The Five Wounds

by Kirstin Valdez Quade

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 for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel has fled her mother’s house, setting her life on a startling new path.

Vivid, tender, funny, and beautifully rendered, The Five Wounds spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo’s mother, Yolanda, reeling from a recent discovery; Angel’s mother, Marissa, whom Angel isn’t speaking to; and disapproving Tíve, Yolanda’s uncle and keeper of the family’s history. Each brings expectations that Amadeo, who often solves his problems with a beer in his hand, doesn’t think he can live up to.

The Five Wounds is a miraculous debut novel from a writer whose stories have been hailed as “legitimate masterpieces” (New York Times). Kirstin Valdez Quade conjures characters that will linger long after the final page, bringing to life their struggles to parent children they may not be equipped to save.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Audiobook, LGBT, Family

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 2021

About the author

Kirstin Valdez Quade is the author of The Five Wounds and Night at the Fiestas, winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. She is the recipient of a “5 Under 35” award from the National Book Foundation, the Rome Prize, and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere. Originally from New Mexico, she now lives in New Jersey and teaches at Princeton University.

Reviews

[Roxane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read the short story that grew into this novel in Kirstin's short story collection Night at the Fiestas and it stayed with me. I was thrilled when I learned of the novel and it did not disappoint. One of my favorite things about this novel is how the author allows her characters to be flawed, to make bad decisions, to delude themselves, while also allowing their best qualities to shine through. By the end of the novel, I was so attached to Angel and Yolanda and Amadeo and even Lissette and Ryan and the rest of the characters. There was real tenderness in how she told their stories and to follow a year in their lives was so incredibly satisfying. This is an outstanding, unforgettable novel.

[Book Clubbed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glorious book that is full-hearted, rich in emotion, and unflinching in the flaws it is willing to explore. I don't think my humdrum words in a review will do it much justice, so I'll keep this short. I will say, however, that it is not easy to fully investigate the failings of characters while still enticing the reader to pull for them. And yet, she accomplishes this, over and over again.

Kirstin Valdez Quade is a tremendous talent that deserves to be read. I plan on checking out her short stories next.

I can nitpick around the edges, but this book doesn't deserve to be nitpicked. I imagine the readers who found the characters too unlikeable are themselves boring, down to their marrow, and confuse their monotone lifestyle for some achievement.

We are humans. We make mistakes, act illogically, and hurt the people around us. Then we pick ourselves up and try to do slightly better the next time.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Las Penas, New Mexico. Amadeo is a man who depends on his mother. He drinks too much, is accountable to no one and so far whatever endeavor he has undertaken, has failed. He always has plans that never come to fruition, but this changes when his 15 year old, very pregnant daughter, arrives on his doorstep. Can he be the father, that he never was before? Yolanda, his mother has always been there for him, his staunch defender, but what if she can no longer be depended on? There is much thinking to be done in this family, many adjustments and realignments, and that is the story. Things are always darkest before the dawn. Or so they say.

A wonderfully written book, the writing is so smooth and the story exemplifies the many issues families face. There is much dysfunction, but underneath there are strong bonds and much love. Many mistakes are made and I just wanted them to get their act together. It starts with a reenactment of Christ's crucifixion, but religion is not the main theme of this book, though it does come in to play here and there. Likable characters, even those of whose actions I disapproved. Teen pregnancy is also highlighted, the difficulties they face with this less than advantageous start in adulthood.

ARC from Edelweiss.

[ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of those books that made me slow down because i couldn’t bear the thought of missing out on a single lyrically written sentence

maybe my favorite character study - i cared about every page

reminds us that all humans are flawed and none of us are able to put our best selves forward 100% of the time due to an infinite number of factors

painful, beautifully mundane, an accurate depiction of connection and relationships

so very human 💛

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 5 out of 5]

[4.5] If I was observing the Padilla family as a neighbor (without Quade's wise insight), I'm sure I would judge them harshly. They all screw up over and over again. 16-year old pregnant Angel. Her alcoholic, unemployed father - who makes so many bad choices that I found myself yelling at him aloud. Her self-centered mother with her bad boyfriend. Even her grandmother Yolanda, the wisest of the bunch, makes some bad decisions. Yet Quade spins her magic and made me care deeply for each of them.

There is so much heart in this book. I couldn't get enough of this family. They fall down and get up again and keep trying. They love each other and won't let go. Quade writes so beautifully and intricately about her characters' lives that they seemed real to me. I hope she writes another book about them. I can't get them out of my head and would love to know how they are doing.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who has had the privilege of reading Kirstin Valdez Quade’s Night of the Fiestas -- one of my favorite short story collections– will instantly recognize the characters that populate her new novel.

The Five Wounds – which refer to the five wounds of Christ – takes place during Holy Week in New Mexico, where a religious brotherhood called the Hermanos Penitentes recreate the crucifixion. Amadeo Padilla is a most unlikely Jesus, who has experienced the five wounds of the soul, including rejection, betrayal, and humiliation. His young immensely pregnant teenage daughter, Angel, whom he deserted as a child, arrives at his door as he prepares feverishly for the role. When he tells her he will be carrying the cross, her sarcastic answer: “And I’m the Virgin Mary.”

