HOLY SMOKE

At once hilarious, informative and outrageous, this is a marvelously readable homage to the cigar. Sprinkled with a treasure trove of fascinating anecdotes taken from film, history, literature, science, art and folklore, Cabrera Infante lovingly unleashes a veritable arsenal of delicious details about cigars and those who smoke them. Groucho Marx, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Colette, Orson Welles, Marilyn Monroe, and Humphrey Bogart are among the supporting players making guest appearances in this star vehicle for the cigar. This classic cigar chronicle also explores how cigars are made, the importance of the brand (and the band), why a cigarette is not a cigar, the history of tobacco itself, and the manners and mores of cigar smoking - including how to cut and how to smoke.