A Simple Habana Melody by Oscar Hijuelos
"A Simple Habana Melody" by Oscar Hijuelos is a poignant novel that explores the life of Israel Levis, a once-celebrated Cuban musician, as he returns to Cuba in 1947 after a harrowing experience in a concentration camp. Through Levis’s melancholic reflections, readers are transported to his vibrant past in Havana and Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, where he gained fame for his rumba hit "Rosas Puras." The narrative delves into Levis's struggles with his identity, sexuality, and the impact of political turmoil, particularly after the assassination of his friend Manny Cortez. His relationships with women, including his unrequited love for the singer Rita Valladares, reveal his internal conflicts and desires. The novel juxtaposes Levis's rich artistic life and the harsh realities he faces, especially following his internment in Buchenwald, which leaves him a shell of his former self. Ultimately, "A Simple Habana Melody" reflects on lost dreams and the complexities of life, as Levis grapples with the realization that his youthful optimism was misplaced in a world marred by suffering and loss. The story invites readers to contemplate themes of memory, resilience, and the enduring power of music.
A Simple Habana Melody by Oscar Hijuelos
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 2002
Type of work: Novel
The Work
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 a song he wrote in a few hours for the singer Rita Valladares; in “Rosas Puras,” he expresses unfulfilled longing for a beautiful woman whom he could never bring himself to woo, though she was attracted to him. A devout Catholic dominated by his widowed mother, the fleshy Levis channels strong sexual urges into visits to brothels and into his music. He also suppresses erotic interest in other men. After Manny Cortez, his friend and librettist, is assassinated by agents of dictator Gerardo Machado, Levis leaves for Paris, hoping to be closer to Valladares, who is now performing there.
During the 1930’s, a vogue for things “tropical” helps make Levis the toast of Europe. He tours widely with his own orchestra, making his home in a luxury hotel in Paris. Valladares stars in the zarzuela that Levis creates out of “Rosas Puras,” but, while continuing to pine for her, he cannot allow himself to express with her the vigorous sensuality that he enjoys with hired women. Indifferent to politics, Levis immerses himself in music and the libertine pleasures of Paris. He relishes his renown and friendships with other artists, including Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, and Gary Cooper.
By the time that Germany conquers France in 1940, most other foreigners have left. Levis remains, however, writing and performing, even when Sarah Rubinstein, a Jew who has become his lover, is forced to flee. Because of Levis’s association with Sarah and because his own name sounds Jewish, the Gestapo classifies him as a Jew and forces him to submit to humiliating restrictions. In 1943, he is transported to Buchenwald. Except to note that scraps of food slipped to Levis as reward for occasional command performances probably kept him alive, Hijuelos leaves it to the reader to imagine details of life and death in the camp.
Most of A Simple Habana Melody is thus an ailing older man’s ruminations over his vanished prime. For Levis, Havana in the 1920’s and Paris in the 1930’s represented moments “when the world was good”—as the novel’s full title suggests. No longer able to compose or to perform sexually, the Levis who repatriates to Cuba has lost two elements essential to his personal identity, religious faith and joie de vivre. What most torments him now, awaiting death, is realizing his naïveté in believing that goodness prevails over evil. The world is more complex than the simple Habana melody that defined the life of Israel Levis.
Sources for Further Study
Booklist 98 (May 1, 2002): 1445.
Library Journal 127 (May 1, 2002): 133.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 30, 2002, p. 14.
The New York Times Book Review 107 (June 23, 2002): 11.