Picture of author.

Oscar Hijuelos (1951–2013)

Autor(a) de The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

15+ Works 4,438 Membros 163 Críticas 6 Favorited

About the Author

Óscar Jerome Hijuelos was born in Manhattan, New York on August 24, 1951 to Cuban immigrant parents. He received a bachelor's degree and a master of fine arts degree from City College. His first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published in 1983 and won the Rome Prize of the American mostrar mais Academy of Arts and Letters. His other works include The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, Mr. Ives' Christmas, Empress of the Splendid Season, A Simple Habana Melody (From When the World was Good), Beautiful Maria of My Soul, Another Spaniard in the Works, and Twain and Stanley Enter Paradise. His novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was made into a 1992 movie starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. He also wrote a young adult novel entitled Dark Dude and a memoir entitled Thoughts Without Cigarettes. In 2000, he received the Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature. He died after collapsing with a heart attack while playing tennis on October 12, 2013 at age 62. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Image credit: Courtesy of Serpent's Tail Press

Séries

Obras por Oscar Hijuelos

Associated Works

Cool Salsa (1994) — Introdução; Contribuidor — 298 exemplares
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (1998) — Contribuidor — 275 exemplares
Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories (1993) — Contribuidor — 128 exemplares
The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2010) — Contribuidor — 58 exemplares
Voices in First Person: Reflections on Latino Identity (2008) — Contribuidor — 38 exemplares
The Good Parts: The Best Erotic Writing in Modern Fiction (2000) — Contribuidor — 34 exemplares
You're On!: Seven Plays in English and Spanish (1999) — Contribuidor — 17 exemplares
The Mambo Kings [1992 film] (1992) — Original book — 15 exemplares
The Cuban American Family Album (1996) — Introdução, algumas edições14 exemplares
Amerika, Amerika bloemlezing — Contribuidor — 8 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

Die ein Jahrhundert umspannende, detailverliebte und lebensstrotzende Geschichte einer Familie. Der fantasievolle Erzähler breitet sie in der ihm eigenen Mischung aus liebevoller Charakterschilderung, Sinnlichkeit und epischem Schwung aus.(dzblesen.de)
 
Assinalado
Hoppetosse1 | 6 outras críticas | Jan 22, 2024 |
Oscar Hijuelos was four years old when he contracted nephritis during a visit with family in Cuba. The resulting hospital stay would alter his life forever. He went into the hospital as a Spanish-speaking first-generation Cuban-American. After a year of being insulted and treated badly by English-speaking nurses solely because he did not understand what they said to him, he came out of the hospital as an English-speaking "former" Cuban. I was appalled at the way the nurses treated a small child because of his language and heritage. Apparently, this experience scarred him to the extent that even after returning to his Spanish-speaking home, he refused to speak even one word of Spanish, or even acknowledge that he understood it when he heard it spoken. I find it ironic that he was chastised in the hospital for not knowing English, then spent years at odds with his family for not speaking Spanish.

Due to his hospital stay, Hijuelos started school late, and unable to read either English or Spanish. He struggled with English, feeling that it was somehow forbidden to him. Despite that, he is now very articulate and even eloquent at times. I find it interesting that he didn't even like to read growing up, preferring comic books because he could see what was happening without being hampered by words. He seems to have grown out of that. He is the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

I liked that there were gaps in his memory and that he doesn't claim to remember or know every single thing that has ever happened. I find that this makes memoirs more believable. There was quite a lot of name-dropping, but Hijuelos did have the benefit of being involved in the NYC literary/arts community. Attending several NYC colleges and universities over the years, he also had a broader pool of students and professors than most people would have. I did get the feeling that the author became successful in spite of himself. He turns down or just plain misses opportunities that many aspiring authors would trade anything for.

This is not a dull, dry recitation of the author's life. There is some rambling from time to time, and I had to look up some of the writers mentioned as well as some of the Spanish slang. (I understood the "regular" Spanish.) Small stories of incidents woven through the book keep it interesting and often humorous. Such as when we read about how smoking an iguana out of a butchered pig ended with the entire family chasing and killing tarantulas. Or how Hijuelos sent a frustrated mugger to steal from Columbia students because City College students were too poor.

This isn't the best memoir I've ever read, but it is worth reading.

I won this book in a Goodreads First-reads giveaway.

This review is part of my Hurricane Relief Review-a-thon. http://www.livinglearninglovinglife.com/2012/11/pre-review-a-thon-post.html
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
amandabeaty | 8 outras críticas | Jan 4, 2024 |
If you want to read 400 meandering pages about the huge penis of a repugnant, misogynist rapist, this is the book for you. If you are sane, skip it.
 
Assinalado
myshkin77 | 30 outras críticas | Aug 10, 2023 |
 
Assinalado
dgmathis | 30 outras críticas | Mar 15, 2023 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
15
Also by
13
Membros
4,438
Popularidade
#5,643
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Críticas
163
ISBN
181
Línguas
11
Marcado como favorito
6

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