I cannot top praise by Dave Eggers and Richard Russo - two of my favorites - so I will just say this is a wonderful, moving family portrait that I will be thinking about for a long time.

A exquisitely written novel of generational familial love and loss, of vitality and mortality. Lush language and intricately drawn characters. A gorgeous blend of physicality and spirituality--both rise up off the page to meet the reader. Urrea has given us an indelible glimpse into Mexican-American life on the border. Their struggles, their conflicted desires, are both real and raw to the reader. So many wonderful scenes between the brothers. Such a supporting cast of characters, as well, particularly Mamá América and her beautiful birds. Urrea's latest book reads as both contemporary and timeless--a moving story about family and community that speaks to all.

Urrea tells of a fictional extended family and their immigration stories, as well as, life on both sides of the border. Their everyday life and celebrations are very descriptive. Urrea is a very good writer, and we can easily picture the events.

Recommended for public libraries and book clubs.

A lot of characters to keep track of, and I'm sure I mixed them up at some point, but overall the plot flowed well. Another read with beautiful quotes for me to copy in my bujo.

A day in the life of Big Angel. Angel, the family patriarch, is dying of cancer. He is well enough to attend his mother's funeral even though his diagnosis said he wouldn't live that long. As they all say their goodbyes, it becomes a family reunion and a final goodbye to Big Angel. Old rivalries resurface and old wounds are tended to, but new stories are about to be told as life goes on.

A semi-autobiographical account of Urrea's life. Inspired by Mario Puzo's The Godfather, the most important thing is family. He learns how to reconnect with his.

At this point, I will read anything by Luis Alberto Urrea. The first book of his that I read was Into the Beautiful North, a selection for the NEA Big Read. I would not have otherwise picked up the book, except that it was being considered for our community read, but I was happily surprised by the funny and freewheeling characters who also seem to be credible people in their own right. The same is accomplished in the House of Broken Angels. Urrea has made me a fan, and I look forward to reading his earlier works as well.

Wonderful novel. Takes you through the lives and relationships of two men and their family. Heard Urrea talk about the book, and he is a joy!

I listened to this one, which is read by the author, and it is wonderful. Nice balance of humor, poignancy, happiness, sadness ... all emotions. Loved it!

Urrea’s “House of broken angels” is an extraordinary story hidden behind a seemingly simple premise of an aging patriarch reminiscing about his life and family towards the end of his own life. The simple observations and musings of the main character and the intricate connections of family end up surprising you with their depth and profound revelations about the human spirit, our connections, and the things that make the most impact in our ordinary lives. It is a story of both immigration and homecoming, of multiculturalism, and boundaries both real and imagined. Is it about love, forgiveness and letting go. But most of all it is a story about the depth of the human spirit. Urrea doesn’t disappoint.! Excellent read and strong book club recommendation.

Published by Little, Brown and Company on March 6, 2018

Big Angel de La Cruz is almost 70 and he knows he will die soon. He lives in San Diego, where he was the director of a computer center for Pacific Gas & Electric, despite having long ago entered the country without papers. He has always seen America as filled with “possibilities and opportunities,” where a humble house would become his palace. Over the years, Big Angel became not just the family patriarch but a legend, a fearless protector of family and friends.

Big Angel is no longer big, “carved down to the size of child” by the tumors in his abdomen and lungs, perhaps a week away from death, the end of an era. His mother has died and he is late for her funeral, another failing for his mother to criticize, this time from beyond the grave. Big Angel is joined at the funeral by his half-brother, Little Angel, who long ago moved to Seattle to avoid the family drama.

Family drama doesn’t begin to describe The House of Broken Angels. Clashes among family members are a daily occurrence and grudges attain mythical status. Love and lust are common in the family, with some family members keeping lust in their hearts for years after the objects of their desire chose other relatives.

Big Angel’s son Braulio has been dead for ten years. His son Lalo has a drug problem that began after he returned from Iraq with a leg injury and a missing testicle. An Army recruiter told Braulio and Lalo that they would be citizens when they left the Army. The “least we can do” as a reward for service turned out to be a lie (at least they weren’t deported, the government’s current version of “thank you for your service”). Lalo’s older brother Yndio is not traditionally gendered and, as a matter of mutual choice, hasn’t seen his parents for a decade.

Only Big Angel’s wife, Perla, and his daughter, Minnie, seem to have Big Angel’s complete approval, although the reader eventually learns why Braulio and Yndio have a complicated relationship with the family. The novel moves back in time to develop the charming story of Big Angel’s young love/lust for Perla and their extended, disrupted courtship. Some of novel’s dramatic impact comes from the anguish that Perla feels, wondering if the family will at last come together, grievances set aside, for the sake of celebrating Big Angel’s last birthday.

