The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Reviewed by Gerti

I’m already a huge fan of Mitch Albom, so it was no surprise to me that I enjoyed his latest offering, “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto.” The novel tells the heart-breaking story of a young boy born in Spain under the most trying of circumstances – his mother being killed during the Spanish Civil War. A young woman spirits him away from the burning church where he was born, but eventually tosses him in a river when he won’t stop crying.

With such an inauspicious start, you’d imagine that Francisco (Frankie) would not have had a very good life. And yet this boy has been blessed by the spirit of Music itself, and so many magical things happen to him, including being rescued (from the river, at least) by a hairless dog, and then raised by a wife-less man. Yes, many details from this magical life are implausible, but that doesn’t make them any less dramatic.

Frankie’s early affinity for music is so strong, that his adoptive father, Baffa Rubio, the man who owns the local sardine factory, takes him to a blind guitar player so the boy can learn to play. The two, Frankie and El Maestro, form a very close bond, so close, that when the boy’s adoptive father is falsely imprisoned during the Franco regime, El Maestro helps the boy recover, and eventually, enables him to flee the country.

The book is filled with heroes and villians, all of them interesting, and all of whom shape Frankie just as he impacts them. Like Forrest Gump, there are cameos here from some of musics greatest names: Duke Ellington, Tony Bennett, Lyle Lovett, and KISS, to name just a few. Frankie is at Woodstock, Frankie appears on the Tonight Show, Frankie lives a life as a successful musician despite his childhood traumas, but drugs and alcohol get to him, as it has to so many famous people.

Eventually, Frankie and the love of his life Aurora, find a little girl of their own to adopt, and she becomes Frankie’s guiding star when all else fails him. He drops out of the limelight and starts to teach music himself, not realizing until the end the relationship he and the Maestro of his youth actually had. Tying it all together are the magic strings on his guitar, given to his mother by a gypsy family, which have the power to change lives. Frankie does that several times, and while I’m not sure this book has the power to change your life, it is a fabulous tale told brilliantly by one of the most unique voices in American fiction today. I can’t tell you how many times I cried while reading this epic (500 pages!) work, but that just shows how much heart it has, and how invested I was in these characters. “TMSOFP” will take you on a magical journey, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I highly recommend it, although I probably enjoyed Albom’s more famous “Tuesdays with Morrie” more.