The Ballad of Johnny Sosa

by Mario Delgado Aparaín

Book Overview

Every night, Johnny Sosa, a poor, young, black musician, sings melancholic soul music in the small bar in the town's brothel, dreaming of a life beyond his confining world, and for a few hours each... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585676047
• ISBN13: 9781585676040
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Latin American Voice Speaks Out for Freedom

Johnny Sosa, the Black, lives with his mistress, Dina, in a shack on the outskirts of the tiny village of Mosquitos, in central Uruguay. A dreamer who loves old American movies and listens to a radio serial, "The Fertile Hour in the Early Dawn," Johnny ekes out a living by singing the blues and playing his Black Diamond Guitar and a little green bongo drum in a bar adjoining a local brothel. Known to the patrons of his venue as an angel with a golden throat, Johnny belts out renditions that are a mix of Frankie Avalon, Ray Charles, and Lou Brakley, with echoes of the blues from plantations on the Mississippi Delta. Stark poverty has always made life difficult in Mosquitos. The situation worsens, however, when a junta pulls off a coup d'etat and many of Johnny's friends and acquaintances begin to disappear. The author of The Ballad of Johnny Sosa, Mario Delgado Aparain, is a journalist and university professor. He first became famous in Uruguay for his short stories, which depict the contrast between country and city life. He lives in Montevideo, where he works at the Department of Culture.... Black Johnny's fortune seems to be improving when Col. Werner Valerio, a mysterious official in the new military regime, takes a liking to Johnny and offers to pay for his visits to the orthodontist. But there are strings attached to the Colonel's offer. How far does Johnny dare compromise his integrity... In the stifling atmosphere of political conformity, Black Johnny makes a desperate bid for freedom, deciding that it is better to die on one's feet than live on one's knees. Why pay eighteen bucks for slim volume of approximately 20,000 words? The simple answer is: Because it's worth it. The sparse prose of Aparain's tale signals the appearance of an emerging Latin American voice, one that values freedom and liberty above tyranny and oppression. Moreover, the author reveals "the vast distance within the human soul between the well cultivated surface and its deformed depths." Aparain's novella is hauntingly memorable. No wonder it has been published in ten countries to extraordinary acclaim. Roy E. Perry of Nolensville ...