Historical Fiction · MelancholicTwo Cuban brothers start a mambo band in New York in the early 1950s
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
An aging bandleader, alone in a hotel room, replays the story of his band and his brother
Cesar Castillo, a once-famous musician, spends what may be his last night drinking in a run-down hotel room and listening to old records by his band, the Mambo Kings. As the music plays, he remembers how he and his brother Nestor left Cuba for New York in the early 1950s and made their living playing mambo. The book follows the brothers through the clubs of the city and the years that came after.
More about this book
Who
Cesar Castillo and his brother Nestor, Cuban musicians who come to New York in the early 1950s. The story is framed by Cesar's last hours, spent in a shabby hotel room with a bottle and his old recordings.
World
New York City in the 1950s, in the clubs and halls where mambo was played. Real musicians such as Desi Arnaz, Tito Puente and Pérez Prado appear briefly.
What makes it different
The prose is written to echo the rhythms of Cuban music. It won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was the first novel by a United States-born Hispanic author to win it.
Feel
Warm, musical and wistful, a long look back at a lifetime of playing.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The Mambo Kings Play Songs of LoveWikipedia