Big Angel is convinced at times that he will get better. He wants to “charge at death and knock the hell out of it.” He wants to do all the things he regrets not doing. Some members of his family are convinced that Big Angel will recover because he has always been invincible. At the same time, Big Angel is bargaining with God. He at least wants to make it to his 70th birthday, a celebration that no one will ever forget. He’s also making a list of things that are important to him (“banana slices in fideo soup with lots of lime”) that he will pass on to his kids as a legacy.

Small details bring The House of Broken Angels to life. The Hello Kitty parasol that Big Angel holds as Lalo directs his wheelchair to his mother’s grave. The perfume of wet dirt in California rain. The parrot that flies to freedom as it escapes from a woman’s bosom while crossing the border. Big Angel’s memory of lying on a beach and seeing, for the first time, the buttocks of the girl he would marry.

The story has moments of sweetness that are genuinely touching. Many involve Big Angel and Perla, who made a full life together, defined by unfaltering love and unabashed desire. Other characters come to their own realizations about life during the story (Lalo, for example, finds himself reconsidering the concept of “payback”), but the big question, the question that torments Big Angel, is how to face a death that seems unfair, regardless of its inevitability. The answer — at least in a large and unruly Mexican family, but probably for everyone — is found in love. That sounds trite, but the sprawling and multifaceted story told in The House of Broken Angels recognizes the complexity that overlays simple truths. The novel is rich and honest and poignant and sad and very, very funny. Family dramas don’t get much better.

RECOMMENDED

Families are messy. And the best laid plans....I enjoyed this tale! So complex and so enjoyable even with it's endings. I have always enjoyed stories by Latino and Hispanic writers. They feel so full of life, so vibrant. Well written work that needs to be savored.

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea is a glimpse of hispanic life in the United States that will seem foreign and strange to many but endearing and reminiscent to so many others who grew up in a family so much like the one under the care of Big Angel.

"...He took her hand and spoke: 'Mother, I have come.'
'What?' she said.
He talked louder. 'Mother, I have come.'
'Que?'
'MADRE!' he shouted. 'AQUI ESTOY!'
'Ay, Hijo,' she scolded. 'I never taught you to be so rude! What's the matter with you?'
And then she died..."

Family Patriarch Miguel Angel De La Cruz, referred to by everyone as Big Angel, is dying. The sickness has taken over his body and his once imposing body is now shrunken down and he needs to be pushed around in a wheelchair and cleaned by his wife and daughter. But the imposing legend of Big Angel still rules over the family and he summons the entire clan for one last party to celebrate his final birthday. But as the day approaches, his mother of nearly one hundred years, passes away and now the family has two events to commemorate. A family whose past is filled with legends larger than life.

"...You son of a whore. You come into my home and threaten my guests? You dare to wave a knife at me? I will kill you and your entire family. I will kill your children, and I will kill your grandchildren. And I will dig up your ancestors and shit in their mouths.'
'Hey.'
Don Antonio tore his own shirt open. 'Stab me, chingado. If you think you can kill me, stab me now. Right in my heart. But be sure I'm dead. Because I am about to unleash all of my wrath on you, you fucking dog.'
The sailor stared at him with true terror on his face. He had no idea who this maniac was, but he was clearly the one man in La Paz the sailor did not want to fight. The sailor didn't even pause to muster his dignity. He spun around, ran into the street, and charged as fast as he could toward the sea, upending trash cans as he fled.
For the rest of his life, no matter what he thought of his father, no matter what hardships or sorrows, what humiliations or horrors befell him, Big Angel remembered that moment as the single most heroic thing he would ever witness. He thought he would never be able to be a man like his father..."

Over a bittersweet weekend where Big Angel buries his mother and prepares for his final birthday, he reflects on his life and his family. On the stepsons he has buried and lost, to the streets and to estrangement. To his brother, the one they call Little Angel. The child from a different mother. The brother who was half Mexican and half White. The brother, whose mother his father had deserted their family for. Everyone is coming home one final time. The whole family.

"...And Lalo hears his own voice again, sounding alien, as if it were his father's voice, saying: 'We got to stop. We just running in circles. Payback, payback, payback. You ain't never gonna pay nothing back.' The pistol drops to his side. The man on the couch opens his eyes, sees the gun has dropped away from his face, and suddenly deflates with disbelief. He is revealed: a middle-aged loser who has disfigured his own face and is not a threat to anyone in the world. Not even worth shooting.
'This ain't what we are, homes,' Lalo says. 'This is not us. This is the story they tell about us, but its not true..."

The House of Broken Angels is the story of a Mexican American family, their early lives in Mexico and their journey across the border and establishing themselves in this New World of the United States. The story of Big Angel and the mother and family whose love once great, had dissolved under the infidelity of his father. Big Angel's own love that would drive a wedge between him and his mother and his unwavering dedication and love of his family. No matter how much pain they brought to him.

