From Publishers Weekly
The final days of a paralyzed stroke victim provide the occasion for a poignant set of immigrant's reflections in Medina's latest. Amadeo Terra spends days and nights in his Catholic nursing home in Tampa silently raging against the neglect of his grown children and the shortcomings (and even brutality) of various staff caretakers. In between episodes of internalized anger, Terra relives his path to becoming a master cigar roller in Cuba, his emigration and work in Tampa's Ibor City cigar factories and his troubled marriage. Medina (The Return of Felix Nogarra) crafts a complex, rewarding novel out of a static setting. Passages in which Terra relives his romantic past, uses his bodily functions in retaliatory fashion or rails against the emptiness of life in Florida each have a particular texture. The darker final chapters work less well, as Medina ineffectively blurs Terra's relationship with his abusive father with ambulatory fantasies and Terra's final decline. But Medina's graceful use of the third person, into which he folds a multiplicity of perspectives with real lyricism, makes Terra seem to open outward into the world--as someone to whom things happen (in paralysis and before), but also as someone who asserts his humanity in whatever circumstances he finds himself. Medina skates perfectly between Terra's specificity and the universality of his plight, making Terra, his flaws and his struggles all the more compelling. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Medina's novel is a searing, bitterly humorous analysis of a life. Paralyzed by a stroke, a Cuban-born cigar-factory worker is confined to a Florida hospital. Virtually isolated from the ebb and flow of everyday society, he has as his only companions a cantankerous nurse, an indifferent orderly, and an annoying nun. Reflecting on his past, Amadeo Terra is compelled by both his physical immobility and his spiritual malaise to review his life in ruthlessly honest terms. Introducing his youthful alter ego, Terra recalls his years in Cuba as a master cigar roller, his failures as a thoroughly self--absorbed husband and father, and his desperate flight from Cuba. Adding up the sum parts of his life, he is forced to confront the futility of his present circumstances. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Award-winning storyteller Pablo Medina's new novel is a radiant journey through the mind of Amadeo Terra, a Cuban cigar factory worker confined in a Florida hospital after a stroke has left him paralyzed. His body no longer works, but his mind is very much alive, as is his ruthless and audacious wit. His only human contact is with the callous nurse who constantly scolds him, the orderly who barely acknowledges him, and the nun who prays for Amadeo's salvation while he fantasizes about what's under her habit. One day Nurse feeds him mango from a baby-food jar-a departure from the usual bland mush-and the taste of it on his tongue brings memories of his life in Havana flooding back. Once a master cigar roller in Cuba and an imperious patriarch of enormous appetites, Amadeo now confronts the long-buried facts of his previously unexamined life. The Cigar Roller is an evocative portrait of a man whose life-once governed unapologetically by his most base urges-is now reduced mercilessly to its most basic functions.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Pablo Medina has written a novel that recounts the life of a Cuban cigar-factory worker, now in a Florida hospital after a massive stroke has left him paralyzed. Amadeo Terra's body no longer works, but his mind is very much alive, as is his ruthless and audacious wit. Amadeo's only contact is with his caregivers: the callous Nurse who constantly scolds him; the Orderly who barely acknowledges him; and the Nun who prays for Amadeo's salvation while he fantasizes about what's under her habit." "One day Nurse feeds Amadeo mango from a baby-food jar - a change from the tasteless mush he frequently rejects with defiance - and the taste of it on his tongue brings memories of his life in Havana flooding back to him. Once an imperious patriarch of enormous appetites, Amadeo now recalls his turbulent but passionate relationship with his wife, Julia; his numerous romantic transgressions; his three sons toward whom he feels a shocking ambivalence; and the political strife that forced his family to relocate to Florida. Abandoned by them all, Amadeo is now forced to confront the long-buried facts of his previously unexamined life." The Cigar Roller is a portrait of a man whose life - once governed unapologetically by his basest urges - is now reduced mercilessly to its most basic functions.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

After a paralyzing stroke, Amadeo Terra vegetates in a Florida hospital, having lost control of all his bodily functions; the only thing he can still do on his own is think. No family members visit him anymore. His wife and favored youngest son are both dead, and his remaining offspring assuage their guilt by paying for his care. His only visitors are the anonymous attendants (Nurse, Orderly, Physical Therapist) and a diminutive nun who prays for him. As he lies there, Amadeo recollects the major moments in his life-e.g., his family's escape from Cuba during the 1890s insurrection, his initiation into the Tampa cigar-rolling business at age 12, and a haunting love affair. Indeed, comparison with Carlos Fuentes's The Death of Artemio Cruz would not be inappropriate. As the novel flips back and forth between Amadeo's hospital room and reminiscences of his life, the two threads gradually merge. Medina writes with exquisite detail and manages to sustain interest in a basically static situation. In particular, he keeps readers hanging until the last page to explain how the youngest son died, which reveals Amadeo's true nature. Recommended for public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/04.]-Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews