The House of the Broken Angels, Luis Alberto Urrea, Little Brown and Company, 2018, 321 pp
This family story about Mexicans living in the United States turned out to be much better than some reader reviews had led me to expect, though many critics praised it. Luis Alberto Urrea, a Mexican/American writer whose roots go deep into Mexican history, is I think one of the better authors we currently have. Especially when it comes to the Tijuana border situation and the immigrant experience.
The "Angels" of the title are the patriarch Miguel Angel de la Cruz, known in the family as Big Angel, and his half brother, known as Little Angel. The Angels share a father who had two wives, one Mexican and the other American.
Big Angel is on his death bed. (Death bed novels have been cropping up quite a bit for me lately, causing me once again to name a genre: Death Bed Lit.) This current head of the family wants one last birthday party and summons all the disparate branches, siblings and offspring of his father's far-flung people.
Over the course of two days they assemble and their complicated history becomes known to the reader as they tell their stories. Most of them live in and around San Diego, the California city that practically sits on the border, that encompasses a wide diversity of economic strata and racial combinations.
So, with equal parts humor and tragedy, love and hate, family ties and turmoil, I got yet another understanding of the forces that drive people to reach for opportunity, happiness, safety and love. Also the prices paid and the schemes gone wrong.
The novel is not a polite story. Big egos, infidelity, wayward youth, drugs, sex, heroism, and violence fill the pages. If you have a nice polite family background composed of upright people with admirable values, you will either experience discomfort or receive an entertaining yet compassionate look at men, women and children who have gambled everything to live in Los Estades Unidos.
I had also heard a bit about this book. It sounds great. I tend to like big multi - character stories full of flawed characters.
ReplyDeleteYou will get that in this novel.
DeleteThis is one that I will pass on. I'm not big into the whole drugs, cheating lifestyle. Got enough of that growing up with my family...
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that.
DeleteSounds like a very interesting read!! I will keep this novel on my reading wishlist.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I liked was how the story explains the title. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it. Maybe you'll find a copy at a Free Little Library!
DeleteHa! That would be a fun find at a Little Free Library. :-)
DeleteDeath Bed Lit .... can be pretty good sometimes. I haven't decided on whether to pick this one up, but I'm curious enough about the San Diego / Tijuana area. We visited S.D. a few years back.
ReplyDeleteYes it can! I think you would like the book, if you decide to read it.
DeleteDeath Bed Lit is a completely new genre to me, good job :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting you mention the border/San Diego. I just got a book from the library today about the area called City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands by Dan Webb. I've never given this area much thought before, but I am about 30 pages in on the book already.
We are connected!
DeleteWe are!!
DeleteI'm not really familiar with Luis Alberto Urrea, but I think I need to get to know him.
ReplyDeleteOh my, yes you do!
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