Allison says: This book takes the reader into the middle of a five generation family, indigenous to Northern New Mexico. I was completely absorbed with each character's life struggle, expectations, disappointments, and victories.
Quetzalli says:
Focusing primarily on four generations of the Padilla family, The Five Wounds tells the story of the Padilla family and various individuals in Las Penas, New Mexico, that long to be seen, loved, and protected. Yolanda, still haunted by the ghost of her ex-husband, hides her brain cancer diagnosis from her family so she can try to remain the strong, stable, loving, presence her family needs. Her son, Amadeo, is filled with plans for personal redemption, which come to a halt with the arrival of his pregnant teenage daughter, Angel. Try as he might to be the son his mother deserves and the father his daughter needs, sins of the past loom large of Amadeo. Angel, meanwhile, does her best to be the mother her son Connor needs while also navigating a difficult family situation and her own romantic feelings for her classmate. Connor, it seems, is the glue that has brought the Padilla family together and has made them all determined to overcome their family trauma, no matter how difficult it may be. An absolute tour de force, The Five Wounds is the latest novel to focus on the lives of Chicanos in the American Southwest. What Sabrina & Corina did for the Chicanos of Denver, The Five Wounds has done for the Chicanos of New Mexico--particularly those in the Espanola Valley. A must read for anyone interested in Chicano literature.
Publisher's description:
It's Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans. Their reunion sets her own life down a startling path.