The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

Rating:
Summary: Graphic Sexuality
Review: Our book club of 9 recently read this book. Actually, out of the nine, only 4 read it because the others were too disgusted with Mr. Hijuelos never-ending lurid descriptions of the male organ, and that's too bad.

Take away all the sex, and you can understand why Mr. Hijuelos won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel. The emotional highs and lows that these men faced, and the demons who plagued them, will have you thinking about this book for a long time to come. The character development and beautifully written prose are two of Mr. Hijuelos strong points, and the introduction of Desi Arnaz into the story line was fun.

Passages to remember: "That was the thing in those days: to be seen with a woman like Vanna was prestigious as a passport, a high-school diploma, a full-time job, a record contract, a 1951 DeSoto."

"His mother's affection was so strong that for one brief moment he had an insight into love: pure unity. That's all she became in those moments, the will to love, the principle of love, the protectiveness of love, the grandeur of love."

Rating:
Summary: A Book that is Hot and Spicy, filled with Music and Love
Review: The lives of Cuban immigrant musicians explored. Two brothers, Nestor & Cesar, part of "The Mambo Kings", playing their music, making records, finding fame, until a traffic accident kills the music. This book shows how the brothers' personalities were formed by their abusive father. Nestor: Sorrowful, prone to anxiety attacks, who, even after many years of marriage, is still pining for Maria, who left him for another. He lacks self-esteem and needs sorrow to create his music. Cesar: Made powerless by his father, finds his own power in his sexuality. He beds many women without forming true intimate relationships. He is vibrant, handsome and charismatic and needs happiness to create his music. Be forewarned - there are many graphic sexual situations.

Rating:
Summary: Man, The Mambo Kings Can Play, and Boy , Can Hijuelos Write
Review: The moment I started to read The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, I knew I would like it. The writing is descriptive and creative, and the author, Oscar Hijuelos makes you want to keep turning the page. The two main characters, Cesar and Nestor, are two musicians trying to make it big in the 1950's writing the music of the time, jazz. While playing jazz, the two brothers experience everything from writing new songs, appearing on the "I Love Lucy" show, meeting other famous musicians, new women, and a new lifestyle after moving to America from Cuba. The brothers experience life as Cuban immigrants feeling the positives and negatives of being the minority in the country. Different clothes, different people, and the love of women are what the two brothers get out of writing their sexy, smooth,jazz songs.
Hijuelos tells their lives before an after as struggling musicians with wittiness, detail, and flair. Hijuelos combines these three aspects causing the reader to become anxious and constantly curious. I have never read an author who wrote with such detail, imagination, and description. The descriptive scenes make the reader feel as if they were another one of the characters in the book. Since the story is very descriptive, the book tends to be long and drawn out at some times, but only occasionally. Don't get me wrong, the book does keep you interested and sometime even laughing out loud. At some points I even found my self in disbelief at the vivid descriptions of the many sex scenes in the book, and the smooth, sly ways of the Mambo Kings. This book has it all, love, heartache, sex, and emotion. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is one that you have to add to your reading collection today!

Rating:
Summary: Smooth Grooves
Review: The moment I started to read The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, I knew I would like it. The writing is descriptive and creative, and the author, Oscar Hijuelos makes you want to keep turning the page. The two main characters, Cesar and Nestor, are two musicians trying to make it big in the 1950's writing the music of the time, jazz. While playing jazz, the two brothers experience everything from writing new songs, appearing on the "I Love Lucy" show, meeting other famous musicians, new women, and a new lifestyle after moving to America from Cuba. The brothers experience life as Cuban immigrants feeling the positives and negatives of being the minority in the country. Different clothes, different people, and the love of women are what the two brothers get out of writing their sexy, smooth,jazz songs.
Hijuelos tells their lives before an after as struggling musicians with wittiness, detail, and flair. Hijuelos combines these three aspects causing the reader to become anxious and constantly curious. I have never read an author who wrote with such detail, imagination, and description. The descriptive scenes make the reader feel as if they were another one of the characters in the book. Since the story is very descriptive, the book tends to be long and drawn out at some times, but only occasionally. Don't get me wrong, the book does keep you interested and sometime even laughing out loud. At some points I even found my self in disbelief at the vivid descriptions of the many sex scenes in the book, and the smooth, sly ways of the Mambo Kings. This book has it all, love, heartache, sex, and emotion. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is one that you have to add to your reading collection today!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful plot, beautiful writing...
Review: This was an excellent read, if not sold simply because of the vivid colourful Latino descriptions of the people, the persusaive sense of the fire of Latin America, and of course, the constant, often coarse, sex scenes.

