A review by bevans8
The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

5.0

I loved this novel! It crackles with warmth and empathy. I laughed (many times). I cried (two or three times). Urrea writes with a poetic lyricism and warm sense of humor, even as he writes about death. The characters in the De La Cruz family come alive in the details, from the metal-loving "Satanic Hispanic" to the new matriarch Minnie, from the voluptuous "La Gloriosa" to the tragic, PTSD-addled Lalo. In just 320 pages, Urrea makes the storylines for his characters both believable and moving. The patriarch, Big Angel, is a flawed but ultimately good man trying to tie up loose ends while he still has time. I think the beauty of this book is that the Angels really aren't so broken. A lovely book.