The Mambo Kings Play Songs Of Love

THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE

by Oscar Hijuelos

 

Award: Pulitzer Winner 1990

 

Nominations: National Book Finalist 1989, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1989

 

Dates Read: February 22, 2007 & September 18, 2020

 

I absolutely love this novel. If someone were to ask me what it’s about, I would say love, beauty, music, living life to the fullest and a whole lotta sex. Hijuelos creates this palpable world of Cuban mambo that makes me yearn to have lived during this New York heyday.

 

Two brothers, Cesar and Nestor, arrive in the 1950’s New York Cuban music scene. Cesar is outgoing and gregarious, drinking everything in sight, hitting on anything with two legs and loving every minute of his prime. Nestor is much more reserved and introspective, never having recovered from a woman in Cuba who broke his heart. The two brothers could not be more different.

 

After Nestor dies in a questionable car accident, Cesar is left on his own, losing the tether that held him to an accountable world. His years of hard living catch up with him and he begins to rapidly decline. After a lengthy relationship with a much younger woman, Cesar is on his own and takes his death in his own hands and leaves the world on his own terms.

 

While these are the broad strokes of this novel, no words of mine can convincingly portray the beauty and the misery, the joy and despair, the love and the heartache contained in this pages. Hijuelos’ writing has a sensuousness and meatiness that aren’t often found in the literary world. I am once again stunned by this beautiful piece of art.

 

Looking Forward: Mr. Ives’ Christmas

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