Long After Midnight at the Niño Bien

GoodAirs got a nice note from Brian Winter, a former reporter for Reuters who lived in Buenos Aires from 2000 to 2004 (interesting times). He thought we might be interested in his travelogue/memoir of that four-year period called Long After Midnight at the Niño Bien: A Yanqui's Missteps in Argentina–-just out March 3 (Public Affairs Books).

I like expat memoirs, in general. I enjoyed Miranda France's Bad Times in Buenos Aires and Marina Palmer's Kiss and Tango, so you'd think I be an ideal audience for this book. But, to be frank, I'm not crazy about the tango scene and potential power dynamics of a blond Texan prowling the milongas put me off. I wasn't sure I wanted to keep company with this misstepping yanqui for 245 pages. But once I gave him a chance, I was mostly glad I did. I was only squeamish in the recounting of his private lessons (Winter falls for his teacher who flirts just enough to keep the $20/hour rolling in) and a dance with a "waitress" in a brothel as the city roils in crisis outside. But really, the narrator is almost entirely unsuccessful as a tango predator, to my relief.

Off the dance floor, the book is much more interesting. Buenos Aires before the current tourism boom is instantly recognizable. As a 22-year-old rookie reporter, Winter took the time to learn the history of places, figures, lyrics... and he retells the interesting bits. I didn't know that calle Defensa was once lined with brothels and that then-President De la Rúa tried and failed to re-enact daylight savings time as his grip on the country slipped. Winter's central idea is that "the spirit of Argentina and the tango were really one and the same," (according to his author's note online). He dives into some interesting lyrics and explains the lyricist's relation with the Peronist party, for example, to make the point.