Write
Between the Lines is an exploration
and articulation of the obvious and the obscure. A cavalcade of
creation and commentary designed to amuse and bemuse.
"Elizabeth
Brown
Preferred a book
To going on a date.
While friends went out
And danced till dawn,
She stayed up reading late."
— The Library by Sarah Stewart
Oscar Hijuelos' (Pulitzer
prize-winning author of The
Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love),
A Simple Habana
Melody is a nostalgic, lavish, and lush story about
art, politics, religion, culture, family, war, and history;
about different kinds of sex and sexuality; about women: (a
broad spectrum ranging from the Virgin herself to all types
of "putas"). But above all it is about music, music,
music — especially what the music represents.
The book is anything
but "a simple melody." On the contrary, it is a
very complicated, complex, and profound oratorio on life itself
as seen through the eyes of an extraordinary man: ".
. . my own protagonist . . . whose dreams are the dreams of
those who the wish the world well." (Author's note.)
Israel Levis, Cuban
composer, experiences life fully through the five senses.
The reader can taste the wonderful food and drink (of which
there are copious amounts), smell the aroma of the tropical
flowers and the richness of Cuban coffees and cigars, feel
the warm, soft sea breezes, see the bright floral colors and
the sun's rays glittering on the Caribbean sea. Most of all,
the reader hears the music — the notes seem to flow off
the pages — swaying shades and nuances and tones that
never let go; instead they continue to haunt Levis and the
reader, especially Rosas Puras (Pure Roses, and as the author
also interprets: Pretty Roses.) This is Levis' most famous
song, played the world over, which he hurriedly wrote at the
request of his undeclared love, Rita Valladares:"Rosas
Puras. I had a melody that came instantly to me, arranged
with the assistance of that unseen and underappreciated inspiration
which can only come from God." Thus, the composer identifies
his most popular and enduring song with Rita, the love of
his life.
So here we get to the
essence of the story, which is love with all of its complicated
facets. Love of country, of art, politics, religion, culture,
family, and humanity itself. Overreaching it all, love for
Rita: countless opportunities for Levis to connect deeply
with that one other soul for whom he has had a lifelong yearning.
Opportunities that he let slip by. Rather, he uses "memory
as companion," his diffidence and quiet reserve always
and ever prohibiting him from declaring himself to his beautiful
and flamboyant young protégé. (Perhaps he should
have taken his lyricist friend Manny's advice: "Live
as if no one else matters.")
The sad part is that
Rita never was able to declare her love to him, either. Rather,
she ran through four husbands (he never married), and died
with "his name . . . never . . . far from her lips .
. . crying with tender thoughts about him."
"The purest rose
will always last, like the love in our hearts." To Israel
and Rita, a simple Habana melody represented the deep and
complex unrequited love that they had always carried for each
other.