The story (also entitled Five Wounds) is powerful and for the first few chapters, we are on familiar territory. But it is the author’s intention to fill out her story, dig deeper, and introduce us to characters who are so real that it is hard to leave them at the book’s close.

The theme is love as both gift and challenge. And that describes Angel’s baby, Connor, to a tee. A joyful baby who nonetheless is demanding—as all babies are—is the glue that brings together Amadeo, his mother Yolanda, his ex-wife Marissa whom Angel is estranged from, and drop-out classmate moms who, like Angel, are preparing for their GED. Each of these characters must muddle through the murky issues of their past and somehow, just somehow, take themselves in hand to forge forward to a better future.

I loved this book. I loved his big-heartedness, its gritty authenticity, its depiction of our human sins and frailties and its promise of redemption. I found myself rooting for Amadeo and Angel at every turn. By the end, I was simultaneously turning pages quickly and trying to slow down to make the book last longer. I owe a big thanks to W.W. Norton, who (with a little shameless begging from me) provided an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. I am sure this book will be on my Best of 2021 list!

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shortlisted for The Center of Fiction’s 2021 First Novel Prize

“To those children and youth who fight so hard for their future and ours: you give me hope”.
…..Kirsten Valdez Quade

Kirsten Valdez Quade, winner of the National Book Critics John Leonard Prize, is a gifted storyteller….worthy of her award acknowledgments …
…..a recipient of a “5 Under 35” award from the National Book Foundation, the Rome Prize, a Stegner Fellowship, and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s award. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times, The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, etc. She’s also an assistant-professor at Princeton.

Having now read two of her books —I’m a forever fan.
Kirsten Valdez Quade writes with SO MUCH HEART!!!!
….entertaining with masterful storytelling while punching our guts at the same time!
I can’t recommend Kirsten Valdez Quade enough….
….to the fiction readers, classic readers, literary readers, historical fiction readers, women’s readers, multi-cultural readers….
to miss never reading her work — would be like a voracious reader never ever having read Stegner, or Steinbeck, Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, Anne Tyler, Austin, or even Dicken’s or Tolstoy —
It’s time that KIRSTEN VALDEZ QUADE’S name floats to the top along with other top-known-authors around the world. SHE IS THAT GOOD!!!

Her collection of short stories “Night at the Fiestas” (a great tribute to the Latinx community), was page-turning engrossing —one of the best entertaining batch of short stories I had ever read.

Again—like in “Night at the Fiestas”, the storytelling in “The Five Wounds” is intimate, packed filled with realistic situations, love, family, innocence, struggles after struggles….full range of emotions, with characters we ache and root for.

…Angel is pregnant…out of wedlock. She is 16. She gives birth to baby Conner. …while working on getting her GED.
…Amadeo, Angel’s father, goes to the refrigerator one too many times for another beer. A jobless alcoholic. He wants to do better by his daughter.
…Yolanda, Angel’s grandmother, (Angel’s rock), is dying of cancer.
…Marissa, is Angel’s mother. Angel had a falling out with her when she was nine months pregnant and left to live with her father and grandmother.
…Tio Tive, (the uncle)
…Brianna, (Angel’s teacher at “Smart Starts”, a school for pregnant girls),
…The supporting characters add substantial flavor to the story….
…complexities, shock, betrayal, misunderstandings, regrets, and other cracks in the founds submerge with the domestic drama exposing sobering choices, unexpected pleasures, and rich rewards for any reader.

Here’s a few excerpts to offer a ‘feel’….

“Yolanda is an optimist. Yolanda considers her self a happy person. Her life is filled with love and family and friends. She ‘likes’ people, believes that they are basically good. But this doesn’t change the simultaneous belief that the universe is essentially malevolent, life booby-trapped with disaster. The evidence is clear: so many bodies damaged and beaten and destroyed, washed up on the shores of her life. And her own body, harboring it’s deadly secret knot. It doesn’t seem normal, the sheer quantity of awfulness crowded into her family. Sure, every family has its problems, but her family problems are uglier”.

The dialogue is - at times hilarious:
“It’s true, Gramma. Studies have shown that it’s easier for teenagers. Angel has brightened. My teacher, Brianna? She told us that younger girls have less C-sections. All these old ladies waiting ‘til they’re forty, they’re the ones who make problems for themselves. I see them in the grocery store, looking at me all judgy, but they’re jealous”.

“So, cooking olive oil? Just regular stuff from the kitchen? She shakes her head. No, thank you very much. I want real hospital-approved stuff on my shee-shee”.
“Amadeo slaps his hands over his ears. Mom!”
“Just call it a vagina, Mother”.

“She’d always thought there was room for fights, for cruelty, that things would work themselves out, given enough time, given enough honest conversation. She hadn’t ever really wanted to push any of them away— she was only asking them to draw her close again, testing to see whether they let her go. and always, always, they’ve let her go”.
The only person who wouldn’t let her go is her grandmother, but her grandmother was dead”.

The language is gorgeous…
The story shimmers and pierces…
Exquisite masterfully storytelling.

