Review of The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Brief Summary:

Frankie Presto from the day he was born was never an ordinary person. He was born in a burning church and abandoned months later by a woman who many assumed was his mother. Nearly eight years later he boarded a ship at the request of his pa and teacher in hopes of finding a better life in America. 

However, with only the clothes on his back and his only possession a guitar & six string he soon finds out that things for him will continue to be tough. As the story continues you follow Frankie through his music career in 40's, 50's and 60's. Frankie finds fame and stardom but also sadness as he finds that his music might be a gift but also a burden. 

My Review:

I received this book courtesy of the TLC Fall Book Tour. I have been a fan of Mitch Albom's books in the past but have not read one recently. I found that Mitch did a great job developing both the main character in the books as well as the supporting characters. In addition, he did a good job of always setting the scenes in the book from the burning church where Frankie was born to the Woodstock Music festival. An interesting part of the book that I had not seen before was how Mitch had the narrator be "Music". I thought this was an interesting take and was not sure how I would like it. However, after getting into a couple chapters of the book it made sense.

If there was any aspect of the book that I did not like it was the way it jumped between years. I think it made for a difficulty at times of following along. I think if the story was more chronological it would have been easier to follow and would have taken me less time to read.

All in all I found this book to be a very interesting read and kept me reading until the very last chapter. I would definitely recommend this read to people who enjoy reading about music and also history as it has both aspects in it.