Review: Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes, AF, Plays, 2012, 104p, Hardcover, Rating=3.5
Source: library
Adult content: foul language, drugs

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
"A beautiful, heartbreaking knockout of a play, as startling and innovative and human on the page as on the stage."?Junot Díaz
A soldier returns from Iraq and struggles to find his place in the world, while somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts forge an unbreakable bond. The boundaries of family and friendship stretch across time and cyberspace in this second installment of Quiara Alegri Hudes' The Elliot Trilogy.

I got mixed up at first trying to figure out who was who but once I got that squared out in my head then things got pretty interesting.  There were a couple main stories: 1) Elliot's battle to find life after returning from service in the Iraqi war with the help of his cousin Yaz, and 2) Online chat room adventures of recovering drug addicts.  It was fascinating how the two stories ended up intermingling.  Elliot wasn't suffering from a drug addiction but his mother was the founder of the Online support group and so the discovery made for the crossing of the two narratives.  However, the interplay was more than physical but emotional as well.  The raw conflicts of each characters provided a universal bond.  Meaning, whether it was Elliot fighting demons caused by his time in the war or the drug addicts (Orangutan, Chutes&Ladders, and Fountainhead) wrestling to stay sober, the struggles in any form were equally draining and human.  This causes a true support group and one that could not stay in the world of cyberspace but stretches out to personal intervention and  reciprocity.  Overall, this play was entertaining and moving.