Point Regarding Books The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Mambo Kings #1)
| Title | : | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Mambo Kings #1) |
| Author | : | Oscar Hijuelos |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 407 pages |
| Published | : | 1990 by Penguin Group (first published 1989) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Music |
Oscar Hijuelos
Paperback | Pages: 407 pages Rating: 3.69 | 11410 Users | 493 Reviews
Commentary Supposing Books The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Mambo Kings #1)
As the weather heats up it is easy to envision oneself on a beach with a rum and Coke in hand. The preferred beverage in Cuba before Castro's take over, rum invokes images of Havana as a city teeming with night life and rivaling Miami as the gateway to Latin America. It is with this sensuous imagery at hand that I selected Oscar Hijuelos' Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love as the next book in my ongoing Pulitzer challenge. The first Hispanic to win the award, Hijuelos' steamy book transports its readers back to a classy time when Mambo and its musicians were indeed Kings.Brothers Cesar and Nestor Castillo hailed from the Oriente province of Cuba. From the simple peasant class, neither had much of a future, especially with a demanding father who expected them to stay on the farm. One day Cesar heard a local band leader practicing, demanded lessons, and the rest is history. Soon, Cesar played his way out of Oriente to Santiago, Havana, and eventually New York. Regarded as a top band leader alongside Nestor, a gifted trumpet player, the brothers founded the Mambo Kings band and catapulted to the top of the Latin music circuit in New York during the late 1940s.
Leaving Cuba even before the revolution was not without its share of anguish. Cesar epitomized Hispanic machismo culture and bedded one woman after another. He tried his hand at marriage but grew restless, and his wife divorced him, forcing him to leave his daughter Mariela behind on the island. Nestor did not share his brother's cockiness. A introvert and brooding man, he fell for a pretty girl named Maria and engaged in a long affair with her, only to see her marry another man. Nestor never got over this heartbreak, even after marrying his wife Dolores in New York and having two children, Eugenio and Leticia. This torment the brothers felt lead them to write their one hit song-- Dulce Maria de mi Alma [Beautiful Maria of my Soul] that nearly lead them to stardom.
A chance meeting with Cuban star Desi Arnaz lead the brothers to perform Dulce Maria de mi Alma on the I Love Lucy Show. At the time, especially as Castro continued to gain power in Cuba, all Cubans living in the United States stuck close together, even Arnaz who had made it big as a Hollywood star. After this performance, Cesar dwelt on this episode for the rest of his life, reminiscing on his one shining moment and reminding all of his friends and acquaintances that he is the famous Mambo Kings who once performed with Desi Arnaz. Nestor tragically passed away a few years later leaving behind a young family, but Cesar continued to look fondly at this experience on television for better or worse.
Hijuelos writes this poignant tale as a two sided record complete with coda. He tells Cesar's story in flashback as both Cesar and his nephew Eugenio look back at a time when Cesar was the Mambo King of New York. In addition to leading a band, Cesar worked a full time day job to support himself and his sister-in-law and her family as well as his friends and musicians and a myriad of Cubans just off the boat. Cesar also oozed machismo until his dying day, bedding one woman after another in true Latin lover form. The prose dripped of sensuous love mixed with pain, of both love lost and the schism of Cubans in the United States and the island following the revolution. As I read this tale of lust and heartbreak, I kept singing Cuban hits such as Guantamera in my mind, setting Cesar Castillo's conflicted life to music. The Mambo King will be long remembered by me as I felt a twinge of sympathy for this man who could not relate to women except in bed while leading a conflicted life.
With luscious writing that is could also be construed as an homage to his native Cuba, Hijuelos has merited the Pulitzer for his poignant tale. A story of immigrants who brushed with fame, were scorned by love, and maintained their machismo Cuban culture throughout their lives, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is a scintillating tale. I had previously read Hijuelos' The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien and as before was enamored by his writing. A worthy torch bearer as being the first Hispanic authored book to earn the Pulitzer, Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is a jewel of a book for me at 4.5 sparkling stars.
Declare Books To The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Mambo Kings #1)
| Original Title: | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love |
| ISBN: | 0140143912 (ISBN13: 9780140143911) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Mambo Kings #1 |
| Setting: | New York City, New York(United States) Manhattan, New York City, New York(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1990), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (1989), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1989) |
Rating Regarding Books The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Mambo Kings #1)
Ratings: 3.69 From 11410 Users | 493 ReviewsCrit Regarding Books The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Mambo Kings #1)
This Pulitzer winning story of Cesar, the Mambo King, and his Cuban/Cuban American family was compelling although the narrative timeline was unnecessarily haphazard. The story bounces around a lot. Valid criticism has been made of the constant focus on Cesars penis and sexual conquests. Come on now lets move along is what I kept thinking. The superficial treatment of women is also a common theme. These are the three reasons that I cant rate the book as a masterpiece or at least five stars. TheI did not have big hopes going into The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, I was hoping to be surprised. Unfortunately, there were only moments of surprise, but not enough for this one to vault over the three-star mark. It beat out Billy Bathgate for the 1990 Pulitzer and as I have not yet read that book, I have to assume it was mediocre and as there were no other runner-ups, that year must have been a downer literary speaking. Maybe they should have taken a closer look at Get Shorty or Hocus Pocus
Like clockwork, highly viscous, graphic coitus every 3-5 pages. Give that book The Pulitzer Prize!
Looking at her, Nestor felt faint-hearted: she was more beautiful than the sea, than the morning light, than a wildflower field, and her whole body, agitated and sweaty from her struggles, gave off an aromatic female scent, somewhere between meat and perfume and ocean air, that assailed Nestor's nostrils, sank down into his body like mercury, and twisted in his gut like Cupid's naughty arrow. He was so shy that he couldn't look at her anymore, and she liked this, because men were always looking
I guess there was a plot. But I think it was all a thinly veiled cover for writing about an old man's penis. Seriously. Every page includes some reference to this horny old man's sexual escapades. It's gross. And a little depressing. Which is...provocative. I guess.EDIT: I redacted my initial hatred-filled review. I might even consider re-reading this, from a non-sophomoric* perspective.*I was a sophomore in high school when I first read this and hated it...
The main character in this book is an old guy drinking in a hotel room, and (to its credit, I guess) the book is a lot like being in a hotel room with an old guy: stories from his bygone youth, a few central events repeated again and again in different lights. I kept wanting to get up and say "Welp, look at the time! Gotta go, OK bye", and then a new yarn would begin, and next thing I knew another couple hours/hundred pages would be gone, and then eventually the guy dies and the book's over and
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