Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maria Comes to Life, June 2, 2010
It is always a pleasure to me when I learn that an author has written a second novel, utilizing a character or situation in a beloved novel. Two examples come to mind. One is Geraldine Brooks' "March" in which she expands the father's character in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women". A second example is Sebastian Barry's recent "Secret Scripture" based on a character from his lyrical earlier novel, "The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty". Now, this literary treat is provided by Oscar Hijuelos, the Cuban-American author of the Nobel prize-winning, "The Mambo Kings Sing Songs of Love." It was a privilege to read this novel in an Advanced Reader Copy by way of [...]. Hijuelos rewinds the "Mambo Kings" story to the beginning and tells the tale of Maria Garcia y Cifuentes, a poor girl from the campo who uses her beauty and determination to land jobs dancing in post-war Havana in the 1940s. She crosses paths with Nestor Castillo, one of the brothers who go on to become the Mambo Kings when they emigrate to the US. Their affair is tumultuous, but ultimately they part. Nestor is haunted by Maria and writes an achingly beautiful song, a bolero called "Beautiful Maria of My Soul" as an expression of his love. The song becomes famous and sets the Mambo Kings on their course to fame. This novel is an interesting contrast to "Mambo Kings". The story line is about Maria's struggles as a young woman with no family and the way she plays her odds in order to survive. It has been some time since I read the first novel, but "Beautiful Maria" is quieter, and seems to run deeper. Both are about life choices and life's compromises and how we come to reconcile ourselves to both. Hijuelos skillfully creates a complete, complex character, from that relatively short episode from the first novel, and plays out a parallel life. Almost humorously, Hijuelos is a character in his own novel. After the success of Mambo Kings, he encounters the real Maria as the result of a book signing in Florida. The two develop an odd relationship and Maria has an ironic celebrity among the Cuban-American community as the subject of the bolero they all cherish as a reminder of the pre-Castro days in Cuba. Readers will enjoy this new offering by Oscar Hijuelos. It provides an intriguing contrast and counter-balance to the vibrant "Mambo Kings" and in the closing chapters, weaves together one complete plot line. In Maria Garcia y Cifuentes creates not just an interesting peek into a minor character, but a full-blown literary character in her own right. Well done
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A look at the other side of fhe story, July 14, 2010
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
It is all too easy, in reading a novel, to think the characters are real and not fictional. And, doing that it is also too easy to begin to wonder what the story would look like if told through their eyes. This mind game serves as the starting point of this beautifully written novel. It tells the story of Maria, the woman who inspired the song, Beautiful Maria of my Soul, that is such a big part of the author's first novel, The Mambo KIngs Play Songs of Love. And, although it's been 20 years since I read that book, the memory of it echoes beautifully through this novel. Essentially a character portrait of Maria, the book begins when she is 17 on her way to Havana from her village in the countryside. You learn about Maria's struggle to find work in the city, about her family life, and about how she begins to improve herself. First by becoming a dancer in a nightclub, then by hooking up with a minor gangster. And you learn about her meeting and her romance with Nestor Castillo, from The Mambo Kings. This meeting, and their romance, plays a central role in the lives of both people, eventually leading to the song. Some of the story was told in the first book, but so much more of Maria's own story is told here. It seems to me to be a story of 20th Century Cuba. Poor, illiterate, ignorant, Maria is from the country, a world without any of the modern conveniences that wasn't different from the world of her grandparents. By moving to Havana and becoming part of the world of nightclubs and decadence that was so much a part of Cuba in the late 40's and 5t0's, she enters, as did Cuba, the modern world with a bang. Abandoned by the Castro revolution, she leaves Cuba, her gangster lover imprisoned, virtually penniless, for Miami, and makes her home there. The last third of the book is seen through the eyes of her daughter, a doctor, and depicts the world of Cuban exiles. Through it all Maria is herself and we come to see her with love as she is. But Hijuelos gives us more than this. He tales the "What if?" premise of the book and puts himself squarely in it. What if Maria was real as well as fictional? What if the author met her daughter? What if Maria achieved some small fame in this odd meeting of life and art? What could have been an amusing short piece for a literary magazine becomes a charming ending to the book and part of celebrating the on-going life of Maria and of the Cuban community. In short, I thought it was great.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Characters you think you know in real life, August 14, 2010
I hadn't read "Mambo Kings" for a long time, so I read it first before going on to "Beautiful Maria", reading them back to back. The two books interweave beautifully together and Hijuelos writes characters so real that you are certain that they live down the street - even if you're not from New York or Miami, and not Cuban. And, just as I think the book is going to slowly fade away, the plot takes a nice turn in "Beautiful Maria" by referencing the earlier novel and pulling all the characters from both books into one narrative arc. The world that Hijuelos invents is so fully realized that you can picture the locations -- in Cuba, New York, Miami -- as though you were remembering some aspect of your own life. Along with the lyrical writing, in a latin magical realistic style, Hijuelos has expanded his character's lives in such a way that I find myself wondering "what if" and inventing other scenarios for the characters. These two books transport the reader in the way that is the best of fiction, creating an entirely believable, realistic world that we are allowed to share with the people in the books.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
