The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Hardcover

Hijuelos, Oscar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374201250 ISBN 13: 9780374201258

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1989

Synopsis

It's 1949 and two young Cuban musicians make their way up from Havana to the big arena of New York, where they are workers by day, stars of dance halls by night. Hijuelos's marvelous portrait of the Castillo brothers, their families, their fellow musicians and lovers, their triumphs and tragedies, re-creates the sights and sounds of an era in music and an unsung moment in American life.

About this title

Review:

"One lush, tipsy, all-night mambo of a novel about Cuban musicians in strange places like New York City". -- People

"By turns street-smart and lyrical, impassioned and reflective, "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love"is a rich and provocative book--a moving portrait of a man, his family, a community and a time."-- Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times""One lush, tipsy, all-night mambo of a novel about Cuban musicians in strange places like New York City."-- "People""Brilliant... memorable... a heady and powerful triumph... one of the most spectacularly vibrant and moving works by an American in years."-- Alice Metcalf Miller, "Cleveland Plain Dealer"

"A rich and sorrowful novel... that alternates crisp narrative with opulent musings--the language of everyday and the language of longing. You finish feeling... ready to throw up your arms and cry, Que bueno es! Mr. Hijuelos is writing music of the heart."--New York Times Book Review

"Brilliant... memorable... a heady and powerful triumph... one of the most spectacularly vibrant and moving works by an American in years."--Alice Metcalf Miller, Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the Back Cover:

It's 1949. It's the era of the mambo, and two young Cuban musicians make their way up from Havana to the grand stage of New York. The Castillo brothers, workers by day, become by night stars of the dance halls, where their orchestra plays the lush, sensuous, pulsing music that earns them the title of the Mambo Kings. This is their moment of youth -- a golden time that thirty years later will be remembered with nostalgia and deep affection. In The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos has created a rich and enthralling novel about passion and loss, memory and desire.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0374201250
• ISBN 13: 9780374201258
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1