[Ari Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, rounded up. This was the most pleasurable reading experience I've had in several months, brimming with human warmth and connection. Valdez Quade doesn't judge her characters, who are deeply flawed people in difficult circumstances, living in a working-class Latinx community in northern New Mexico ravaged by multi-generational poverty and the opioid epidemic.

The novel follows a year in the life-- from one Holy Week to another-- of a fractured family barely staying afloat in one house in the declining village of Las Penas: Yolanda, a hardworking secretary in her 50s, her large adult son Amadeo, and his pregnant teen daughter Angel.

When I read novels, I don't care whether fictional characters are relatable or (even worse) likable. But Amadeo, the central protagonist, is a human whom all responsible adults would judge with severe harshness: a listless, undisciplined, unemployed, unemployable alcoholic mama's boy who physically abused the mother of his child. Valdez Quade's supple narrative voice doesn't directly judge him, though, while never flinching from the stark facts of the consequential and very real damage that his indolence, self-absorption, and carelessness inflicts, and continues to inflict, upon the people he loves. Ultimately, his weaknesses are stronger than his good intentions.

The Five Wounds began as a masterful 2009 New Yorker short story, about Amadeo joining the Penitentes, an all-male lay religious order that organizes an annual passion play on Good Friday. He decides to play a crucified Jesus at age 33, in the misbegotten hope that this performance of suffering (replete with real nails) will somehow enable him to pull his life together.

Valdez Quade opens up the story and allows her characters room to breathe and to live (and die), approaching Yolanda and Angel's strands of the story with equally great compassion. Although the narrative pace slackens in the third quarter, I enjoyed every moment I spent with them.

Like Douglas Stuart in Shuggie Bain, Valdez Quade omnisciently narrates the inner thoughts of her characters in a highly eloquent literary-fiction register. This gives the reader access into their subjective perspectives, and allows us to know things they know about themselves and each other but cannot articulate with precision and insight. But sometimes it's discordant with the earthy dialogue, which is extremely revealing nonetheless.

I hope that this honest, moving, shocking, and miraculous novel will garner more attention than it has so far.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Five Wounds: A Novel was an enchanting debut novel by Kirstin Valdez Quade taking place in northern New Mexico in a fictional small and run-down town of Las Penas, just outside Espanola and most likely on the high road to Taos. New Mexico is rich in history and traditions dating back to the time of the conquistadores from Spain coming to the area. The book opens as thirty-three year old Amadeo Padilla has been chosen by the hermanos to be Jesus and to carry a cross that he is building out of heavy rough oak in the reenactmenet of the passion of Christ and the crucifixion, the Penitentes. Amadeo is unemployed and without much ambition as well as a severe problem with alcohol abuse. Therefore, he is looking at this opportunity to portray Jesus in the procession and crucifixion on Good Friday as a way of getting his life on track and under control, perhaps a new beginning.

"This afternoon, though, even Amadeo's tatoos seem to strain with his exertion, and he's seeing himself from outside and above. A flaming Sacred Heart beats against his left pectoral, sweat drips from the point of a bloodied dagger on his bicep, and the roses winding around his side bloom against the heat of his effort. On his back, the Guadalupana glistens brilliantly, her dress scarred with three vertical cuts of the sellos, the secret seals of obligation. The lines, each the length of a man's hand, are raised and pink and newly healed, evidence of his initiation into the hermandad."

"He feels like a star: he is young, he is strong, he could carry this cross all day. The sky is the deep blue of spring, the air still cool and spiced with the smell of pinon. The fluting notes of the pito sound thinner up here, competing with the breeze and the birds."

However, complicating his feverish preparation for this honor is the falling out his fifteen-year old daughter had with her mother and Angel leaving her home in Espanola, showing up on the porch of her grandmother's home where Amadeo is living. Angel is pregnant and attending a special program for pregnant teens to ensure that they will study for their GED while learning how to care for themselves and their babies. Amadeo's plans are further complicated in that his mother, Yolanda, has suddenly left to vaction in Las Vegas for a few weeks. And then there is his sister Valerie with her issues and Yolanda's revered uncle, Tio Tive. So with this family's five generations and their dysfunctional relationships, a beautiful story of the plight of the Padilla family emerges through all of the chaos and heartache but in such a compelling way, sometimes darkly humorous, at other times heartbreaking over the course of a year.

This is a new author to me but one that I will definitely follow. Originally from New Mexico, her short stories have appeared in many publications such as The New Yorker, Narrative Magazine, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. It has been said that her writing weaves together the underlying themes of family, race, class, and coming-of-age, all in the beautiful and enchanting New Mexico landscapes. The underlying theme in this book is the prevalence of drug addiction and drug cartels in this small community impacting the lives of all living there. This being my favorite part of the country, I am delighted to find such a talented writer as I am drawn to books about New Mexico and its history and its people.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

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3 ½ stars

“Is this what motherhood means? Being suddenly able to pity the adults in your life?”

