The Madonnas of Echo Park

By: Brando Skyhorse

Narrated by: Robert Ramirez, Luis Moreno, Alma Cuervo, Alyssa Bresnaham, Jonathan Davis, Tony Chiroldes, Florencia Lozano, Annie Henk

Reminiscent of Sherman Alexie and Sandra Cisneros, acclaimed author Brando Skyhorse’s “engaging storytelling” (Vanity Fair) brings the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles to life in this poignant and propulsive novel following several generations of Mexican immigrants through their shifting cultural and physical landscapes.

The Madonnas of Echo Park is both a grand mural of a Los Angeles neighborhood and an intimate glimpse into the lives of the men and women who struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream. Each chapter summons a different voice—poetic, fierce, comic. We meet Hector, a day laborer who trolls the streets for work and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; his ex-wife Felicia, who narrowly survives a shooting and lands a cleaning job in a Hollywood Hills house as desolate as its owner; and young Aurora, who journeys through her now gentrified childhood neighborhood to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican-Americans dream of, “the land that belongs to us again.”

Reminiscent of Luis Alberto Urrea and Dinaw Mengestu, The Madonnas of Echo Park is a brilliant and genuinely fresh view of American life.

Skyhorse is an amazing storyteller. Loved it!

I have this book at home in paperback and it's in tatters from being read over again, borrowed and thankfully returned!

Very Unique. Very enjoyable.

I read this book based on reviews and thought it was very interesting. It follows several characters and can get a bit confusing, but you are able to place the characters and the time based on the genre of music they listen to, which was very creative. A really enjoyable story with excellent narration. I highly recommend it.

The Most Innovative and Engaging Book Ever!

This was one of my favorite works, and amazingly, it seems to be Skyhorse's first and only novel. Every character is completely developed, so much that you are drawn deeply into each of their lives, knowing all of their insecurities and struggles. At first, it is not obvious, but each of the characters intertwine with the others in some interesting relationship or bond but, in most cases, the reader is left to figure out the relationship, until well into each chapter. This fictional work speaks in a very real way to stereotypes, class struggles, prejudices, immigration issues, urban decay and urban renewal, all in a single, very interesting community. I loved it. I just keep waiting for the book to be a Pulitzer winner or a lesser honor, such as one of Oprah's Book Club Picks! This book was said to be related to the Pulitzer Prize winner "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," which I also enjoyed, but it was nowhere near the interesting entanglement of characters developed in The Madonnas!

Enthralling Piece of Literature

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and each narrator. I was afraid, at first, that all the characters, secondary characters, and narrators would get confusing but it never did.

The characters are rich and the backdrop is laid out so beautifully that you feel you are there. I was so enthralled with the book and characters that I had to constantly remind myself that I myself am not a chola in Echo Park but a white girl in the South. The narrators do a beautiful job!

The only 'complaint' I have is that I didn't (and yet strangely did) like how some character's lives were left so open-ended. I felt that some of the stories were left too open, but I do feel it is far better to be left wanting more or to be left curious than to over explain or provide too perfect of an ending. So I don't like, and yet do like, how some of the lives were left open ended.

I love this book, a must read for any Angeleno.

Ths book is amazing, I absolutely love it. As someone with a deep-rooted family history in Los Angeles I felt a personal connection to this book.