Duende: A Journey in Search of Flamenco (Paperback)

What I had not anticipated is the subtext that runs through and links together Webster's narrative. I expected a travel book, but the book I read was the story of one man's search for a subtle, elusive essence - equated here with the Flamenco's 'Duende'. And there is something almost archetypal about this quest: each time Webster thinks he has found what he is looking for, it slips yet again through his fingers. He glimpses it in his teacher Juan's exquisite musical craftsmanship, but finds it won't yield to his obsessive, repetitive practising. He glimpses it in the heady world of emotional intensities that his married lover Lola opens to him, but finds ultimately that he is being used. He glimpses it in the carefree, amoral Flamenco lifestyle of the Madrid gypsies he is desperate to be accepted by, but finds himself with only a burgeoning cocaine habit, some close shaves with the police and a squalid shared apartment. Each time, his understanding of Duende is pushed further as it recedes from his grasp - revealing it to be deeper, subtler and more intricately faceted than he had previously imagined.

And it is this, not the convenient 'hanger' of Flamenco, that this book seems to be about - it is an ingenious, sustained metaphor for a kind of spiritual search. This is reinforced in the last part of the book, where Webster meets 'Grace' - an older, somewhat eccentric Englishwoman who enables him to put his previous experiences into perspective. Indeed, the whole story is bracketed between his experiences with two remarkable people, his friend Pedro at the beginning and Grace at the end, who both - although Webster doesn't mention this - have clearly been influenced by the contemporary expression of Sufi ideas. There are abundant clues to this, from Pedro - the professor of Classical Arabic - who whisks him into a church after a nasty experience, giving him an Arabic verse to recite to 'cleanse' him, through to Grace's ability to "say exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment, connecting with something in me". And Webster, the student of mediaeval Arabic literature, is keen to emphasize the connection between Flamenco and the Sufic culture of Moorish Spain through numerous references scattered through the text, like his attribution of the Flameco's exclamation 'Olé' to the Arab 'Wallah!'.

Duende may not be a satisfying read from an afficionado's point of view - I'm sure that testy Flamenco enthusiasts will find much to quibble with here. However, as a green outsider, I certainly came away with a much better grasp of what this music is all about: what a Bulería is, or who Camarón was, or how a Flamenco guitar is made. But it is as a powerful, poetic allegory that this book made its deepest impression on me. And I think that it is those who are searching for something more in life - without knowing what quite it is - who will appreciate it most.