Set over the course of a year in Las Penas, New Mexico, The Five Wounds is a novel about failure and progress. Unsentimental yet moving The Five Wounds details the everyday lives of three members of the Padilla family. There is Angel who is sixteen and pregnant. After her mother (who was also a teen mom) fails her in the worst way imaginable Angel moves in with her deadbeat father (who still lives with his mother). Amadeo is thirty-three, self-involved, jobless, and expects his mother to look after him. Yolanda, in her fifties, who has always been the family’s 'rock' has little time for either of them after receiving an end-of-life diagnosis.
The narrative focuses in particular on Angel and Amadeo. Angel is attending a special program for teen moms and hopes that she will be able to carry on her studies while also looking after her son. Yet, the adults around, even her loving grandmother, seems to be too occupied to offer her any real support. Her mother tries to make amends but Angel is unable to forgive her. She becomes close with Lizette, another girl from the group, who is in an even more disadvantageous position than Angel herself.
Amadeo spends most of his days blaming others for his less than stellar life. He drinks too much, does very little for other people, and acts like a child around his sister who is one of the few people who calls him out on his shitty behaviour. Amadeo is indeed proves himself time and again to be a bit of shit. He often calls women bitches, he's blind to his mother's failing health, and takes pleasure in knowing that if he wants he could get his sister off his back by appearing intimidating (and he knows that she was in an abusive relationship). In many ways, he was a Frank Gallagher sort of figure. We do see that he does try now and again to be there for his daughter, but as soon as things don’t go his ways he defaults to blaming others for his own failures and shortcomings. He feels some sense of purpose when he plays Jesus in the Good Friday procession but it does not last as it seems to briefly give him a conflated sense of himself (he habitually compares himself to Jesus, sometimes hilariously so: "Amadeo imagines windshield repair is a trade Jesus might get behind. It is, essentially, carpentry for the twenty-first century).

I appreciated that Angel is not made into a caricature of a teenager (even if the author makes the point of making all teen girls in this novel unable of applying makeup: their faces are caked with foundation, their lashes clumpy with mascara...). She clearly wants someone she can look up to, and she briefly thinks that Brianna, who is in charge at that teenage mother's group, but more often than not she’s left disappointed. Even Lizette proves to be less than dependable and it was saddening to see how few people are there for Angel.

The author’s style is very matter-of-fact but also capable of piercing observations or touching exchanges. The tragicomic tone succeeds in making occasional fun of the characters, Amadeo in particular, without belittling them and allowing us to sympathise with them and their efforts to be better or improve their circumstances. Some may not like that the story leaves quite a few storylines unresolved but I thought that it fitted with the novel’s realistic and dry storytelling. What lessened my reading experience was the way Yolanda was pushed on the outskirts of the narrative so that her presence in the story seems minimal. While I understand that the story was making a point, showing us how self-involved Amadeo and Angel are not to notice that Yolanda is also going through a difficult time, we could have had more chapters following Yolanda perspective. Instead, we get unnecessary passages centric on Brianna, one of the novel’s least believable and interesting character. Lizette’s portrayal too was a bit wanting (in particularly her self-harming) and I could have done without the adults drinking breastmilk scene (if I had a nickel for every time I came across this sort of scene in a book, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice).
Part of me also wishes that we could have had less homophobia ("He's not gay. That's gross") or that at least the narrative could have challenged some of those comments. I get that it was 'realistic' but the story just seems to confirm that there can be no happy (or at least functional) queer couple.

Overall this was a realistic portrayal of a less-than-perfect family. The characters are flawed, they say and or do offensive/unlikable things, their circumstances are less-than-ideal, their relationships with each other can be frustrating and messy. The author succeeds in not only depicting the day-to-day lives of the Padillas but she also captures, for better or worse, their community in Las Penas. The novel’s religious undertones did not feel distracting nor did they take away from the narrative’s factual style. There was something about this novel that really brought to mind Showtime's Shameless so if you a fan of that show you might want to give The Five Wounds a try.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down

Many of my Goodreads friends and other reviewers have rated this highly, but I'm sorry to say I really struggled with The Five Wounds: A Novel.

Perhaps my expectations were set too high or I just picked this up at the wrong time, but I have to say I found the story to be relentlessly miserable with little sign of hope for the complex but flawed cast of characters. Now of course complicated and unlikeable characters do not make a novel a bad one, and I don't think this is a bad novel; it's just not one I felt compelled to pick up or one I felt all that invested in. Amadeo is an awful character, and I didn't want to spend one more minute in his company.

There is however no question that Kirstin Valdez Quade can write, and I'd been keen to try her other books to see if I gel with those better.

Thank you Netgalley and Serpent's Tail/Viper/Profile Books for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a perfect book, but I definitely got five stars worth of reading enjoyment from this wonderful debut novel about a dysfunctional Latinx family. I especially liked Quade’s mix of humor and trauma, great sense of place (New Mexico), and warm-hearted respect for her characters’ struggles and failures. I’m happy to see this has won the Center for Fiction’s 2021 First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the Carnegie Prize for Fiction.

