Rating: 
Summary: More Mills & Boon than Lonely Planet.....
Review: "Carlos continued to speak as my educated brain drew on years of intellectual training to justify what I'd done" - this self-absorbed sentence should be enough to ward anyone away from this tiresome account. Apparently Jason Webster went to Oxford, a point he makes repeatedly in this book. Not since "The Great Gatsby" has there been such name-dropping of this institution, and at least in Fitzgerald's novel 'Oggsford' was not incidental to the plot. As a travel novel, Webster's effort hits the spot sparingly. There is much information on Flamenco and bullfighting for the beginner, however the style of writing owes more to pulp romance than to quality travel writing. I must agree with other reviewers on the point that this is more a fiction than a memoir, and also that it will appeal more to the romantic than the traveller. I was HUGELY disappointed. And to think, this book was written by an Oxford man...
Rating:
Summary: More Mills & Boon than Lonely Planet.....
Review: "Carlos continued to speak as my educated brain drew on years of intellectual training to justify what I'd done" - this self-absorbed sentence should be enough to ward anyone away from this tiresome account. Apparently Jason Webster went to Oxford, a point he makes repeatedly in this book. Not since "The Great Gatsby" has there been such name-dropping of this institution, and at least in Fitzgerald's novel 'Oggsford' was not incidental to the plot. As a travel novel, Webster's effort hits the spot sparingly. There is much information on Flamenco and bullfighting for the beginner, however the style of writing owes more to pulp romance than to quality travel writing. I must agree with other reviewers on the point that this is more a fiction than a memoir, and also that it will appeal more to the romantic than the traveller. I was HUGELY disappointed. And to think, this book was written by an Oxford man...
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing more Spanish than the rest.
Review: 'Duende' is a term given to the tension between opposites that begets passion. I first encountered the idea of "Duende" in a small book titled "In search of Duende" by Federico Garcia Lorca. In this book, Lorca comments on the nature of 'Duende,' which, as he admits, is dangerous to 'Duende' itself. Fortunately, I had sympathized with the idea in his poetry prior to reading his commentary; and, of course, Lorca remains one of those rare individuals who can articulate phenomena as abstract as blood-driven passion without detracting from its essence.
I was excited about the prospect that Webster might accomplish the same task. Unfortunately, his book leans more heavily against commentary and does not adequately articulate--although the book is perfectly written--the book's title. I was caught between expecting an explanation of his purpose and realizing that he has just written another story.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT a book about Flamenco
Review: A number of above readers have been critical about this book because it is not a definitive text on flamenco or duende (which as pointed out is a term subject to personal interpretation) or Gitanos, or anything else...it is just a collection of experiences of a young (and bright) Englishman who goes to Spain in the usual sense "to find himself". I personally found it very good, moves right along and even tho' I am also an aficionado, there were a couple of new things that I picked up. His comments on the so-called "nuevo flamenco" were right on (it's a big topic in Spain today) and even tho' he leaves out mention of some all-time "grandes figuras" his musical taste is his own and very honest. His descriptions of scenes down on the Costa Blanca (Alicante) almost had me in tears, having lived there for many years...
Rating:
Summary: You can find duende in the way the Spanish women walk
Review: A young British college graduate from Oxford with a degree Arabian studies, who never had a decent love affair, decides his life has been too dull, breaks ranks with his academic routine, heads for southern Spain and becomes enamored of flamenco culture after a soul touching concert one night. He gets an older lover, a Spanish flamenco dancer repressed by her husband; the first third of the book is a love story; the second an adventure trying to fit into gypsy culture; the last part deals with soul searching and advice from an unlikely partner. The tension is Spanish flamenco lifestyle vs British stiff up-bringing, and makes for a pretty good read.
Rating:
Summary: Not 'the' book on flamenco, but a good read nevertheless
Review: After finishing the introduction to this book I was despairing. The narrator/author came across as a real prat, and combined with the fact I am quite sick of the 'I took an extended holiday and justified it by writing a book' genre, I thought I was almost guaranteed not to like this book. Luckily, I was wrong. That is not to say Duende is a great book. There are faults - the conclusion is a mess, and occasionally the author makes trivial facts out to be momentous ones. There is also the problem that some of the characters feel as though they have not been properly thought out - the prime example for me is Grace, who appears in the Granada section of the book. However, this is a very good book. It is the story of an Englishman who decides to move to Spain and pursue his love of flamenco. This is quite amazing when you consider that he has never learned guitar before and has now decided to take on a rather complex and complicated form of playing. You have to admire his pluck. Through his searches for 'authentic' flamenco, the author falls in with a bunch of gypsies, never sure whether he is truly accepted or just there for novelty value. After a shocking incident, he moves on, and leaves Madrid for Granada, reassessing his life as he goes. This book is an interesting narrative - it has love, passion, interesting characters and well described, evocative settings. But it is more than that - using flamenco as the medium, Webster explores what happens when we use an outside 'thing' (in this case flamenco) to try and run away from internal forces (feelings of inadequacy, searching for meaning). We follow Webster down the false leads he chases to find this 'thing', the true spirit of flamenco that he feels will answer his quest, all the time questioning his reasoning and motivations. There have been some criticisms that this is not a very good book about flamenco. I don't think that it was intended to 'write the book' about flamenco; rather, it is using flamenco as a medium to explore various themes. I can count on one hand the number of times I have been fortunate enough to see a live flamenco performance, but this book has made me interested enough to want to seek out more. And I would say that means it has done its job.
