The Spanish Dancer

[from dj flap] The world of Emma Croft had changed. She had left her quiet English life behind her and gone to Spain to meet her wealthy Spanish half-brothers and sister.

Here in the sunshine, surrounded by affection and luxury, she would have been very happy -- if it had not been for the strange air of tension that hung about the household.

Not for Emma the resigned fatalism of Spain. Her mind was questing. What was the mystery surrounding Jacinta? Why was Quentin unhappy? Why wouldn't Gracia marry? Was Van -- her own dear Van -- in love with someone else's wife? And what part was the flamenco dancer playing in all their lives?

One by one the questions are answered, dramatically and with a wealth of skill, against the wild barbaric beauty of Spain in this remarkable and romantic story.

If there's one thing British vintage light fiction writers were mad for, it's exoticizing. No subject too familiar, no setting too ordinary -- they could other anyone and anything and cheerfully did (to often uncomfortable effect).

A favorite setting and subject for this exercise was definitely Spain. It wouldn't reach full flower, maybe, until the Spanish grandee Harlequins of the 60s and 70s, but this book is still a prime earlyish example. Oh, those Spaniards, with their "sun-soaked fatalism", their "furia español", their saints, their siestas, and their sexism that's "worked very well for several centuries and, I daresay...will work for several more". The whole plot, in fact, hinges on the kind of cultural determinism/essentialism that flows from this kind of characterizing. It's a convoluted and pretty preposterous intergenerational revenge scheme and the love-at-first-sight angle leaves all the dramatic tension hanging on it, which is unfortunate and surprising, since Sark showed a lot more range in Thunder in the Valley/Sophie's Prince. This was written ten years earlier, so maybe she matured as a writer...

The dust jacket is both great and totally deceptive.

Altogether, just an ok read, though it did inspire me to look up the cave homes of Granada's Sacromonte district and read the perspectives of local Roma people. Which was cool.