[Rincey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really wonderful, slow-paced, character driven story that I thoroughly enjoyed diving into

Watch my full thoughts in my August wrap up: https://youtu.be/R0kYGbjNVnM

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to dysfunctional family drama, there is no shortage of novels. They often merge and blur for me, many devoid of distinction. But then there’s Kirstin Valdez Quade, who created an imaginative, exciting, and richly textured story that conveys the fearsome weight of familial love. The Padilla family in rural New Mexico threaded its way into my heart and I hurt when they bled, wept when they cried, and rooted for their hard won humble triumphs. As I inhabited them for a year in these 400+ pages (that fly too fast), I became a resident in their lives. I didn’t want to leave them; I dreaded a final page.

It opens with 33 year-old Amadeo, a single drifter, jobless and alcoholic, still living with his mother. He has decided that playing Jesus this year in the annual Holy Week celebration will provide redemption for his lost soul, which includes a simulacrum of the crucifixion. (And Amadeo is the same age that Jesus was on the crucifixion.) He’s a failed father about to become a grandfather to his 16 year-old daughter’s baby, and he is ill-equipped and full of shame for his inadequacies.

Angel, nine months pregnant, has had a falling out with her mother, Marissa (Amadeo’s ex), and comes to live with Amadeo and her beloved grandmother, Yolanda. Yolanda is the rock of the family, who sacrifices her own wellbeing to a fault. She enables Amadeo’s immaturity because she, too, is lost on how to help him. Everyone has a dark past, and secrets are kept while mistakes are made. Each hopes that baby Connor will be the glue that brings this rocky family together.

Valdez Quade’s characters are so brimming, alive, authentic and sympathetic that they affirmed what it is to be human, flaws and all. Angel, struggling to protect and nurture Connor while obtaining her GED in a teen mothers’ program, has conflicted feelings about her own parents, who failed to be positive role models while she was a child. “Watching her mother with her son, Angel felt compassion that vexed her, because she doesn’t owe her mother anything—compassion least of all. Is this what motherhood means? Being suddenly able to pity the adults in your life?”

Roles are periodically tested, opposed, and reversed. Family members withhold, fall apart, come together. Get ready, as you will be installed in everyone’s head and heart from start to finish. Themes of love, betrayal, substance abuse, parenting, and the question of redemption prevail throughout the novel, with characters that are both universal and specific. Valdez Quade is a superb storyteller; the seamless narrative comes together organically, with a robust, balanced tone of potency and levity.

Thank you to W.W.Norton for sending me an ARC. It surpassed my expectations and will surely make my favorites list this year.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who were wowed by Kirstin Valdez Quade’s excellent short story collection Night at the Fiestas, winner of the NBCC’s John Leonard prize, you will not be disappointed with this, her debut novel. I certainly was not. The Five Wounds, is an expansion of one of the stories from her collection, originally published in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20.... Expanding the story was a suggestion from Quade’s editor when the story was first published, an excellent idea that resulted in this exceptional novel.

The story focuses on a year in the lives of the Padilla family of New Mexico, their ups and downs, their hopes and dreams, and their setbacks and losses, wisely balancing sadness with wit and humor. It is a novel of family, love and forgiveness, told with great warmth and empathy. Quade excels at creating characters so vivid and so fully realized, flawed but decent in their intentions. I loved these characters. It was impossible for me not to care about their final outcomes, and I will miss their too brief company. There was much to admire beyond the characters, and I can easily pile on the accolades. Quade is a great storyteller, the plot perfectly paced and the writing exceptional, unfussy while skillfully adding the smallest details to elevate a scene. I could not ask for more from a novel, but then again this is my kind of novel. It was a pleasure to read, and it resonated deeply.

I provided a link to the original short story in my opening paragraph. It will give you a sense of Quade’s talent and hopefully help you decide if this is a novel for your consideration.

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Five Wounds is the debut novel by American author Kirstin Valdez Quade. It's an expansion of her short story of the same name, originally published in The New Yorker and later collected in her debut short story collection, Night at the Fiestas. This gripping and beautifully written novel was undoubtedly one of my highlights of 2024.

A poignant exploration of life's struggles, both small and profound, the novel delves into the core values and enduring bonds that truly matter. It confronts weighty themes like terminal illness, unemployment, teenage pregnancy, and sexual identity, yet does so with sensitivity and restraint, avoiding overwhelming the reader.

A true literary gem, The Five Wounds is a powerful and thought-provoking read.

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t be fooled by the quasi-earnest piousness of the first chapter. The Five Wounds is a drama without the gloss or glamour, just a three-dimensional view of real life. Amadeo really got up my nose – I enjoy an unlikeable character as much as the next girl, but sheesh! – and yet, I couldn’t help but find myself strangely moved and deeply touched by this family saga.

My full review of The Five Wounds is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bleak, but powerfully written, The Five Wounds follows a broken family through some harrowing difficulties over the course of a year in New Mexico. It includes a literal crucifixion and a birth and tends to generate some real sympathy for its characters. As messed up as they are, we root for Angel and her dad to overcome their many character flaws and build something out of the mess of their lives.

The Pulitzer has never gone to a Latina, will this be the year? In fact, the only Latinos that ever won were Oscar Hijuelos in 1990 for Mambo Kings and Junot Diaz in 2008 for Oscar Wao, so perhaps a Mexicana-American debut novel would be a fantastic choice?

