The Flamenco Academy: A Novel

This is the fourth Sarah Bird novel that I've read, and I've enjoyed them all. She writes well, creating descriptions that are detailed but not boring, dialog that rings true to her characters, and plots that are not predictable but still have a way of feeling satisfyingly just right. She also achieves a pleasing mix of humor and drama, even in this novel, the most dramatic of hers that I've read. I just wish she would create a protagonist with at least a normal amount of self confidence. I found the obsessions of Rae, the main character of Flamenco Academy, almost within the realm of believability, but her inability to act for herself almost impossible to stomach. I realize that this is the conflict that drives the novel. That didn't show more stop me from wanting a more realistic and nuanced take on Rae and her relationship with her best friend, Didi. Perhaps it's just that the resolution, when it finally came, was too fast and left me doubting that Rae really understands or even enjoys the life that she has chosen, despite her protestations to the contrary. show less

Wonderful use of dance as a weapon. Couldn't feel sorry for the lover and his boo-hoo family secret. Get over yourself, dude.

I prayed a long time ago reading this, when I was still a hopeless romantic for a character like Tomas! Even though I knew what would eventually happen because he would be like Tomas, God gave me him, with everything else. I lived this book before! Thank you Sarah Bird for writng this, and responding to me via Facebook two years ago! You are a masterful writer which this book is proof! However in your other books I feel you conceal your mastery! Here are only some (since I cannot quote the whole book here) of my favorite quotes I would re-read,about, 1,000 times :) :

"..Drifting above the roar of the world, I heard another sound, a sound so pure & crystalline, that...even though it was barely audible, it cut through the cacophony with show more diamond-sharp clarity.."(Sarah Bird "The Flamenco Academy)

"..I took out each moment I´d spent with him...as if it were a jewel on a black velvet tray & examined it from every angle. I replayed each word we´d exchange, wringing a semiotician´s range of meaning from every utterance. I felt his presence constantly. He was the invisible audience for which I played my life..."
(Sarah Bird "The Flamenco Academy)

"..His knuckles rolled like marbles beneath the skin as fingers pulleyed up and down, floating over the strings, gently drawing sounds that made my head fill with stained-glass colors: cobalt blue, Prussian blue, emerald, ruby,--colors so deep and saturated it hurt to even imagine them.."
(Sarah Bird "The Flamenco Academy")

"My pulse fell into time with his playing as if it were the moon capturing my blood in a tide that surged, then fell away...."
(Sarah Bird:"Flamenco Academy") show less

Excellent portrayal of the subculture of flamenco in the United States, as well as its origins with the Gypsies in Spain.

great book for a book club