The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

Guitar Chronicles

Mitch Albom was a musician (still is) before he became a journalist and then bestselling author. His Tuesdays With Morrie remains a favourite of readers all over the world, a simple, inspirational book about a dying professor teaching his former student how to live better.

His other books have also been successful but not as much as the first.  His new novel The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto has music as the backdrop and his deft journalistic way of blending fiction with reality—the way the book’s protagonist find himself in real life situations (Woodstock, Hurricane  Katrina) has drawn comparisons with Forrest Gump.

The book begins with the funeral of guitar superstar Frankie Presto, who disappeared at the peak of his fame, and is narrated by Music.

In Francisco's life, great tragedy and unbelievable good luck go hand in hand. His mother is killed during the Spanish Civil War savagery, soon after giving birth to him in an abandoned church. He is saved by a nun, who finds it tough to raise him and chucks him into the Mijares River, where he's found by Baffa Rubio’s hairless dog. Rubio, a kindly sardine factory owner, is single and raises Francisco as his own.

He forces a blind guitar genius to take on the boy as a pupil, and the child, at nine, turns out to be a prodigy. But times are bad in Franco’s Spain. Rubio is thrown in jail and to save Francisco, the music teacher gets some sailors to smuggle him to America, where his sister lives. He sends off his ward with a gypsy’s magical guitar, the strings of which turn blue when Francisco helps someone in trouble. By the age of nine, Francisco has already met the girl, Aurora, who will be the love of his life.

He is abandoned in London, where he meets the legendary two-fingered guitarist Django Reinhardt, on his way to play with Duke Ellington in America. Francisco travels with him, and by the time he grows up, his guitar playing and singing make him a star.

Instead of a linear narrative style, Albom has interspersed Music’s story telling with real characters from the world of music, like Roger McGuinn, Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett, Lyle Lovett, who gamely agreed to become part of the book. Other music legends, like  Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Paul Stanley appear as cameos. In a memorable sequence, Frankie impersonates Presley while the star is away negotiating a movie deal, and fans packing the stadium are none the wiser.

Inspired by the magic realism made so popular by Latin American writers, Albom spins the incredible adventures of Frankie in which Aurora flits in and out, and the hairless dog has a starring part.

There are some hokey bits, but The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is a feel-good read. If Albom can be accused of anything it is breaking his own spell somewhat by giving prosaic explanations to what Frankie goes through and tying up his life with a neat red ribbon, when the mystery and ragged threads actually gave the book its magic.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

By Mitch Albom

Publisher: Harper Collis

Pages: 489