The writing is pretty good throughout. Here's a sample:
"This is death, then: a brief spot of light on earth extinguished, a rippling point of energy swept clear. A kiss, a song, the warm circle of a stranger's arms--these things and others--the whole crush of memory and hope, the constant babble of the mind, everything that composes a person- gone." (p. 285)

I don't think this one will win the '22 Pulitzer, but given recent trends, I would not be surprised if it was a runner-up. I actually wouldn't mind it winning, but it is a long shot. What do other folks think, could Quade be the first Latina laureate?

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved this book until about the halfway point, where it jumped the literary fiction shark and never recovered. I really liked the writing, and I also really liked that this was a Novel (with a capital N) about a multi-generational family in a small town in New Mexico. This may be a good book for another reader, particularly those who like literary fiction and interesting, contemporary settings. The hermandad alone made the book worth reading.

My problem was that I felt manipulated by the plot, with every character carefully chosen to make a point. Honestly, I thought the character arcs strained credulity, and I was glad that I skimmed the last 50 pages of the book because the car accident put me over the edge!! I really hated that as a catalyst for Amadeo. I also would like to take the opportunity to say that I don't think he lasts at Lowe's. I think the turning point for me was when it was revealed that Brianna, Angel's Smart Starts! teacher, is a virgin. Does everything have to be so on the nose? I would have accepted her sleeping with Amadeo, but come on! I also think the author starts to insert her own perspective by the end of the book. There's quite a lot of empathetic, thoughtful assessment of Lizette. She deserves that treatment, but I couldn't see it coming from Angel.

It makes sense that this was originally published as a short story. I don't think it had a clear direction.

[Judith E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valdez Quade has created a New Mexican family with strong Mexican roots, in which all the members have graduated from the college of hard knocks. It’s a traditional, multi-generational novel with a host of modern characters that the reader soon discovers repeatedly falter in their life choices.

The authors’s writing is smooth and humorous and she has a real talent in making the most self-centered character seem cute. Unfortunately, this dragged and was repetitive for me, I never was compelled to pick it up, and I couldn’t wait to be done with it.

[Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

updated 12/16/21

The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade is her debut novel. She wrote a short story with the same title and her publisher suggested she create a novel from the story. This is the wonderful result. It’s a story of 5 generations of a Latinx family living in Las Penas, a small New Mexican village that only those living there ever go to. The author has created memorable characters. And a unique story of family.

We are introduced to The 5 Wounds at the beginning of the book. It’s a passion play and “this year Amedeo Padilla, a 33 year old alcoholic who still lives at home with his mother Yolanda, and is a deadbeat dad to pregnant Angel, has been chosen by his great uncle Tive to play Jesus and carry the cross in the streets of the village on Good Friday. “Amedeo is seeking redemption.” He even tries to give up drinking.

The author starts her story with acknowledging the old rituals and the long history of Mexican heritaged people living in NM. In the 16th century Spanish conquistadors conquered indigenous Mexicans and Peruvians and others. During 16th century Coronado a conquistador came to what would become NM a fewer centuries later. The land belonged to the original people - the tribes that dwelled there. He brought “800” indigenous Mexicans with him. Many stayed. Willa Catha wrote Death Comes to the Archbishop which is about the same topic some years later. The passion plays became part of NM culture after that time.

This passion play was a “right of passage” for the one playing Jesus. And this is key to the story. But there is more then one type of passage going on in this family’s story this year. One being the birth of Angel’s baby (the 5th of the generations.)

As the book opens 15 year old Angel is sitting on the stoop of her grandmothers house, very pregnant, waiting for someone to come home. Her and her grandmother are quite close. She hasn’t seen her dad in over a year. He never married her mom. She has left her mom’s house and isn’t going back. So she moves in.

Angel is bright and a really good student. She has left high school and is now attending a full time program for pregnant teenage girls. They offer day care, schooling, help studying for their GED exam, job training, and interviewing skills and offers child care right next door. Their teacher Briana also teaches the girls about nutrition for themselves and their babies, how to take care of their baby and more. At the beginning of the book Angel takes in everything Briana teaches. She wants to be a good mom. She also wants to be like Briana and go to college. She has dreams of who she will be.

Grandma Yolanda is a secretary at Sante Fe’s legislature. Likes her job a lot and respected for it by her boss. As the story begins she is on a 2 week vacation in Las Vegas with a new man. One night there she ends up in the hospital with a diagnosis.

So this is the family. We follow their lives from one Good Friday to the next; through the babies first year. Amedeo wants to be a good dad to Angel. Angel wants to be a good mom and get her GED. And Yolanda has her hands full.

There is a lot going on in this book. Many surprises. There are diverse subplots. Growing pains and new responsibilities for these teenage girls and a teenage boy. Lots about different types of relationships are included. A lot of family dynamics. Classroom and teacher dynamics. Baby snot and naps and diapers. Issues of sexual preference. Issues around Ethics. Lots about parenting for all 5 generations. One of the teenage girls is having a very difficult life. Our author doesn’t slink away from the truth of teenage moms lives or the poverty that many teenage girls end up in. Through great characters and story she explores people’s choices.And she does it all in a really good story. Her writing is really terrific. The book flows with ease. It’s hard to believe this is Kirstin Valdez Quade’s first book. It’s impressive. And she balances it so well.

