We’re excited to announce that our May Book Club selection is Tango Lessons by Meghan Flaherty!
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.
Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Negroland, writes:
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.
Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Club by April 20 to join us in reading Tango Lessons, culminating in an exclusive online discussion with Meghan Flaherty about the book! And, through the end of the month, purchase a 6-month Rumpus Book Club subscription (or a yearly Letters in the Mail subscription) and we’ll send you your own signed copy of Eats of Eden by Tabitha Blankenbiller. Already have a subscription? Just extend or convert it and we’ll send you the book!
