The absurdity of Harris's "back from the grave" argument emerges if you cash it for other eras. A man who died in 1788 in France and returned in 1818 would find reactionary Bourbons still on the throne, but the entire story of Jacobin revolution, to say nothing of Napoleon, would have been lost. The sober conclusion about Harris's scholarly book is that he tries to push his evidence beyond credibility point and in the process goes several bridges too far.. It's 2001, and New York academic Bruno Cadogan arrives in Buenos Aires to research his dissertation on the origins of the tango. Cadogan has been enticed to the Argentinian capital by stories of a crippled, haemophiliac singer called Julio Martel whose wrecked body conceals a voice which makes people weep. Those are the facts and be grateful for them, because for most of its length The Tango Singer is gloriously mysterious and opaque. For the first 40 pages, I thought I was suffering from a head cold.
The unfamiliar Hispanic rhythm, the lack of speech marks and the hallucinatory plot fogged my thoughts. But fall into step with this novel and you will find it a rich and delicious experience. And it's hardly surprising that The Tango Singer is obscure because it is, after all, an elegant tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, the writer who made the labyrinth his personal literary metaphor. At the book's heart is the image of the "aleph", the title of a Borges short story which describes a glittering sphere, the point in space which contains the essence of the entire universe In Borges' story the aleph is found in a basement. In The Tango Singer, that same basement is occupied by a municipal librarian called Bonorino; don't forget that Borges himself was a librarian and wrote some of his best work in his library's basement.
Bruno Cadogan becomes so fixated by the idea of finding the aleph that he does the unthinkable. In a city still traumatised by memories of its military dictators, Cadogan turns informer and reports Bonorino for not paying his rent. Cadogan discovers too late that the librarian could have shown him everything there is to know.Tom?Eloy Mart?z, who was shortlisted for last year's inaugural International Man Booker Prize, was born in Argentina in 1934 His writing is satisfyingly sharp and eccentric. He casts Eva Per?s one of those women "whose lives were so excessive that, like the inconvenient facts of history, they were left without a real place of their own. Only in novels could they find the place they belonged, as always happens in Argentina to people who have the arrogance to exist too much."But The Tango Singer is much more than a card-sharp's showy sleight of hand. Ultimately it's a testament to man's desire to transcend death. No one does it more eloquently than the tango singer himself.
Martel's haunting performances, sung in seemingly unconnected locations all over Buenos Aires, follow the contours of a map. Read the map and the city's shameful past is revealed.Jorge Luis Borges once wrote that a man fills the space around him with images of mountains, stars, kingdoms and people, only to discover shortly before his death that "the patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his own face" Borges would have adored the tango singer's audacious map. And, given that Borges often reviewed books which were never written and profiled writers who never existed, I suspect he would have loved the fact that not only is this glittering homage to him a work of fiction, but it concludes with the words: "all the characters in this novel are imaginary, even those who seem real.". Thomson Holidays has announced a new service that could spell the end for the travel rep. From 1 April, holidaymakers will be able to take advantage of the Thomson Travel Buddy, a new text-messaging service offering updates on a range of subjects including the weather, local car hire and even news from home. Plans are also afoot to use the service to contact travellers caught up in natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
"We're modernising [our] service away from the traditional package holiday to be more accessible to holidaymakers who just book car hire, accommodation or flights," said Thomson's head of delivery Louise Bates. Gatwick Express Delta Airlines has become the latest carrier to add its support to the campaign to secure the long-term future of the Gatwick Express. Fears for the future of the service, which runs a non-stop link between Gatwick and London Victoria, arose after the Department of Transport announced it was considering replacing it with a frequent-stop alternative to create additional capacity on the London to Brighton commuter route. The DoT also announced plans to replace the service's luggage-friendly carriages with standard ones after recent figures showed Gatwick Express trains from the airport to Victoria were only 35 per cent full compared with commuter services, on which capacity was exceeded by 25 per cent.Bird Flu: Travellers put offThe adventure travel operator Guerba has warned that the threat of bird flu is deterring independent travellers from booking trips to Asia and the Far East. Despite reassurances from the World Travel and Tourism Council that the disease poses no risk to tourists, the company has admitted reduced business in the region, although it stopped short of revealing figures.