Well, Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven) has captured our hearts and imaginations once again! This time with his latest novel, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto. The story is narrated by the talent, Music, as it recaps the life one of its favorite prodigies, Frankie Presto. We follow Frankie, orphaned after a tumultuous birth in war-stricken Francoist Spain, as he is mentored by an elderly blind guitar teacher until turmoil and danger force the teacher to send Frankie away to America at nine years old, with nothing but a guitar. Frankie soon learns that when he plays the guitar in dire circumstances, the strings turn blue, and his music can change and even save lives.
Throughout
the novel we see Frankie chatting with Hank Williams, partying with The Beatles
and performing with Elvis Presley and Little Richard. He finds the love of his
life and rises from poverty to become one of the world's most famous musicians;
but disillusioned with fame and overwhelmed by the burden of his supernatural
talent, he turns away from the world becoming a recluse. That is until one
puzzling, albeit spellbinding final performance.
Albom's fiction, as seen in The Time Keeper
and The First Phone Call from Heaven, has a fervent grasp on magical
realism akin to that of García Márquez; a skill rarely seen in contemporary
writing. The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto continues in that vein.
To
complement the evocative prose, Albom has also created an accompanying soundtrack of the songs that Frankie and his friends and family performed in
the novel. The album is available through iTunes, AmazonMP3, Barnes & Noble
and Spotify.
Frankie Presto tale's while fascinating to observe, also forces readers to look inward to their own lives, at who and what we use to navigate our place in the world. As Albom states, whether we are musically inclined or not, our relationships and connections ensure that "everyone joins a band in this life.” This is a story of talent, of passion, of love and of the bonds we form throughout our lives. A story that will stay with you long after the final page. Perfect for bibliophiles and music lovers alike.
