Beautiful Maria of My Soul Book

Bravo Hijuelos!! I flat out LOVED this book! For the first time in a long time finishing a book left me sorry it was over. What am I going to read next that will go down that smoothly?

The book is the story of the beautiful love interest from The Mambo Kings Sing Songs Of Love. It that book she was a peripheral but important character in that she was the inspiration for a hit song, the title of which is Beautiful Maria Of My Soul, written by Nestor Castillo, one of two brothers who are the focus of Mambo Kings. She is a beauty of mythical quality and the book indeed has a mythical air about it. She, for example, is rarely, perhaps never, referred to as Maria, she is always Beautiful Maria in the narrative.

Beautiful Maria Of My Soul starts with Maria leaving the small village in Cuban countryside where she was born and going to Havana, and as mundane as that sounds, I was hooked from the first sentence. The book is the story of a long journey that as a reader we can take with her. Hijuelos is a very skillful and clever writer. He mingles real events and personalities (even himself!) into the story and creates a novel that takes on life. The one criticism that a lot of readers seem to have is the somewhat graphic sex scenes. They didn't bother me at all and Hijuelos, speaking as himself in the novel and referring to this matter says they are "...presented with a redeeming romantic touch." I agree.