The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Softcover

Hijuelos, Oscar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060974516 ISBN 13: 9780060974510

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1992

Synopsis

Cesar and Nestor Castillo, two very different Cuban brothers recall their heyday in 1950s New York, when they led an orchestra, were known as "the Mambo Kings," and appeared on the "I Love Lucy" show

About this title

Review:

Inspired by their heroes Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz, brothers Cesar and Nestor Castillo come to New York City from Cuba in 1949 with designs on becoming mambo stars. Eventually they do--performing with Arnaz on "I Love Lucy" in 1955 and recording 78s with their own band, the Mambo Kings. In his second novel, Hijuelos traces the lives of the flashy, guitar-strumming Cesar and the timid, lovelorn Nestor as they cruise the East Coast club circuit in a flamingo-pink bus. Enriching the story are the brothers' friends and family members--all driven by their own private dreams. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990.

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: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0060974516
• ISBN 13: 9780060974510
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 407