Rating:
Summary: Not 'the' book on flamenco, but a good read nevertheless
Review: After finishing the introduction to this book I was despairing. The narrator/author came across as a real prat, and combined with the fact I am quite sick of the `I took an extended holiday and justified it by writing a book' genre, I thought I was almost guaranteed not to like this book. Luckily, I was wrong. That is not to say Duende is a great book. There are faults - the conclusion is a mess, and occasionally the author makes trivial facts out to be momentous ones. There is also the problem that some of the characters feel as though they have not been properly thought out - the prime example for me is Grace, who appears in the Granada section of the book. However, this is a very good book. It is the story of an Englishman who decides to move to Spain and pursue his love of flamenco. This is quite amazing when you consider that he has never learned guitar before and has now decided to take on a rather complex and complicated form of playing. You have to admire his pluck. Through his searches for `authentic' flamenco, the author falls in with a bunch of gypsies, never sure whether he is truly accepted or just there for novelty value. After a shocking incident, he moves on, and leaves Madrid for Granada, reassessing his life as he goes. This book is an interesting narrative - it has love, passion, interesting characters and well described, evocative settings. But it is more than that - using flamenco as the medium, Webster explores what happens when we use an outside `thing' (in this case flamenco) to try and run away from internal forces (feelings of inadequacy, searching for meaning). We follow Webster down the false leads he chases to find this `thing', the true spirit of flamenco that he feels will answer his quest, all the time questioning his reasoning and motivations. There have been some criticisms that this is not a very good book about flamenco. I don't think that it was intended to `write the book' about flamenco; rather, it is using flamenco as a medium to explore various themes. I can count on one hand the number of times I have been fortunate enough to see a live flamenco performance, but this book has made me interested enough to want to seek out more. And I would say that means it has done its job.
Rating: 
Summary: A Page Turner
Review: Duende has the best description of a wild high speed car chase across a city at night I have ever read...But there is more. Crazy characters in passionate situations which made me think of a Pedro Almodovar movie - intensely gripping yet redeemingly human. A winning hero and a so smooth and often beautiful prose style.... this is a book that will be read with pleasure in ten years time and beyond. If you have even a passing interest in Spain or flamenco this is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Captures flamenco essence...
Review: Everyone associated with flamenco has their own definition for "duende." What Webster chronicles so brilliantly is an outsider's search for admittance into this world where self-appointed insiders and experts put locks on all the doors AND keep changing the combinations!
Rating:
Summary: Yo! This is a personal story, not a manual
Review: I think the problem that some of the thumbs-down reviewers had with this book was that they got sidetracked by the subtitle, "a journey into the heart of Flamenco." They apparently thought that it was going to be a didactic work. (The author is an Oxford graduate, so we must use words like "didactic"). Instead, it's a very personal story, a "tell all" about the author's experiences as a foreigner (i.e., non-Spaniard) trying to lead a flamenco life, and I don't find that it was represented as anything other than that. And insofar as that story goes, it was generally well written What is clear is that Jason Webster came to Spain in search of flamenco without doing any prior research or study, not even having touched a guitar previously - rather odd for an Oxford grad, but maybe that was part of what he was running away from. That's what got him into all the strange and sometimes funny scenes he relates because seemingly every flamenco aficionado he ran into was a self-proclaimed "expert" who told him something different. Poor Jason also came to the wrong places: Valencia and Alicante on the southeast coast of Spain, two venues that are well outside flamenco's incubators: southwest Andalucía (Cádiz, Jeréz and Sevilla province in particular), and Madrid, the capital where most of the best artists end up because it provides the best means of earning a living. That's just about analogous to someone coming to the United States in search of jazz and blues but starting out with a flat in Des Moines, Iowa, then moving on to Butte, Montana. He did get to Granada, which has a much smaller but increasingly thriving flamenco scene, but only after a good deal of trial and error - and then he went back to the southeast coast anyway. And that was after living in a poor suburb of Madrid without ever visiting the thriving dance studios where he could have met and learned to play with some really good artists instead of stealing cars and doing lines of coke. Those missteps probably lead the author to the main title, "Duende." Many an experienced flamenco groans when they hear that word. Federico García Lorca started the craze for "duende" back in the twenties, and Donn Pohren enshrined it for all English-speaking aficionados through his work, "The Art of Flamenco", first published in the early sixties and which for many decades was the only book in English on the subject. "Duende" literally means an elf or gnome, and can include poltergeists as well. It did imply "soul" or "spirit" within some circles in flamenco, but overuse caused such word inflation that its original meaning was greatly devalued, and many flamencos came to avoid it. "Aire" was the principal word used instead of "duende" when I lived in Spain in the early seventies, and now one also hears "pellizco" which may or may not mean the same thing. "Duende" is today more often used by promoters in the tourist trade rather than artists. Of course, the use of that word in the title might well be due to the publisher rather than the author, but that would be consistent: "Duende" once again being used to sell something rather than describe it. The one serious bone I might have to pick with the author, however, is his intimation that drugs are an integral, even necessary, part of being a flamenco. True, drugs became very pervasive in the post-Franco era, but they have never been anything close to "necessary." For over a hundred years flamenco did quite well fueled solely with nicely fermented grape juice, perhaps a bit of distilled spirit, but that was it. Weed, coke, hash are strictly optional and mostly detrimental. He seems to have swallowed the drugs-are-necessary idea hook, line and sinker, but the fact that the particular Gypsies he hung out with had to steal cars to make ends meet attests to their lack of success as professional flamenco artists. Drugs and thievery are dead ends, not roads to the heart of flamenco or anything else. Yes, Camaron de la Isla, one of flamenco's greats, used lots of drugs and smoked like a house on fire. He also died at the age of 42. (But if you do enough drugs you just might see a few duendes.) The back jacket cover says that the author still lives in Valencia. If he harbors any hope of writing a sequel, he better start thinking about moving to where there's at least a flamenco road to follow.
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