Mambo Peligroso: A Novel

Michael Griffith

Chao induces the reader to feel the intensity of her characters' pleasure in dancing -- mostly by cleaving, early on, to Catalina Ortiz Midori, half-Cuban, half-Japanese and a woman in the throes of a full-out mambo obsession. Chao entangles Lina's joy in dancing with assorted other passions, especially the desire to reconnect with her Latina identity, which she has let slip away in the years since 1973, when she and her mother fled Cuba. Nor does the novelist scant on erotic ardor. We see Lina grow intoxicated by her ever more precise and artful control of her feet, hips, hands, and we see how bodily exuberance translates easily, even inevitably, into sexual energy.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

The pulsating world of Latin music and dance in New York City stars in Chao's well-written if uneven second novel (after 1997's The Monkey King), which explores the cross-cultural experience of Catalina Ortiz Midori-half Japanese, half Cuban, raised in New England-as she becomes a disciple of El Tuerto, a world-class dancer who teaches a class on the "dangerous mambo" of the title. As Midori keeps reminding us, mambo is not a hobby but a way of life-almost a calling. Clearly drawn from an intimate personal knowledge of the scene (Chao has a second career as a professional mambo dancer), the book delves deeply into the intricacies of the dance as it sketches the backgrounds of Midori, El Tuerto and Wendy Cardoza, a brilliant "mambera" who befriends Midori. It all seems like a sexy Latin version of Saturday Night Fever-a voyeuristic glimpse into an unfamiliar world-until Midori, visiting her cousin in Miami, gets peripherally involved in a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, a far more engaging drama that's never convincingly connected to the allegedly dangerous mambo. There's no doubt Chao the dancer feels right at home in the world of her book, but her theme-the rediscovery of her character's Cuban roots-is lost amid the tangles of convoluted plot. Agent, Heather Schroder at ICM. (May 10) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The author of the critically acclaimed debut novel Monkey King, Chao has created another compelling story, this one based on a danzon (a popular Cuban dance). Unfortunately, its opening is slow and includes too much dance-step detail, but true to danz n structure, the pace accelerates and becomes relentless. Set in New York City, with an excursion to Miami and a boat journey to Cuba, this novel indeed becomes a mambo peligroso ("perilous mambo"), with life being the highest stake. The characters-El Tuerto, the one-eyed mambo instructor; Wendy Cardoza, the Bronx-Dominican reigning mambera queen and former junkie; Catalina, a Japanese-Cuban immigrant who becomes obsessed with mambo; and Roberto, her Miami cousin and first love-literally and metaphorically mambo together on and off the dance floor. Exuding intense passion, energy, and sexuality, this becomes a complex tale in which separation and loss partner with redemption and revelation-but not without exacting a high toll. Recommended for all collections.-Sofia A. Tangalos, SUNY at Buffalo Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Chao's double-faceted second novel (after Monkey King, 1997) combines the ethnic flavor of sweaty downtown New York dance clubs with a Miami-based plot against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The result is a high-energy, sometimes dizzying ride, served with blaring mambo music, plenty of rough-edged sex and characters who, though naggingly familiar, somehow manage to avoid cliche. Catalina Midori, as shy as her Cuban-Japanese roots suggest, is running from a loveless marriage and a past haunted by the childhood memory of finding her father's body when he committed suicide in Castro's Cuba 25 years earlier. Now an English teacher living alone in New York, she finds salvation when she discovers the world of Latin dance and the underground clubs where mambo dance kings and queens unwind nightly to pulsating conga beats. Among the rulers of this netherworld are Tuerto, the overbearing machismo dance instructor who often takes more than he gives from his students, and Wendy Cardoza, the hot-blooded ex-junkie turned mambo queen, who fights to remain Tuerto's number one dance-and-sex partner. Catalina is soon Wendy's number one friend-and rival, for Catalina is torn between her unquenchable thirst for Tuerto's passion and her childhood love for her cousin Guillermo, who's been drawn into a dangerous anti-Castro plot by his wealthy Miami in-laws. When Guillermo is ordered to sneak arms into Cuba for an assassination attempt on Castro timed to coincide with a papal visit, Catalina and Wendy become unknowing accomplices. Chao does a good job of drawing us into this up-tempo world of Latin dance, though her prose isn't evocative enough to keep the repetitious spins and flourishes from often blendinginto a blur. And the melodrama that forms the narrative's final third feels tacked on and less than convincing, despite the alluring doses of Cuban street flavor that go with it. Still, an entertaining, sometimes intoxicating read. Like the passionate dancers she portrays, Chao writes with heart and soul. Somehow, that feels like enough.

Washington Post

"Chao induces the reader to feel the intensity of her characters’ pleasure in dancing . . . Deeply interesting."

Orlando Sentinel

"Highly talented . . . [Chao] cleverly steps up the narrative like an ever-increasing tempo."

San Antonio Express-News

"Fast-paced . . . always quite clever and often graceful ."

Good Housekeeping (Book Babe selection)

This sensuous and sometimes violent tale is filled with sexy foot-stomping scenes—and an assassination plot to boot.

Booklist (starred review)

“A floor-scorching spin...This high-voltage novel will have readers furiously flipping pages and tapping their toes.”

Booklist

"A floor-scorching spin...This high-voltage novel will have readers furiously flipping pages and tapping their toes."

Good Housekeeping

"This sensuous and sometimes violent tale is filled with sexy foot-stomping scenes—and an assassination plot to boot."