Book Review: Duende
Duende. Alex Poppe, Regal House Publishing, 14 June 2022, Paperback and eBook, 127 pages.
Reviewed by Matthew Schnur.
Alex Poppe’s charming, taught, coming-of-age novella, Duende, details teenager Lava’s year abroad in Spain after being rejected by the only mother (Lila) she’s known in favor of her incarcerated, drug-addicted father, Jesse. Lava’s in search of self, of love, of family, of passion. She finds them, one by one, after arriving in Spain and coming to live with Lola. Lola is her mother’s cousin, whom she’s only known through photos in her family’s home. It is Lola who gives her flamenco and the freedom to learn its strictures, to find duende alive within herself. I’d been introduced to the concept of duende by a childhood friend after his family’s trip to Spain. While his father described it to me as a “joy to be alive,” Alex Poppe defines it more specifically here as “the inner force or soul that inspires flamenco.” It certainly is Lava’s inner force that drives her forward.
The pace of this gorgeously written novella is perfect. It pulls the reader along with a terse lyricism. I found myself quickly in Lava’s corner as she is witness cum participant in her mother’s enablement of her addict father’s behavior, moving to Spain, meeting Daniel, a local boy who works in a boguedita, stumbling a bit through her first sexual experience with Daniel, navigating her way through Sevilla streets hearing the rhythm of flamenco, navigating school friendships and gossip, and discovering her new relationship with Lola.
The changing family dynamic as Jesse returns from prison on parole is perfectly illustrated as Lila expected Lava to participate in the family lie to keep her father from returning to prison. Lava would provide drug test samples to the parole officer: “I first met Lila through the clear glass of an empty jar. The moment she left it on my nightstand was the moment we stopped being the people we had always been… Childhood left my body as I walked down the hallway of family, out the front door…” Reading this passage, I was out of my own body, remembering my own relationship with a family member suffering from addiction. I’ve not read a more poetic or accurate expression of that sense of loss of innocence. I felt it. Poppe’s use of these subtle and powerful images creates the complete feeling of immediacy. Lava leaves the house, smokes pot, and drinks alcohol with acquaintances in the park. Comes home and does as her mother wishes, provides a “clean” sample for the parole officer to help keep her father out of jail. When the sample tests “hot,” thereby sealing her father’s return to prison, Lila kicks Lava out of the house. Lava’s motivation was to do the right thing, which was to remove the obstacle she felt was keeping the family from happiness—her father. Lila’s motivation and hope is to protect her husband vs. the family.
Cody Ryan is the stabilizing force in Lava’s life. Lila is working so hard to make ends meet, maintain her marriage, and keep the house, and brings Cody in as a boarder. It’s Cody who is acting like a father to Lava while her father is in prison. It’s Cody who makes her mother happy when they cook together or talk over drinks in the kitchen. When Jesse returns from prison on parole, Cody is asked to leave. But he stays in their lives and it’s Cody Lava turns to when she’s kicked out of the house. It’s Cody who is in cahoots with Lila and takes her home one last time to discover she’s being sent to Spain to live with Lola.
As Lava is learning flamenco, she uses it to “exorcise the haunting in my head” as her feet perform the intricate footwork of escobilla. As if willing each tap and stomp of her heel to the floor, “Didn’t think. Papá. Think. Dare. Okay. Papá. Truth...” to will the “yellow thoughts” from her. Her lust for Daniel, the loss of her childhood and the family she knew, is haunting. Flamenco allows her to express the inexpressible, sort through all the tumult and leave it with the sweat dripped on the dance studio floor.
Near the end of the book we discover Lila’s secret. It was Lola. Lava tells us, “I first met my mother at the kitchen table the morning after I realized she was my mother… one person wanting something the other person was not ready to give.” Again, this subtle way of letting the reader know exactly what Lava does—is near perfect.
By the end of the story, the pillars that supported Lava’s childhood have been removed. She’s lost the only mother she knew, her father, Cody’s friendship, and her relationship with her birth mother ambiguous. Despite the loss of “family” as it were, Lava had found exactly what she needed: Duende. That inner force.
Alex Poppe’s lyrical and well-paced storytelling make this novella a captivating story and a pleasure to read.