The 14 Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien

A beautiful story about Irish immigrant photographer Nelson O'Brian who travels to Cuba during the Spanish American war, where he he falls in love with a Mariela Montez, who will bear him fourteen daughters, before finally they have a son, Emilio. This is a story about family. There is death and divorce and missed opportunities and love and loss and all the stuff families have to deal with and in the end there is redemption. But most of all there is family.

This book is one of my very favorites. I have read many books in my life and this is one that will take you away. Oscar Hijuelos writes with passion, he writes like he really understands women. I was very lucky to have found an autographed copy of this book. I consider it a treasured possession.

I believe I have now read all of Hijuelos' books and this one didn't disappoint. Although the oldest sister is the focal point of the story, the reader really gets to know the entire family -- each girl with her strengths, weaknesses, dreams, disappointments, and triumphs, and then there is Emilio surrounded by all those women in his life. The writing is so readable; the words just seem to "paint" a picture of this remarkable yet so ordinary family. The book covers time from the turn of the century into the 1970's from Cuba, Ireland, and the US. The plot is an ongoing saga with no great twists and turns although as in real life, surprises do occur. The culture of US and Cuba is a realistic backdrop. Overall, great story about a great family -- but one not much different than any families we might know (of course, 15 children is a bit rare today). The writing in this book just pulls you in; it's not a "page turner" of excitment. Rather it is a slow addiction.

From the opening pages of Mr Hijuelos's epic novel, one is on a long and delightfully rich journey. The love in these pages, the humantity, the poetry and humor, are abundant and utterly absorbing. A wonderful book by a skilled author.

This book is a fluid generational narrative that traces the humorous, and occasionally tragic, milestones of a large interracial (white/hispanic) family in America. Hijuelos effortlessly combines sharp social and cultural commentary with an engrossing storytelling capability attributable to very few contemporary writers.