It was such a bittersweet book, such an undercurrence of sadness and loss. It was essentially, a lament to old age and wasted youth. The detail is incredible, the emotions very real. It effectively captures the horrible sinking inevitability of death.

Hijelo's characters are wild, if not dislikable. This is perhaps the finest point of the piece; the characters are utterly human and terribly flawed.

Cesor's incredible libedo is at the forefront of the work, and there is a sense of humidity, sweat and the smells of sex that pervade the work. Hijelo should be admired for being able to conjuer up such senses. I found it a sensual read, however I disagree with many who describe the sex as sensual. It seemed very coarse, but this is not a criticism, it served its coarse purposes.

The only criticism I have is the distracting nature of many of the sex scenes. The sheer amount of them seemed somewhat unnecessary, however, they began to fade once Cesar aged.

Over all, innovative and superb.

Rating:
Summary: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
Review: What mainly attracted me to this book was the fact that it had won the Pulitzer Prize. Therefore, I assumed it was going to be excellent; however, I was very disappointed.

The plot had immense potential. There, supposedly, was the tale of the Castillo brothers, Cuban immigrants who come to New York hoping to "make it" as mambo musicians. They worked at a factory during the day, and worked at different clubs at night, and the tale was to tell of their daily life and neighborhood fame. The book's plot, however, centers around the "busy" sex life of the older brother Cesar, and the depression of the younger brother, Nestor... There is still, however, the faint story of the brother's fame. They become very popular in their neighborhood during the 1950s--the Mambo era--and manage to catch the attention of Desi Arnaz, who later invites the boys to appear in an episode of I Love Lucy (marking the heighth of the "Mambo Kings" fame and glory). After Arnaz, however, things fall apart and what's left of the Mambo Kings is old, tired, and pitiful.

While Cesar's sex life and Nestor's depression were the main plots, there were other shorter stories that really didn't fit...

In general, this book was poorly written (grammatical and spelling errors are everywhere), underdeveloped, and, at points, almost pornographic. It did not "move" me, and I never cared about any of the characters. This book was an extreme disappointment, and it's a wonder it won the Pulitzer. I wouldn't buy, or even read, this book.

Rating:
Summary: Que Bueno Es!
Review: While plot is certainly important in a book, what most readers remember are rich, complex characters. One of the best writers of character is Oscar Hijuelos. I admit to being a "Hijuelos junkie," but even if I weren't I'd still have to admire his talent for creating characters and bringing them to life. My favorite "Hijuelos character" was Oscar Levis in A SIMPLE HABANA MELODY, but I also loved Cesar and Nestor Castillo in THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE.

Cesar and Nestor (who have many brothers and sisters) share a love of music-Cuban music-and more specifically, the mambo, but, in every other respect, they are very different people. Cesar is larger-than-life, he's extravagant, totally masculine and his baritone voice, when singing "songs of love" manages to capture the heart of every woman who hears it. Nestor is Cesar's opposite. Nestor is frail and melancholy and seems to simply recede into the wallpaper. While Cesar beds every woman who dares to look his way, Nestor pines away for Maria, a woman he knew only briefly, to the extent of composing twenty-two variations of his musical tribute to her, "Beautiful Maria of My Soul."

In 1949, Cesar and Nestor decide to emigrate to New York City because "that's where the music is." Cuba was no longer "home" to the habanera, the rumba, the mambo. The music had emigrated to New York, so Cesar and Nestor decide that's where they should be, too.

Arriving in New York City, Cesar and Nestor find plenty of music makers to emulate, but the one they care about the most is Desi Arnaz, who once worked in the same orchestra as Cesar. Cesar and Nestor tour America's east coast in a flamingo pink bus, dressed in suits of black and flamingo pink. Their records (I mean records, this is the early 50s) sell well and in 1955, they achieve their dream when they appear on an episode of "I Love Lucy." As the years go by, Cesar grows more florid and sure of himself, while Nestor grows more and more withdrawn, always retreating into the "self-help" book he carries with him everywhere.

THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE concerns more than Cesar and Nestor, however. This is a book about their families and friends as well and some of the best sections are narrated by Eugenio, Nestor's son. Hijuelos' writing is as good in this book as in all of his others, i.e., it is perfect. He really takes us back to the 1950s and the era of big bands and Latin music. Most of all, though, he takes us into the world of Cesar and Nestor Castillo and we emerge from the book feeling as if we'd gotten to know real people, people who lived and loved and, most of all, loved music. This is a joyous book, but it's also one that's sad and poignant and bittersweet.

I think Oscar Hijuelos is, by far, the best Cuban-American writing to day. I would certainly recommend THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE to anyone looking for a book with strong characters, to people who love Latin American literature or simply to anyone who loves a good story.