmer’s years in Argentina were some of the most troubled since the age of Juan and Evita Peron, yet her journal gives such matters short shrift. What is important to Palmer is the tango: who she danced with, who she can no longer dance with, and who she wants to dance with. Her revelation (over and over) that men dance tango to sleep with women, while women tease men so they will invite them to tango, gets far more attention than the devaluation of Argentina's currency. Palmer is pillowed in a parental stipend (in dollars); her complaints about the drop in her earnings have more to do with competition than penury.
As it happens, the author’s life in the tango has more parallels with the Argentine dance than the titles of her chapters. Tango songs have a common theme of loss: lost love, nostalgia for the lost past, lost innocence. This poignant yearning for what one can never have again echoes throughout Palmer’s journal. Her nostalgia for partners she has lost begins sweetly when she learns, months after her initial encounter with tango, that her first tango partner has died, and rises to a crescendo in the final pages of the book. “I remember every face and every name of every man I have ever danced with.”
In the end, Palmer’s account transcends the appeal of the dance to give a unique view of the desperate search for self that can take anyone—but particularly a woman—into many dead ends and dangerous situations. In that dance with self-recognition and fame that each of us enters, Palmer has found a way to keep to the rhythm and pay the piper at the same time.
Kiss & Tango is delightful in the same way as watching an expert tango couple dance, but has the lingering aftertaste of sadness that a tango song must create in the listener. Marina Palmer invites us all to the floor.
Come dance with her.
Notes: Lustrada is a Tango embellishment in which the follower slowly strokes her foot against the leader's leg as if polishing her shoe. Lapiz is an embellishment by either partner, a quick tapping of the toe of the foot several times on the floor behind the dancer, like tapping the point of a pencil.
May 14, 2008
Just shy of thirty and suffering from an all-encompassing career/love/life malaise which I'm somewhat familiar with, Palmer whimsically decides to chuck it all and move to Argentina to become a professional tango dancer. This is a memoir of the years she spent chasing that dream.
I put this title on my Amazon wish list close to two years ago and then promptly forgot about it. I was reminded of the premise again recently because I actually have a friend considering chucking it all to move to Argentina. I decided the book would make a cute impromptu gift, but of course, I had to read it first. Friends don't let friends read crap books.
And because I ultimately did give a copy to my friend, you'll deduce that I did enjoy Kiss and Tango. At least half of it. I loved all the parts that described how she came to her decision to leave her job at a New York ad agency, how she convinced her parents that she wasn't nuts and her gradual assimilation to Argentine culture. I never gave much thought to Buenos Aires before, but now I desperately want to see the city for myself after reading Palmer's beautiful and entertaining travelogue. Less successful for me were the large chunks of the book dedicated to her romantic shenanigans. A little too Sex and the City for my taste.
A Personal Note: I don't understand how racy tell-all authors do it. It's one thing to confess to participating in a threesome to millions of anonymous strangers you'll never probably meet. But don't their mothers read their work? If I published a book, my mother would be first in line to buy a copy. And she's officially the last person in the world I would want in the know about my sexual exploits. If any.
I put this title on my Amazon wish list close to two years ago and then promptly forgot about it. I was reminded of the premise again recently because I actually have a friend considering chucking it all to move to Argentina. I decided the book would make a cute impromptu gift, but of course, I had to read it first. Friends don't let friends read crap books.
And because I ultimately did give a copy to my friend, you'll deduce that I did enjoy Kiss and Tango. At least half of it. I loved all the parts that described how she came to her decision to leave her job at a New York ad agency, how she convinced her parents that she wasn't nuts and her gradual assimilation to Argentine culture. I never gave much thought to Buenos Aires before, but now I desperately want to see the city for myself after reading Palmer's beautiful and entertaining travelogue. Less successful for me were the large chunks of the book dedicated to her romantic shenanigans. A little too Sex and the City for my taste.
A Personal Note: I don't understand how racy tell-all authors do it. It's one thing to confess to participating in a threesome to millions of anonymous strangers you'll never probably meet. But don't their mothers read their work? If I published a book, my mother would be first in line to buy a copy. And she's officially the last person in the world I would want in the know about my sexual exploits. If any.
July 8, 2008
This was a pretty entertaining book, although as far as self-absorbed travelogue writers go, I found Marina Palmer even more annoying than Elizabeth Gilbert, probably because I felt her narrative lacked the polish of Eat, Pray, Love. They really weren't kidding with that "Diary of a Dancehall Seductress" tag line...at times, it feels as if the publisher just printed her unedited diary. Which was alternately fun for my inner snoop and frustrating for my inner editor. And I'm all for being honest, but there were several times when I couldn't help but wonder, is this really what Marina Palmer wants the world to think of her? Ultimately, though, those minor annoyances are outweighed by the fun, juicy, fast-paced story.