When the current vision in the media, in politics, and in the representations of film and books, of Mexicans is state of drug lords or house maids; Luis Alberto Urrea writes of family and duty and love. In these pages you will find people you grew up with and in some passages, you will find yourself.

A terrific read!

THANK YOU NET GALLEY FOR A REVIEW COPY.
This is a beautifully written story about a mexican-american immigrant. This book made me laugh so much, as well as made me cry nonstop.,it offered the whole emotional package. worth the read.

Once I got used to the style and had my Spanish-English translator handy, I began to enjoy this novel. Trying to keep track of all of the characters and understand all of the Spanish phrasing became a little tiresome but that’s probably what made the story authentic.

This novel was one of those that about a third of the way through I was like, eh, maybe I'll go read something else, but then I keep reading anyway and turn out to be really glad I did. Luis Alberto Urrea is a writer worth reading.

5 epic family saga stars to The House of Broken Angels! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

I have found a new author to love. Luis Alberto Urrea is a storyteller, and that is the highest compliment I can give any author.

Big Angel de la Cruz is the patriarch of his family, and he is dying. The book opens with him having to say goodbye to his mother at her funeral while also knowing he is living his last days.

Big Angel recounts the story of his family and how they came to live in the United States, a tale filled with secrets and lore. The de la Cruz family is complex, the dynamics fraught with the push and pull so native to families. Big Angel’s storytelling is raw and honest, so genuinely authentic, I could see these characters in three dimension and feel their pulses.

The House of Broken Angels is an epic story, one in which to lose yourself. One to help you reflect on your own family and its own push and pull. There is so much to love here and so much with which to relate. There is humor that will make you laugh and heartbreak, too, because isn’t that what families have to walk through together? Indelible is used in the description of this book. Yep, that summarizes it perfectly in one single word. Indelible. And huggable.

Thank you to Luis Alberto Urrea, Little, Brown and Company, and Netgalley for the ARC. The House of Broken Angels is available now!

My reviews can also be found on my shiny new blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com

I married into a Mexican American family, and I see them in almost every part of this book. It makes their experience beautiful, and I don't see that enough in contemporary literature. Some readers might want Google Translate on standby, but it's worth it, and I'm so glad that the Spanish is included.

I was captivated by this emotional story of a Mexican-American family saying goodbye to it's patriarch. Angel is a Godfather-esque figure dying of cancer. In his last days, he calls his family together to celebrate his last birthday and to come to terms with the changes within his family, and on a deeper level, what it means to have a foot in two cultures. Sure to be one of the best books of 2018.

Urrea’s family saga is uplifting, heartbreaking, funny, tender and deeply reverent for the strong bonds that people make with one another, both family and friends, and the places they call home.

Big Angel, Little Angel, and all the rest of the characters who spill across the pages with their desires and secrets and day-to-day struggles are fully real and relatable, flawed and scarred yet ceaselessly pushing on with life, seeking to make the most of it, especially in Big Angel’s case, his stubbornness to do everything his own way growing stronger as his days grow shorter.

Urrea’s prose is brilliant in the way it handles both chaos and quiet, the swings between those two types of moments working to magnify each other. Whether the birthday party is raging on, or the protagonist is drifting to sleep, silent as he reflects on transformative moments decades earlier, Urrea makes each moment sing with its own poetry.

This sprawling family saga centers on Big Angel, but Urrea’s empathy for each character runs so deep I have no doubt he could pick any one else at random and feel out that character’s story, producing another book as beautiful and touching.

“Big Angel could not reconcile himself to this dirty deal they had all been dealt. Death. What a ridiculous practical joke. Every old person gets the punch line that the kids are too blind to see. All the striving, lusting, dreaming, suffering, working, hoping, yearning, mourning, suddenly revealed itself to be an accelerating countdown to nightfall.
....This is the prize: to realize, at the end, that every minute was worth fighting for with every ounce of blood and fire.”
The House of Broken Angels takes place over a weekend. Big Angel, the patriarch of his Mexican family in San Diego, is hosting his 70th birthday party the day after his mother's funeral. His once-large stature has been rapidly deteriorating since his most recent cancer diagnosis, so he knows this is going to be his last. He has insisted on a large party with his extended family, including his estranged half-brother, Little Angel. Big Angel mends relationships and tries to set things right while he reflects on the life he created for his himself and his mortality.

Urrea is a very talented writer. This book was beautifully written! He really gets into what it is to be a Mexican-American. Big Angel is a first-generation immigrant, and I felt that his pride in his citizenship journey rang true. The characters that showed up to the party all seemed like people I would see at my own family get-togethers. I loved the complicated relationships between everyone.

I think the only "problem" I had was that sometimes the perspectives would shift suddenly and it would confuse me. I wish there had been some kind of family tree I could've consulted too, because a few of the characters had the same names