"Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Hijuelos proves himself again with his autobiography. Readers who enjoyed Hijuelos' novels will enjoy his memoir, a revelation of the personal sources of most of his fiction." - Library Journal "The story he tells in Thoughts Without Cigarettes , however, is often as compelling as his best fiction.Mr. Hijuelos infuses the stuff of day-to-day life with drama, and sometimes magic." -George De Stefano, New York Journal of Books "Hijuelos observes keenly that "a lot of writing is thinking aloud on paper, and necessary if only to discover the real heart of a story." With grace, care, and torment, he presents his past, and if you care to, it's more than enough to reassemble into the man." -Jane Carlen, Portland Mercury "This memoir portrays [second generation Cubans'] experience, and that of successive generations, with a candor that few others have dared.

The loss of a mother tongue and the frustration of inheriting a rich but often untouchable heritage are topics that the Cuban-American community has only begun to address." -Christina Armario, Associated Press "[A] very personal, often moving, sometimes quite humorous account of [Hijuelos] grappling with his divided self." -Alden Mudge, BookPage "People fall easily in love with [Hijuelos'] characters, a testament to his determination to treat them with tenderness and respect and forgiveness for their all-too-human faults, and he is careful to do the same with the real people in Thoughts Without Cigarettes , including himself." -Marc Covert, Oregonian "Like the great modernist classics, Proust and Joyce, Hijuelos has written the history of a vocation, stripped of the masters' literary sleight-of-hand." -Enrique Fernandez, Miami Herald "In this memoir Oscar Hijuelos achieves the miracle of transforming ordinary daily events into extraordinary happenings while recovering the lost time of childhood. He shines a light on the traumatic experience of being a Cuban forced to abandon his native language before becoming an American writer, a process which ironically draws him back to his roots." -Jos Miguel Oviedo.