The House of Broken Angels

I agree with the reviewers who have raved about this masterwork: Yes! Yes! Yes!
The Patriarch of the family has designed a last birthday party for himself, gathering loved ones from all over. First, they must get through the funeral of his mother. As each character reflects on their lives leading up to this point we travel through time and experience stories of love and family on an epic scale. There were parts where the tears in my eyes threatened to spill onto the page.
However! What I am not seeing in reviews is how absolutely, laugh out-loud funny this novel is. There are some parts.... I know the people in the car next to me were wondering “What is that woman cackling at?” (I did a mix of hardcover and audio on this one). So friggin funny, and I saw my own family in the de la Cruz family.
Urrea has a way of endearing a character to a reader by mentioning just the right anecdote. An uncle who is less respected because his 100 year old mother still irons his shirts, a nephew in a metal band who calls himself the Satanic Hispanic. The devil, and the truth, are in the details. Big Angel's notebooks may be the meaning of life.
These characters were giants to me, as I read about their lives. Big Angel especially, do they make men like this anymore? Epic!