Empress of the Splendid Season

The central character, Lydia Espana, is a Cuban immigrant from a wealthy family reduced to working as a cleaning woman in New York City. She is completely credible and her constant feeling that she is better than her lot in life is poignant. She is every person that every said "I'm not really a waitress" or "I'm not really a bartender". The story of the assimilation of her two children is also universal. Her son becomes a successful psychotherapist, but is always haunted by the idea that he is "just the son of a cleaning woman and a waiter". The writing is not especially memorable, but the attention to the details of every day life creates a vivid impression.

I'm a huge Hijuelos fan, but this book didn't do it for me. It felt tired and plodding compared to the passion and music of Mambo Kings, 14 Sisters, even Beautiful Maria.

I didn't know what to expect when I bought this book, but the title and the cover looked promising so I bought it.

It was a great story, powered by unusual characters and situations. I enjoyed it. And years before I saw the movie adaptation of one of his other novels, The Mambo Kings Play the Songs of Love.

Provides insight to how some lived in the 1940s.

From Library Journal
Once called the "Professor of Cuba" by her father, Lydia is a long way from Havana in this novel, set in New York City from the 1950s to the mid-1980s. Disowned by her family, Lydia moves to New York and finds work as a seamstress. She marries and has two children, but her hopes of becoming a housewife come to an end when her husband suffers the first of many heart attacks. Lydia goes to work cleaning homes for wealthy New Yorkers, among them the Osprey family, who employ her for 20 years and who feature prominently not only in her life but in her family's as well. Lydia's story is one of assimilation and the future of different cultures as the next generation moves beyond its roots. The novel intermingles time show more periods, life histories, and social classes to create an intriguing look at family, wealth, and race in modern America. This multigenerational tale from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is well written and engrossing. Recommended for all public libraries. show less