Title: The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
Big Angel was late to his own mother's funeral.
Friday56 quote:
Big Angel let his left brow rise and gave them his most ironic glare, letting them know that the sheriff was back in town. The kids and grandkids called him Pops, and that magic word flowed down on the gathered clan.
Summary:
Writer Luis Urrea has written his Mexican coming-to-America story and his masterpiece. Destined to sit alongside other classic immigrant novels, The House of Broken Angels is a sprawling and epic family saga helmed by patriarch Big Angel. The novel gathers together the entire De La Cruz clan, as they meet for the final birthday party Big Angel is throwing for himself, at home in San Diego, as he nears the end of his struggle with cancer and reflects on his long and full life.
But when Big Angel's mother, Mama America, approaching one hundred, dies herself as the party nears, he must plan her funeral as well. There will be two family affairs in one weekend: a farewell double-header. Among the attendants is his half-brother and namesake, Little Angel, who comes face to face with the siblings with whom he shared a father but not, as the weekend proceeds to remind him, a life.
This story of the De La Cruzes is the story of what it means to be a Mexican in America, to have lived two lives across one border.
Review: I love that opening sentence. Don't you? Why on earth would someone be late to their own mother's funeral? Well, we find out why. The page 56 quote is when Big Angel finally arrives at the event with the rest of the family already waiting. In the intervening pages, readers get some backstory which explains a lot about why Big Angel is at the mercy of his family and they do not honor punctuality like he does.
I found this book really enjoyable and helpful in my thinking about what it is like to be a member of a Mexican American family living in California but whose hearts are very much still across the border. There was something quite authentic about The House of Broken Angels. It was obvious that Alberto Urrea knew what he was writing about.
When I received this book as a gift I knew I'd heard of the author, Luis Alberto Urrea, but didn't bother to look up his other works until now. In 2004 his nonfiction work, The Devil's Highway: A True Story about the perilous journey to make a Mexican border crossing was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Alberto Urrea was born in Tijuana but was considered an American born abroad. His family worked in San Diego and eventually moved to the US because of his health. I found and snapped up another of his books among the used books for sale at the library, Good Night, Irene. This second book is a novel about the experiences his mother had during WWII working for the Red Cross. I look forward to making time to fit it into my reading schedule.
My rating: 5 stars. The story had moments which confused me, and other moments which were very disturbing, but overall the story soared and the writing dazzled me.
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