The Five Wounds: A Novel

This book is an emotional, tough read. This is not a fairytale, and not a book to read. If you’re looking for a feel-good story. But the characters are incredibly well developed, well written, and exceptionally believable. Give up all expectations of what will happen and open yourself up to the story. I promise, you’ll be glad you did.

What makes this novel so difficult to read, is how realistically painful life can be. At times I would find myself setting the book aside because I couldn't deal with the lives of these characters. The story centers around the Padilla family. Yolanda, the matriarch, is a woman in her fifties. Yolanda is the heart and soul of this family. She works her job, keeps her house, and tries to find a little happiness. She is such a lovely character filled with so much strength. When she is dealt a devastating blow she deals with it on her own and keeps it a secret. Yolanda's son, Amadeo, is a loser. Amadeo he is a thirty-three year old alcoholic who has not never held a steady job. He pretty much lives off his mother, lives in her house without lifting a hand in helping out around the house. Amadeo has never taken responsibility for anything in his life not even Angel, the daughter he fathered when he was sixteen. What saved Amadeo for me as a character is that he has the biggest heart. He is a loser but he knows he's a loser. He wants to change but can't or doesn't know how. Angel, Amadeo's daughter, has found herself pregnant at sixteen. She has dropped out of school and is for the first time living with her father. Angel wants a better life for herself and her child. She is the hardest character in the novel to like. She is a self-centered teenager who thinks the world should revolve around her. Angel is also a fighter and is trying to do something about the vicious cycle of being an unwed teenage mother. All three characters make truly bad decisions in this novel which come back to haunt them. Their lives are so extremely sad that you want to go over to the Padilla household and help out. The only reason that I did not give this novel 5 stars is because it was such a sad novel.

The Five Wounds is not light reading, but it is a beautifully written, moving story centered on four generations of the Padilla family in a small dying town near Española, New Mexico. Yolanda Padilla, the family matron, doesn’t tell her family about her serious illness as she caters to her alcoholic son Amadeo and her pregnant teenage granddaughter Angel, who are too absorbed in their own lives to notice that Yolanda is failing. Soon they are joined by Angel’s newborn son, Conor. The family members struggle to do good, to deal with their own pain, and to overcome their weaknesses. Valdez Quade does a great job of depicting culture that is a mix of modern and old New Mexico Hispanic traditions, the efforts of the family members to get by and to improve their lives in a small, depressed New Mexico community, despite teen-aged pregnancy, divorce and alcoholism. She is a master of human foible, and she manages an uplifting and hopeful ending to a difficult story. Meanwhile, there is the writing. Here are a few examples. She describes a farm “irrigated by acequias, the straight green rows defiant in the face of discount Walmart food.” The dog “gets to her feet, grinning her frilled black-edged lips and wagging her tail nub.” On Easter Sunday “children and adults alike returned to their homes to glut themselves on Peeps and cheap grainy jelly beans. The austerity of Lent is past, the countless lapses and broken promises forgiven, Christ’s sacrifice forgotten.”

Bought this because my rented version had to be returned. It won awards, etc. so I thought it must be a great book, but it turned out not to be the type of story for my reading enjoyment. Other peoples sad lives and mistakes. Sure there are lessons to be learned, but Im old enough to have seen life up close and that’s enough.

The writing is fantastic. The story immerses you like you’re reading about your own distant family. I’ve recently forced myself to get back into reading and this book really helped me dig in. Thank you Kristin.

This is the story of the Padilla family of Latino origin but who have lived for several generations in the United States. Amadeo has never done anything worthwhile in his life and decides to play the role of Jesus in the Holy Week representation, and even asks to have his hands nailed to the cross, believing that it is something he will be admired for. On precisely that busy week, he saw his pregnant teenage daughter on his doorstep, determined to live with him because she fought with his mother. Yolanda is the grandmother that maintains the family together. The writer takes us into the story of many people considered a minority: financial issues, alcoholism, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, hopelessness, and all throughout the novel I always had a feeling of doom. It is so difficult to imagine all the hurdles that people have to overcome and not give up. A great story.

Set in a small town in New Mexico, this story has universal significance. I found it a unique study of common characters bungling along with their highs and lows, their dream and short fallings. Each chapter is told from another person's viewpoint, focusing on their reactions to other people and their internal dialogue. Then about half-way through, unlikely new relationships suddenly occur and the book intensifies. I began caring about the characters and realized they were doing the best they could.I don't agree with others that the book was sad -- except maybe the beginning. The middle was exciting. The ending was good, realistic, and hopeful. The author has a profound understanding of human dynamics, and the effects of drinking and using upon individuals and the ones who love them. It all rang exceptionally true for me. It never got heavy-handed. Her treatment of religion was effective. I seldom give a five-star rating, but this one gets it.

Ι loved this book, a family story set in New Mexico. Lots of emotions and observations of a family struggling to make a living and bring up and look after their family. This book set in New Mexico presents the difficult environment that young people are sometimes born into and how they struggle to cope.