A Cigar Label
Author: Nilo Cruz
Nationality: Cuban-American
Year Published: 2003
On this list because: Won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2003
Primary Location: Tampa, FL (Ybor City)
Edition I Read: A Nice little paperback, very pretty, from the Theatre Communications Group.
First Line: ELIADES: Cockfights! See the winged beauties fighting in midair!
Drama
This is the first book in my list that is a play and not a novel. It is said that plays should be seen, not read, but I disagree, because there is a great tradition of both, and one of the great things about a play is that it can be enjoyed both ways. I’d not like to restrict myself unneccesarily to only seeing plays. That said, the difference between a drama and a novel was especially apparent in Anna and the Tropics after reading Anna Karenina, which so intensely conveyed the inner thoughts of its characters.
The dialogue in Anna and the Tropics is more poetic and less natural than most plays, which I think was meant to convey the deep connection between the lower-class cigar workers and the upper-class Tolstoy. I liked this play a lot, in that I found the characters likable and pleasant, and my mind was smiling as I read. But I did not have the same feeling of connection that I did with Tolstoy. I wonder if that is because Tolstoy is a superior writer to Cruz (which he surely is) or if it was a product of reading a play and not a novel. If I saw the play, would seeing the flesh and blood humans create that connection which I think is missing?
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