The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto: Mitch Albom

Published 10:00 am Sunday, March 12, 2017

Since Mitch Albom penned his mega-bestselling memoir, “Tuesdays with Morrie,” his subsequent heartfelt novels were immediate additions to the reading list.

They were magical reads, quick and light, imbued with a positive underlying philosophy, often of wish fulfillment. 

“The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” “For One More Day,” “Have a Little Faith,” “The Time Keeper.”

The books usually dealt with people being offered another chance at redeeming lost relationships.

The concept slipped for me a bit with “The Time Keeper.” It went off the rails for me with “The First Phone Call from Heaven,” which seemed trite with a premise not so much magical as seemingly improbable.

So, when “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto” was released last year and the blurb noted the story is narrated by Music – no, not a book in song but Music personified and serving as narrator …, I opted out of Albom’s books.

Running across the more recently released paperback edition, I picked up “Frankie Presto.” It may be Albom’s best novel.

Even with Music as narrator, “Frankie Presto” is the story of a musician’s life, strangely orphaned as a baby, on the run from his native Franco-era Spain, traveling throughout the U.S. then Australia, etc., coming of age, entering his life, during the rise and fall of his pop music career. 

He has a nigh-magical gift for playing guitar and he has a magical guitar – or magical guitar strings. The canonized strings last for decades; they glow blue and finally break as he saves people’s lives.

Albom tells the story in a chronological mix, dashing from different points in Presto’s life after his death. The childhood chapters are the best. 

He also uses interludes of fictional characters and real people memorializing Presto. For example, Tony Bennett provides one of the memorials. Albom met with Bennett for insight into what he might say about such a character as Presto.

Albom creates a rhythm of page-turning suspense. And as ridiculous as the concept of Music as narrator sounds, it works well within the pages of “Frankie Presto.”

Albom finds the right rhythm for Music’s voice.