In this extended personal essay, Cozarinsky meanders far and wide in his exploration of the history, culture and evolution of the tango – the dance, the music and, of course the dancers themselves. The short book has been described as “a love letter to the tango” and that pretty much sums it up. It’s discursive and rambling, with many anecdotes and observations, so by no means a comprehensive history, but I enjoyed it, and although many of the references were unknown to me, I still found it an entertaining and illuminating read.

A companion read to The Gods of Tango, I was hoping to learn a little more about the history of tango and milongas, that is enticingly illustrated in Carolina de Robertis's novel.

I realise that to read Milongas, it would be better to already be familiar with the history and personalities and literature in existence, as much of the narrative is inspired by names mentioned, then anecdotes, by references to books, characters, events.

Occasionally there are flashes of insight I could glean something from, but overall this isn't what I went into it looking for.

I was interested in the final 2% of the book where he mentions a lone woman writer, who has written on of the only inner perspective of the milongas:

"The only example among Argentine writers is that of Estela Canto, who left written testimony of her reflections on dancing tango and her own experiences in these halls. Her testament is doubly valuable: for being written by a woman, perhaps the only one at the time to describe her own particular experience with tango, and because she was actually employed as an occasional dancer in one of the halls of Buenos Aires."

Alas, she only gets a page of mention.