The House of Broken Angels

One of the things that was confirmed for me in reading this book is that I don't like stories of complicated families in which the entire book is about that. I don't mind complicated families participating in some sort of intricate plot, and I don't mind stories without plot if I enjoy the characters. But this book reminded me, in a very different cultural context, of my reading experience with Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. The book centers around a dying man, who has to host his mother's funeral the day before what will be his last birthday party. That's the entirety of “what happens” in the book, but it really just serves as the framework to explore the back stories of all the family members who are coming to these two celebrations. There are important issues of identity in this book, and it is very well written, but it wasn't a favorite for me.

OK, this is not much of a review, but wow! What a book. A family epic, starring Miguel Angel De La Cruz, otherwise known as Big Angel, the family patriarch. The plot takes place over two days, when Big Angel, weak and sick with cancer, is presiding first over his mother's funeral and then over his last birthday party, after which he knows he will die. But the backstory of how he came to this point takes place, of course, over many years and back and forth across the US/Mexico border. This book needed to have a list of characters in the front, detailing how they are all related to each other. It's a wonderful read.

My most memorable birthday party was my 20th, for a multitude of reasons I won't get into here, but since then I've been mostly low-key about birthdays. Aging has made me mellow, and instead of celebrating birthdays, I ease into them with quietness. For Big Angel's 70th birthday, ostensibly his last one, he wants one last party, one last celebration—and to him, I can relate. When you know there will be no more reasons to celebrate, you want your last party to be a big one, a memorable one, not just for yourself, but for everyone you love. This is the setting of Urrea's novel: it is a novel about a party, but more a novel about celebrating the ones we love, about relishing in their presence, and about knowing that our bonds extend well beyond life and death. It is one of the best novels I have read in a long time; it is a novel that makes me want to party.

I agree with the reviewers who have raved about this masterwork: Yes! Yes! Yes!
The Patriarch of the family has designed a last birthday party for himself, gathering loved ones from all over. First, they must get through the funeral of his mother. As each character reflects on their lives leading up to this point we travel through time and experience stories of love and family on an epic scale. There were parts where the tears in my eyes threatened to spill onto the page.
However! What I am not seeing in reviews is how absolutely, laugh out-loud funny this novel is. There are some parts.... I know the people in the car next to me were wondering “What is that woman cackling at?” (I did a mix of hardcover and audio on this one). So friggin funny, and I saw my own family in the de la Cruz family.
Urrea has a way of endearing a character to a reader by mentioning just the right anecdote. An uncle who is less respected because his 100 year old mother still irons his shirts, a nephew in a metal band who calls himself the Satanic Hispanic. The devil, and the truth, are in the details. Big Angel's notebooks may be the meaning of life.
These characters were giants to me, as I read about their lives. Big Angel especially, do they make men like this anymore? Epic!