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grb8 's review for:
The Five Wounds
by Kirstin Valdez Quade
I really liked the short story it’s a continuation of. That’s why I picked it up in the first place. But it’s a little too messy. The first fourth of the novel is tough to get through — inconsistent in both tone and quality of writing.
It’s a novel where some moments it was a 4/5. Other moments it was a 1/2. Sometimes I felt Valdez Quade bringing this all together and other times I was numb to what at times felt like overly polished story-driven writing that just too keenly hits on all of the hot button topics you expect it to. It is also very upsetting at times but in a way I found kind of contrived? Like at a certain point it was like how many wrong decisions can characters make for you to prove your point or elicit a response/how much misfortune can you stack here?
The main fault here, I think, comes from the fact that each character has the same primary fault — their anger. Every response they have is one of spite and, while I admire that Quade was so willing to explore an ugly but honest characteristic that is developed as a defense mechanism by so many in the position of the Padilla family and the others in this novel (Lizette, namely), I think it was a move she made just one too many times and it lost its luster/felt more manipulative than anything (specifically when Amadeo drives Connor in the back seat to pick up Angel).
And, about that car scene. It is the third time we see the coyote in the road. It’s an omen and a metaphor, but for what? Like the titular five wounds of Christ (which are so poignantly used in the short story), the metaphor falls flat. It feels a bit like they were ideas Quade was working on but didn’t entirely flesh out to their potential, so when they appear they feel forced. This is more true of the crucifixion than anything. We return to the Good Friday ceremony in Las Plenas at the very end, but because we’ve had so little meaningful time with Tive, Al, and his nephew, AND because we’ve seen such little meaningful reflection from Amadeo until that very last moment, it is so underwhelming as a punctuation, when it should be as effecting as the display of the crucifixion itself (as it is in the short story).
I still enjoy Quade as a writer, though she was inconsistent here (specifically with dialogue — specifically with the dialogue of teenagers. This is such a rampant problem in contemporary fiction that I have to believe it stems from out of touch editors who think everyone under 21 texts like "tlk 2 U l8r"). I think some of the problems here stem from it being a debut novel, and how difficult it can be to translate these ideas into full fleshed longer works. I also think The Five Wounds said all it needed to in its short story iteration, and these characters would’ve been better served in a wholly new story, one that wasn’t tied to that short story in a way that felt both forced and at times, limiting.
It’s a novel where some moments it was a 4/5. Other moments it was a 1/2. Sometimes I felt Valdez Quade bringing this all together and other times I was numb to what at times felt like overly polished story-driven writing that just too keenly hits on all of the hot button topics you expect it to. It is also very upsetting at times but in a way I found kind of contrived? Like at a certain point it was like how many wrong decisions can characters make for you to prove your point or elicit a response/how much misfortune can you stack here?
The main fault here, I think, comes from the fact that each character has the same primary fault — their anger. Every response they have is one of spite and, while I admire that Quade was so willing to explore an ugly but honest characteristic that is developed as a defense mechanism by so many in the position of the Padilla family and the others in this novel (Lizette, namely), I think it was a move she made just one too many times and it lost its luster/felt more manipulative than anything (specifically when Amadeo drives Connor in the back seat to pick up Angel).
And, about that car scene. It is the third time we see the coyote in the road. It’s an omen and a metaphor, but for what? Like the titular five wounds of Christ (which are so poignantly used in the short story), the metaphor falls flat. It feels a bit like they were ideas Quade was working on but didn’t entirely flesh out to their potential, so when they appear they feel forced. This is more true of the crucifixion than anything. We return to the Good Friday ceremony in Las Plenas at the very end, but because we’ve had so little meaningful time with Tive, Al, and his nephew, AND because we’ve seen such little meaningful reflection from Amadeo until that very last moment, it is so underwhelming as a punctuation, when it should be as effecting as the display of the crucifixion itself (as it is in the short story).
I still enjoy Quade as a writer, though she was inconsistent here (specifically with dialogue — specifically with the dialogue of teenagers. This is such a rampant problem in contemporary fiction that I have to believe it stems from out of touch editors who think everyone under 21 texts like "tlk 2 U l8r"). I think some of the problems here stem from it being a debut novel, and how difficult it can be to translate these ideas into full fleshed longer works. I also think The Five Wounds said all it needed to in its short story iteration, and these characters would’ve been better served in a wholly new story, one that wasn’t tied to that short story in a way that felt both forced and at times, limiting.