The Cigar Roller by Pablo Medina
The Cigar Roller: a novel, by Pablo Medina, reviewed by
Paul Lutenske,Branch Head,Butman-Fish Library
(Grove Press, 2005, $12.00, 178 pp.)
Paralyzed by a stroke, Cuban-born cigar factory worker Amadeo Terra is confined to a Florida nursing home in the 1940s. He is unable to move or speak but fully (and frustratingly) able to think. One day his meal includes pureed mango and the taste starts a rambling flood of memories. The novel alternates between his experience in the nursing home and past events as he tries to come to grips with a turbulent, far-from-perfect life. Though not always easy to follow (the memories do not, of course, flow in chronological order and what dialogue there is appears simply as sentences within the paragraphs, without quotation marks), it is a riveting read.
Paul Lutenske,Branch Head,Butman-Fish Library
(Grove Press, 2005, $12.00, 178 pp.)
Paralyzed by a stroke, Cuban-born cigar factory worker Amadeo Terra is confined to a Florida nursing home in the 1940s. He is unable to move or speak but fully (and frustratingly) able to think. One day his meal includes pureed mango and the taste starts a rambling flood of memories. The novel alternates between his experience in the nursing home and past events as he tries to come to grips with a turbulent, far-from-perfect life. Though not always easy to follow (the memories do not, of course, flow in chronological order and what dialogue there is appears simply as sentences within the paragraphs, without quotation marks), it is a riveting read.
posted by Sherrill | 1:08 PM
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