In three parts that unfold over the course of a year in the aptly named New Mexico town of Las Penas, The Five Wounds is a knife-sharp study of what happens to a family when accountability to other people goes out the window. Quade’s characters are experts at pushing love away, especially when intimate connection is most necessary ... As each member of the Padilla family battles their personal demons, hope shimmers like a mirage over everyday life, a sweet what-if that Quade expertly suspends above the text ... it is a treat to see the author’s exceptional command of pacing on display in a novel. Proof that what you say is just as important as how you say it, her precise lines are wanting in neither substance nor style, and her darkly hilarious, tender, gorgeous use of language is one of the crowning pleasures of the novel ... an irreverent 21st-century meditation on the restorative powers of empathy.
Like her stories, the novel is sheathed in sensate layers of the Northern New Mexico landscape — the personal and social unrest that simmers in the Land of Enchantment, home of the author’s heart.
Quade delivers on the promise of her debut collection ... Her sinewy sentences and emotional daring astound ... the novel's vibrant sheen masks deeper, darker currents. Birth—and rebirth—balance against death like yin and yang. Quade glides elegantly across a silken tightrope between comedy and tragedy, twists of fate that buoy her narrative to its resonant conclusion. The Five Wounds is destined to be one of this year's most celebrated works of fiction. Quade is a writer on the move.
Quade has taken on a sizable task – covering multiple generations of Padillas, plus friends and lovers. In the early pages, that sometimes makes for draggy passages where she’s arranging the plot furniture. But once Angel’s son, Connor, arrives and the stakes for the novel increase, the novel runs more smoothly and immersively. Quade delivers a lot of detail ... every action matters. So does each emotion, which Quade is well-attuned to ... Quade, to her credit, doesn’t resolve [...] complications with a happy-family conclusion – though, true to the religious themes that run through the book, she leaves room for a minor miracle to creep in. Dumb luck is part of precarious living too, and in this big-hearted novel, Quade knows how to make use of it.
In truth, you can still feel the joins between the original story and the rest of the book. But once you’re in, you’re really in, as Quade tightens the screws (hammers the nails?) on all her struggling characters. The village of Las Penas may be fictional, but the problems its Latinx families experience are all too real ... You are utterly within these characters, and within their world – dreaming of a better life, just as they do. After a slow start, The Five Wounds turns into a propulsive, immersive story that reckons wisely with the real cost of redemption.
Quade (Night at the Fiestas, 2015) ably delivers a story that is nuanced and authentic without a whiff of melodrama [...] in this generous tale of characters who understand the inevitability of fate but try to forge ahead anyway in the hope of breaking free.
National Book Critics Circle Award winner Quade’s penetrating debut novel (expanded from a story in Night at the Fiestas) tells of a man’s quest for self-acceptance through the metaphor of the five wounds Jesus suffered during crucifixion ... The well-developed characters convey palpable emotion as Amadeo’s failures as a father, partner, entrepreneur, and even as Jesus translate into fits of rage and frustration. Quade’s rendering of a singular community is pitch perfect.
With beautifully layered relationships and an honest yet profoundly empathetic picture of a rural community—where the families proudly trace their roots back to the Spanish conquistadors while struggling with poverty and a deadly drug epidemic—this novel is a brilliant meditation on love and redemption. Perfectly rendered characters anchor a novel built around a fierce, flawed, and loving family.
... a profoundly affecting story that smoothly expands to include the lives of family, friends, and the entire community of hardscrabble Las Penas ... Expertly crafted, this story of family and community introduces us to often needy characters for whom readers come to care deeply. Highly recommended.
