Three Trapped Tigers

"For me as a writer, this book is one of the first Cuban novels I have read that had an explosive and musical energy, which I found irresistible. I think that Mario Vargas Llosa has demonstrated that same kind of explosive energy in novels like Conversation in the Cathedral , with words populating the pages in the same way that vegetation takes over a forest. But few other writers can approach Infante in his verbal intensity and sense of rhythm. In his case, the words he used were vernacular and very contemporary. His language transports you to Cuba. “I have often wondered what would have happened to me if my parents had never left Cuba.” When people have asked me which authors influenced my own writings – like In Mambo Kings – I would always mention Infante’s Three Trapped Tigers and Mario Vargas Llosa’s novels. Those two authors ended up being very important to my work, especially Infante. He is very good on pre-Castro Cuba. The opening of the book is hilarious. It is set in some seedy nightclub where he slips in and out of English. In the original it is Spanish, Spanish, Spanish and then he switches into English. Yes, it is. It is a wonderful novel. I personally miss him, and I think literature misses him. When he was writing this book he was completely in the zone, a bit like a tennis player at the top of his game. He was a young writer, feeling his powers and running with it like a musician learning how to play jazz. I felt very inspired in my own writing by him. Even though the book gets a little crazy, I would recommend it to anyone interested in experiencing what Cuba was really like. He worked as a journalist and really knew what was going on."