September 20, 2010
I love tango, but I did not love this book. It's not that it was badly written or didn't cover the subject well. I just couldn't stand the voice that told the story, and it takes a lot for me not to like someone. If you would like to read the diary of a privileged, selfish, melodramatic person with the relational attention span of a 15-year-old (instead of the grown woman she allegedly was when she wrote it) who makes a the same mistakes that a lot of the rest of us do but, unlike the rest of us, take zero responsibility for and learns nothing from said mistakes, then this book is for you.
February 27, 2020
This book was..... Not good. I was expecting to have a fun, memoir read infused with juicy tidbits of the tango culture in Argentina. There were a few bits here and there that made me smile or taught me something new but everything in between was painful. I found the author to be shallow - I think she really sold herself short in this book. It was written for 40-something yr old women who are bored now that Sex and the City is off the air - peppered with references to designer clothing and infused with cheap relationships. Tango is deeper than this, and I'm sure Marina is too, but this book certainly lacks depth.
August 3, 2017
I really enjoyed this memoir. I've always loved the tango culture of Argentina. I find it the most fascinating expression of the male/female dynamic and palpable passion. The push/pull is what true sexiness is. It was also refreshing to read about an older woman, starting over with her life in a most radical fashion, still plagued with insecurities and doubts as we women are wont to be, but still having enough courage to go forward, something that only comes with the wisdom of age. Very inspiring. I highly recommend it!
August 10, 2007
I would definitely label this book as an ok beach read. I liked all of the stories about the tango and the main character's search for a true partner but it gets really repetitive and she often come off as a spoiled brat. They are making this book into a movie staring Sandra Bullock. Should be interesting...
October 31, 2007
Marina Palmer follows her heart, packs up, and moves from New York to Buenos Aires. She doesn't speak Spanish but she loves the tango. This is not sophisticated writing, but it was a lot of fun to read about Palmer's adventures. I was more than a little envious not only of her courage to cast off all commonsense, but also that her father helped fund her through her capricious romp.
July 5, 2009
This was a bit chick-litty but in a good way (even for me). I really liked getting an inside look at her passionate love of tango and the way the tango culture works in Argentina. There was a bit of sex, a bit of dance and a bit of a woman's inner monologue as she navigates her single life at thirty while searching for the perfect dance partner. A quick read for some light entertainment.
May 16, 2014
Fun! Most books about Argentine Tango follow the same story line girl loses love, girl finds tango, girl finds herself, her loves and her life. While this might follow the same old story, told in books and in the lives of many who dance the tango, Marina Palmer writes beautifully; engaging the reader and making the old story new again. Enjoyable read!
December 19, 2015
I find Ms. Palmer somewhat trite and annoying in that NYC socialite experiencing a Sex and the City sort of midlife crisis way. And I get very bored with the "exotic" fetichization of the Argentine tango tradition. I'm going to keep plodding through this book if only as a "what NOT to do" guide for my upcoming solo jaunt to Buenos Aires.
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July 19, 2007I couldn't finish this. It was a book that I had to force myself to pick up...that's not fun. It looked good when I read the promo piece before I bought it...but I found it very boring. The protagonist put me to sleep.
September 29, 2017
No me gustó. Ni un poco de Tango. Las descripciones de los lugares y costumbres argentinas por momentos erradas/por momentos peyorativas. Las aventuras de una loca soltera por Buenos Aires hubiera sido un título mas acertado. Feo. Aburrido. De mal gusto.
May 30, 2020
From here I got the tip that taking ballet takes your tango to the next level--thank you!
Transcendent dance really can't be described with something so banal as words, but I give Palmer credit for trying.
Transcendent dance really can't be described with something so banal as words, but I give Palmer credit for trying.
September 25, 2007
great for mindless fun.. trashy for sure but amusing and a nice diversion from text books, especially if you love to tango!
September 11, 2007
makes me want to learn to tango
November 13, 2007
This book was actually for fun. Is more about love and tango.
April 1, 2008
frustrating read. but interesting look into buenos aires..
April 4, 2008
I love people who dare to do stuff like this...a little racy but good.
September 19, 2008
not worth reading, let alone purchasing.
March 28, 2009
Very entertaining book about an American woman's life in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
May 13, 2009
Very trashy, but it was great fun to read it while traveling in and around Buenos Aires and trying to dance as much tango as possible.
September 23, 2009
This is so very sensual, sexy, and delicious. I fully recommend this for late nights alone. I might just read it again!
August 21, 2010
Awesome!..especially since I know how to tango! Ay! :-)
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January 5, 2010I never actually read this one! Oops!
January 24, 2011
An easy read but I found her annoying. I'm not sure if she was being sincere and I just don't like her voice or she was being humorous and I just didn't get it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews