Albom's 'Magic Strings' hits right notes

Journalist and best-selling author Mitch Albom wrote an unforgettable account of life lessons learned from a lovable real-life professor coming to terms with mortality in Tuesdays With Morrie.

With The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Albom again plucks at heartstrings, this time with the fictional story of Francisco Presto, a gifted guitarist and singer. His life intersects with major events of the past century, from the Vietnam War to Woodstock and Hurricane Katrina, and musicians including Elvis Presley, Darlene Love, the Beatles, Lyle Lovett and Paul Stanley from KISS.

Frankie’s story is told through flashbacks and interviews with the mourners who arrive at his funeral. “Music” is a character who narrates the story, with the engaging hook that everyone joins a series of “bands” in life, playing a different role in each. This setup sounds a little hokey, but it cleverly zips the reader through Frankie’s saga.

Born in the small village of Villareal, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, Francisco is abandoned throughout his young life, but Music never leaves him. Left to drown as an infant by an impoverished young caretaker, he is rescued by a hairless dog and the owner of a sardine factory who, early on, recognizes Francisco’s gift and finds him a musical tutor who will change his life: a broken, blind alcoholic named el Maestro. El Maestro gives Francisco a guitar with magical strings provided by a gypsy. At life and death moments, those strings glow blue.

As a boy, Francisco meets Aurora, the only rival for his love for Music. Francisco comes to America and becomes Frankie Presto, a singer with Elvis-like charisma and similarly bad life choices. Aurora suffers through Frankie’s failures and affairs, yet their bond and “band” endures.

Albom’s love for music is richly apparent, and the cameos by famous musicians make Frankie a cross between Fabian and Forrest Gump. Frankie and Aurora are a compelling couple, but fiction (and life) could use a few fewer instances of the woman suffering all for her genius mate, even when his excesses hurt her most.

Frankie is no Morrie, but few men are. "Music" gets a little preachy at times, but his maxims about life will no doubt bring readers on a pleasantly sentimental journey about the bandmates in their lives.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

By Mitch Albom

Harper, 489 pp.

3 out of 4 stars