- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (Dec 21 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060928700
- ISBN-13: 978-0060928704
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.7 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,749,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The collision of Cuban dreams with sometimes harsh American realities has been Oscar Hijuelos's great theme, most notably in Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. Certainly it's at the heart of his fifth novel, Empress of the Splendid Season, which chronicles the trials, tribulations, and infrequent triumphs of a Cuban American clan over the course of a half century. The protagonist, Lydia Espana, has grown up in pre-Castro Cuba, the pampered daughter of a prosperous businessman. But when she has the audacity to violate her father's small-town code of conduct--by sleeping with an itinerant musician--she pays a terrible penalty: "Her family, turning unfairly against her with a nearly Biblical wrath, had banished her, unprepared to contend with an indifferent world."
Where is Lydia banished to? New York, of course. And in this most indifferent of cities, the former "queen of the Congo line" finds herself in a less exalted role: that of a cleaning woman. This demotion she accepts with a very credible mixture of resignation and rock-ribbed realism: "The hardest part of being a cleaning woman had to do with the way people looked at her; often as if she were 'nothing.' It hurt her most when men did not notice her. The nature of the work itself, the outfit, the end-of-the-day fatigue, the messiness of that labor were not glamorous, so what could she expect." Lydia is less sanguine about her family's difficulties, from her husband Raul's near-fatal heart attack to her son's brushes with the law. Empress of the Splendid Season is in fact an ensemble piece that passes the point of view from character to character, from generation to generation. But it's Lydia's sensibility--at once stoic and sensuous--that ultimately enlivens this latest take on the American (or perhaps Cuban American) Dream. --William Davies --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
As in The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Hijuelos imagines the life of a humble Cuban-American from the late '40s to the present. Latin sensuality turns to Yankee drudgery when Lydia Espana the spoiled daughter of a small-town Cuban alcalde, is banished from her home in 1947 for staying out till dawn after a dance. Romantic and uneducated, she moves to New York, where marries, and becomes a cleaning woman to keep her sick husband (a handsome waiter with refined manners) and two children from the brink of poverty. Lydia worries and dotes in the manner of a quintessential immigrant mother trying to maintain respectability and make ends meet. While the drab black-and-white of her daily life runs its course, a rich Technicolor fantasy of time-before plays through her head. In memory, Lydia is again the Empress of the Splendid Season, beautiful enough to catch the eye of a Hollywood star. Depicting Spanish Harlem with relentless realism, Hijuelos penetrates the lives behind the humble tenements and massive university buildings. With poignancy, he captures the lonely fear of Lydia's son as he makes his way up the ladder of American success, the apex of which is perhaps not as enviable as he and Lydia assume. Familiar Hijuelos elements?Latin music, introspective men, touches of magic realism in quietly powerful prose?render here a tender and undramatic portrait of a complex woman and her culture. Agent, Harriet Wasserman. Literary Guild selection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
In 1957 when her beloved husband, Raul, had fallen ill, Lydia Espana went to work, cleaning the apartments of New Yorkers much better off than herself. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
In 1957 when her beloved husband, Raul, had fallen ill, Lydia Espana went to work, cleaning the apartments of New Yorkers much better off than herself. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Beautiful Character Study From Hijuelos,
By Totally Anonymous (Private) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Empress Splendid Season (Paperback)
In EMPRESS OF THE SPLENDID SEASON, Oscar Hijuelos does again what he does best: he creates a unique and unforgettable character, in this case, Lydia Espana Colon.Lydia was the "spoiled, rich daughter" of a small town Cuban mayor whose life takes a definite turn for the worse when she's banished to New York City's Spanish Harlem for daring to love a man her father didn't approve of. In New York, instead of being catered to, Lydia must do the catering. She becomes a cleaning woman for a wealthy WASP family...the Ospreys...to help support her husband, Raul, a waiter and their two children, Rico and Alicia. Hijuelos always creates strong characters, but Lydia really dominates EMPRESS OF THE SPLENDID SEASON and with good reason. She's proud. She's arrogant. She's even something of a bully. She manages to alienate both her son and her daughter by insisting that they live their lives "her" way rather than their own way. Hijuelos makes Lydia's character even more complex by making her a carbon copy of the rigid and unforgiving father she can't forgive; the father who drove her away from him just as Lydia, herself, is driving her own children away from her. To Hijuelos' enormous credit, the reader not only understands why Lydia does what she does, he actually admires her for doing it. In another brilliant piece of characterization, Hijuelos makes Lydia's weaknesses, her strengths. Her pride and vanity hold her family together and keep them from falling into depression and despair, especially when Raul's health begins to deteriorate. EMPRESS OF THE SPLENDID SEASON contains several subplots, most of them centering around the children of Raul and Lydia and exploring the assimilation of Cuban immigrants into US society. I thought these subplots enriched the book, but the characters of Rico and Alicia, as well as Raul's estranged son from another marriage, simply pale when compared to the character of Lydia. She overshadows them all. This is definitely Lydia's book and Lydia's story. Hijuelos' prose is, as always, very fluid, his transitions seamless. The narrative contains little dialogue and is rather elegant and even stilted (but in a good way). It's prose that one associates with elegance, with good breeding, with gentility. It's prose befitting Lydia, herself. EMPRESS OF THE SPLENDID SEASON isn't Hijuelos' best book, but it's better than 99.9% of the books out there. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who loves Cuban-American literature (Hijuelos has no equal when it comes to this) and to anyone simply looking for a wonderful, character driven book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A splendid look into Latin American life,
By A Customer
This review is from: Empress Splendid Season (Paperback)
Hijuelos has a way with his words that makes this book easy to read and enjoy.The story is interesting and captivating. I really enjoyed his portrayal of Latin Americans.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Living an examined life.,
By Sanson Corrasco "sansoncorrasco" (Bucharest, Romania) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Empress Splendid Season (Paperback)
Oscar Hijuelos writes of people with intense rich interior lives. These are people we admire for their emotional constancy and pity for their obsessions. I've read three of Oscar Hijuelos' novels. This is the least engaging of the three, but still a very nice book.
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