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A review by arielamandah
The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
4.0
This one was a slow burn. It took me a long time to connect with it. The story was pieced together: anecdotes, histories, and characters dropped in here and there when you think you’re paying attention to something else. Honestly, it didn’t really gel for me until the very, very end - and even so, I’m not sure all the character threads came together as they were intended to for me. But... those final scenes... such payoff! A friend of mine commented that this would be a book where a re-read would be very rewarding. Completely agree.
Urrea “gets” big families. The unique dynamics, the history that plays out over generations, the in-laws and the outlaws, that fierce, strange obligatory love. He so perfectly represents the way we tell stories about ourselves TO ourselves of who we are and the role we play in these families - and how we can be both so right and so wrong! I’m reminded of my Grandpa’s final days and his funeral. Beautiful, tough, and not quite what anyone thought it would be.
So glad I read it and stuck with it; I suspect it will return the favor by sticking with me for a long time to come.
Urrea “gets” big families. The unique dynamics, the history that plays out over generations, the in-laws and the outlaws, that fierce, strange obligatory love. He so perfectly represents the way we tell stories about ourselves TO ourselves of who we are and the role we play in these families - and how we can be both so right and so wrong! I’m reminded of my Grandpa’s final days and his funeral. Beautiful, tough, and not quite what anyone thought it would be.
So glad I read it and stuck with it; I suspect it will return the favor by sticking with me for a long time to come.