A Simple Habana Melody (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Oscar Hijuelos
- First Published: 2002
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: New York, United States or Americans, Caribbean, Politics, France or French people, Twentieth century, Europe or Europeans, Music or musicians, New York City, Exile or expatriates, World War II, Paris, Ethnic groups, Victims, War, Jazz music, Cuba or Cubans, Pianos or pianists, Nazism or Nazis, Composers, Latin America or Latin Americans, Holocaust, Jewish, Fascism, Concentration camps
- Locales: New York, NY, Paris, France, Havana, Cuba
A Simple Habana Melody begins in 1947, as Israel Levis returns by ship from Spain to his native Cuba. A popular musician best known for “Rosas Puras,” a rumba hit that he wrote in 1928, Levis is only fifty-seven, but internment for fourteen months in Buchenwald concentration camp has rendered him a frail old man. Most of the novel consists of Levis's melancholic recollections of happier times in Havana and Paris.
Levis was a creative force within the vibrant Cuban culture of the 1920's. Though he also composed operas, symphonies, and ballets, he became best known for...
[The entire page is 560 words long]
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