Kiss & Tango
Diary of a Dancehall Seductress
by Marina Palmer
List Price: $13.95
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0060742976
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Approaching her dreaded thirtieth birthday, Marina Palmer suddenly found herself adrift in anxiety. A successful but bored advertising executive -- on the therapist's couch thrice weekly and with no lasting love in her life -- she longed for true passion and adventure. Then, on a whimsical vacation to South America, at a steamy two A.M. milonga, she found what she was looking for: tango! From her very first close-up glimpse of Argentina's signature dance she fell head over heels. She left everything behind -- her fast-track career, her desperate search for "the One" -- to pursue her new obsession in Buenos Aires, seeking a dancing partner, storybook love, and the tango lessons that might ultimately help her to earn a place on the professional circuit.
In Kiss & Tango, Marina Palmer chronicles in no-holds-barred diary-style confessions her exhilarating misadventures on the Argentine dance floor . . . and beyond. An inspiring, outrageous, and unforgettable true story bursting with passion, adventure, romance, heartbreak, and steamy sex, it is the ideal book for anyone who secretly dreams of taking that one sweet, impossible gamble of a lifetime.
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1. Why does Marina Palmer's first experience of a milonga while on vacation in Buenos Aires set her off on her quest to become an expert in tango?
2. To what extent do Marina's criteria for her ideal tango partner correspond with her criteria for an ideal boyfriend?
3. How would you describe the roles played by Marina's parents and her therapist, Beth, in supporting her decision to quit her job and move to Buenos Aires to study the tango?
4. "A milonga is not a party....[i]t really is like going to the office." What does Marina Palmer mean by this, and to what extent do you agree?
5. How does the tango function as a metaphor in Kiss & Tango? What does it represent to Marina and to the porteños with whom she dances?
6. Why does Marina fall into a series of sexual liaisons with her many dancing partners, and to what extent does the success of those encounters seem dependent on the quality of the dancing?
7. How would you describe the city of Buenos Aires, its culture, and its inhabitants, based on Marina Palmer's accounts of them?
8. Of all of Marina's romantic partners in Buenos Aires, which relationships seem to have been the most significant in terms of her development as a tango dancer?
9. What does Marina's decision to dance on a notorious street, calle Florida, for pocket change from local spectators reveal about her commitment to the tango as an art form?
10. To what extent does Marina's experience in Buenos Aires change her life for the better?
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"A delicious real-life read...This ballsy babe's memoir will totally inspire you."
—Cosmopolitan
"Tango isn't just a dance it's a grand metaphor for sexual pursuit...readers may well enjoy Palmer''s engagingly reckless spirit."
—Publishers Weekly
"Palmer's effervescence is so contagious that a reader feels she has actually lived the life (hangovers and all). Armchair tango. Now that's escape."
—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