There is one place where it drags a bit and she picks it up and it’s really good.

Last comment. Though I brought up the teen age pregnant young women the story is much greater then that. It’s not just a female story. It’s a family story. Amedeo plays a big role role too. As do the men in Yolanda’s life and Angel’s.

~~~
After finishing this I saw
she received a first novel book award. Impressive who the judges were. Here’s the link.

https://www.caribbeanlife.com/kirstin...

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in New Mexico this novel represented any family - with flawed but endearing characters who do the best they can (with some hiccups) to muddle through life.
There is alot of anger, distrust and low self-esteem but in the end a story of survival and hope.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't want this to end. I'm going to miss these people.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This is an excellent novel about a struggling family, centering on a teenage mother, Angel, and her own deadbeat father, Amadeo. I was impressed by the original short story (found in Night at the Fiestas), and the author does a great job of using the events of that story—with a few changes—as a starting point for a larger one about the family and those around them. The novel is more focused on Angel while the short story followed Amadeo’s involvement with the penitentes, and the cast here is expanded to include several more family members—most notably the grandmother, Yolanda, who learns she has a malignant brain tumor—as well as the teacher and other students from Angel’s teen-mom class.

It’s very much a character- and relationship-driven novel rather than a plot-driven one, but there was enough going on in these people’s lives and relationships to keep me thoroughly hooked. The writing is incisive, examining the more difficult aspects of characters’ psychologies in a sympathetic light, and readers can empathize through the characters’ conflicts with one another. (Admittedly, I struggled with Amadeo, who’s awfully childish for a grown man. But I think we’re supposed to, and his redeeming quality is that he really does care about his family.) I found myself much more interested, impressed and engaged than I usually am with contemporary family stories, perhaps in part because this one isn’t typical. It’s about a working-class Latino family in rural New Mexico, rather than the usual well-off white people—often writers of some variety—in trendy cities or manicured suburbs. And unlike many recent books, it rarely feels as if it’s trawling for “woke” points; it’s about the characters as individuals rather than their race. At the same time, the author is clearly concerned for “at-risk youth” and her research is evident from the writing, particularly in her portrayal of the traumatized and often poorly-behaved teenager, Lizette. I did think the more stereotypically feminist women (the more independent and less physically attractive ones) could have been treated a bit better, although the book uses such a close third-person narration that the characters’ thoughts should not be mistaken for the author’s.

Overall, I liked this a lot, was very engaged in the characters, and would definitely recommend to the interested. It has the depth, attention to detail and nuance of literary fiction, though the writing style itself is not particularly notable to me. And it’s a window into lives less often portrayed in fiction, especially with this level of care and complexity. Those who already love contemporary family stories should eat this up!

[Elizabeth George]

In the interest of full disclosure, the author was a recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation on the basis, among other things, of the strength of a short story from which this novel grew. Having said this, I must add that the novel is wonderful. Kirstin has managed to create characters so real that they invade one's thoughts and one's life. They are not to be soon forgotten. This is a story about "real" people who live real lives that are complex and often difficult. They face challenges in a way that normal people face challenges, and they sometimes fail to live up to their own expectations as well as the expectations of others. The setting is New Mexico, most of the novel taking place in a four generation household and in a program for teenage mothers-to-be and teenage mothers whose struggles sometimes seem insurmountable but whose outlook on life is rarely anything less than positive. It's a book that leaves you feeling heartened about the bonds of family and reassured of the power of self-redemption. I loved it.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

We had previously met Amadeo Padilla and his daughter Angel in Kirstin Valdez Quade's remarkable short story collection, Night at the Fiestas. Here she expands that story of a man down on his luck who aims for redemption by portraying Jesus in a local passion play, and discovers redemption over the following year via the appearance of his daughter and the baby she gives birth to. This family history spools out through three main characters, in which all experience a virtual coming of age. Angel who learns the meaning of unexpected love, her father, and Yolanda the family matriarch who decides to keep her diagnosis of terminal brain cancer from the family out of fear that they won't be able to handle it. They all discover the consequences of making unsavory choices, and Quade is such a descriptive writer, that they all come to vivid life.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh this book... I'm giving it 2.5 stars. I wanted to like it so badly, but I just couldn't get into it.

I had high expectations because I saw so many good reviews. I started struggling about a quarter into it. I couldn't tell if it was a style issue and/or a plot issue for me, but it quickly became boring and a chore to read. There were also several plot points that were too dragged out which only added to my frustration and made the book feel so much longer than it should've been.

I almost stopped reading about 60% in, but I really wanted to see if it would get better. The last quarter was relatively easy to read, but I was pretty much over it at that point so I just wanted to finish the book just to say I finished it. I was both disappointed in the book itself and disappointed that I didn't like it as much as I wanted to.

[Jerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great family saga about a New Mexico family as it crumbles under the weight of various challenges - a serious cancer diagnosis, a teen pregnancy, addiction, and unemployment. Great writing and well-developed characters.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are way more than five wounds in this book.

As the story opens, Amadeo Padilla is a 33-year-old unemployed alcoholic still living with his mother, Yolanda, in the New Mexico town of Las Penas. Yolanda’s Uncle Tive belongs to a Catholic men’s club called the hermanos. Each good Friday, the hermanos re-enact Christ’s crucifixion. In a desperate try at giving Amadeo a feeling of self-worth, Yolanda has persuaded Tive to allow Amadeo to play the role of Christ.

Amadeo takes the honor very seriously, and believes that the experience will change his life for the better. Then his 15-year-old daughter shows up at their door, 8 months pregnant. Angel had been living with her mother, Marissa. She has a close relationship with Yolanda, but her contact with the disengaged Amadeo has been slight. When Angel’s life with Marissa and her new stepfather becomes intolerable, she comes to live with Yolanda and Amadeo. Amadeo decides that in addition to his personal redemption, his role as Christ will also redeem his relationship with Angel.

Like her father, Angel is desperately seeking redemption and a feeling of self-worth. She is enrolled in a program at school for pregnant teenagers, called Smart Starts. She follows the program diligently, and hero-worships her young teacher, Brianna.

To say that everyone lets Angel down would be an understatement. Even Yolanda doesn’t come through as usual – because, as it turns out, Yolanda is dying of a brain tumor. She has kept her illness a secret from her family and her employer.

I’m making the book sound like a soap opera, and it kind of is, but it’s so much more than that. I absolutely loved this book. The characters are so three-dimensional and relatable. Everyone in this story has been severely wounded in one way or another. Everyone is seriously flawed and has wounded someone else. Amadeo, especially, makes one mistake after another. But they keep trying so hard to be better than they are, and the odds are so against them – poverty, alcoholism, early parenthood – that the reader can’t help loving them and desperately rooting for them.

Quade’s understanding of psychology and human relationships is deep. Everything her characters feel and do feels authentic. The pushing people away when you most need them. The misunderstandings and the yearning to be understood. The blindness of children to their parents’ suffering. In a single phrase, Quade summarizes with painful accuracy what it’s like to have an alcoholic parent: “the man who scared him with his rages and his silences, and scared him more with his bouts of desperate affection.” As the child of an alcoholic, that dead-on description took my breath away.

I keep using the word “desperate” because it is accurate. The characters in this story embody both Christ’s suffering and the human sins for which he died. But they also embody the hope of the Resurrection. They keep trying and trying. Quade doesn’t seem to make any judgments about personal versus societal responsibility. The Padillas’ struggles are absolutely their faults. They do make bad decisions. Their struggles are also society’s fault. Social support is limited and their bad decisions cost more than they should. But, ultimately, fault is irrelevant. These characters are simply human. Human beings are terrible. We do things that are wrong, things that hurt ourselves and the people around us. Human beings are also glorious. We keep trying to be better in spite of the odds, and sometimes we succeed. This book beautifully illuminates that contradiction, and, in the end, sides with the glory. Loved, loved, loved it. A must-read.

Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Author of The Saints Mistress https://camcatbooks.com/Books/T/The-S...

[Mary Lins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was DELIGHTED to walk for a while beside the Padilla family while reading “The Five Wounds”, by Kirstin Valdez Quade! Each character is so brilliantly rendered I felt a part of their group; so many of their sweet gifts, their humor (both intentional and unintentional), and even their irritating ways, remind me of people in my own life. These people will stay with me for a long while; a hallmark of a wonderful novel and a compelling story. I predict this novel will win awards!
A few months ago I read Quade’s story collection, “Night at the Fiestas”, and fell in love with her writing style and her narrative voice. “The Five Wounds” was one of those stories which was perfect for expanding into a novel as she has done here.

The Padilla family, from a small village outside of Santa Fe, NM, has a difficult and dark history which includes, depression, rage, alcoholism, and drug abuse. Yolanda, the matriarch has recently taken up a heavy burden. Her adult children: oldest daughter, Valerie is stuffed to the gills with resentments, many of which are justified, and thirty-three year old son, Amadeo, whom she has shielded from his own disastrous choices from the start, continues to make terrible choices. Amadeo’s sixteen year old pregnant daughter, Angel, has moved in with Yolanda and Amadeo. She seems self-assured on the outside, but inside she is fearful and insecure. She has left a bad situation in her mother Marissa’s house. Yolanda’s elderly uncle, Tive, has tried to lead by good example, but will Amadeo ever turn his wreck of a life around? Can he do it for Angel? Can he do it for his tiny grandson?

Ultimately it is a novel about humans and the many things we all have in common regardless of gender, age, class, genetics or origin: our strengths, our frailties, the complications of desire, ambition, fear, loneliness…This wonderful novel is so FULL of life!

Quade’s writing is so good; her metaphors and analogies are so apt (and wryly humorous) and her brilliant crafting and gentle love of these flawed and “real” characters caused me to care about them all – so much so that for 400+ pages they were all I could think about.
“The Five Wounds” will be solidly on my list of favorites for 2021!