The Noise of Infinite Longing: A Memoir of a Family--and an Island

by Luisita López Torregrosa

A beautifully written memoir about a Puerto Rican family, whose siblings reunite for the first time upon their mother's death, after having scattered to various places and various lives after they reached early adulthood. It is also a universal story about family connections and what happens to them as we grow up. Writing with great honesty and lyrical prose, Luisita LÓpez Torregrosa gives us an incandescent memoir exploring the meaning of family connections and what happens to them as we grow up. The Noise of Infinite Longing is about a Puerto Rican family, its origins, its place in society, its illusions and, finally, what happened when the family dispersed, its members moving in different directions. It is a story unlike any others about the passage of Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans to countries not their own. But it is, in every sense, a universal story – of personal and cultural roots that are too strong to be completely severed, and of the passionate and anguished search for what we call home. The book opens with the death of Luisita's mother, which brought together in one place, for the first time in almost ten years, all six of her children. Over four days of funeral arrangements, burial and mourning, the children's stories unfold, beginning with their parents' doomed romance set against the backdrop of upper–middle class San Juan society and the traditions and class differences that ruled such a society. Out of a childhood of privilege and pain, one of Luisita's sisters joins the Sandinista government in Nicaragua; their brother hungers for the life of a rock and roll performer but ends up a teacher in the Bronx; Luisita becomes a writer and editor and travels the far regions of the world, always looking for a place to call her own. The siblings experience a journey of exile from the family's native land, and they must deal with the wrenching pull is has on them. But finally, this is story of human struggle played out against the everyday joys and disappointments of life, and the myths and dreams that sustain us.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Professor Torregrosa, an award-winning writer and journalist based in New York City, is a former New York Times editor and columnist for The International Herald Tribune. Torregrosa’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, Vogue, The Washington Post Magazine, Washingtonian magazine, Yahoo News, and Women in the World/NYTimes.com She writes on women’s issues, foreign policy, international politics and pop culture. She has reported from Havana, Manila, Tokyo, Rio, Madrid, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Jakarta, Singapore, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Juan, and Antigua. She has also worked out of Hong Kong, Bangkok, New Delhi, Sao Paolo and Brasilia. Torregrosa has published two books of nonfiction: Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love & Revolution, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), and The Noise of Infinite Longing (HarperCollins, 2004). She is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Fordham University’s Latin American and Latino Studies Institute and in the Department of Communication and Media.

Reviews

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read. It is written quite beautifully and is about a 'real' family. The family dynamics were really interesting, it was great to learn about Puerto Rico (and a little about Honduras and the Philippines). A quite beautiful personal story too.

[Mary Chambers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir of a woman who came from Puerto Rico. She talks of her life and relates it to her mother's death and the family gathering. I read this book in honor of our several Caribbean Cruises we've taken over the years.

[Ratforce]

To explore both the cultural traditions and the history of Puerto Rico, with the added bonus of beautiful writing and intense family drama, try the memoir The Noise of Infinite Longing.

[Stacey Marriott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book did nothing for me except keep me reading in expectation of something memoir worthy. I picked this up years ago and kept trying to start reading it in earnest. Finally I committed to it several weeks ago.
She writes well, which is probably the only reason I was able to stick with it. There was nothing particularly intriguing about the family dynamics. It's filled with scenes from her life but almost void of meaningful analysis.
In a word: dull.
She "reads" unresolved, and that left me unsatisfied throughout the book. Even when she approached some introspection about her sexuality, she didn't move beyond pointing out that her mother didn't question her but also didn't know if that bothered her.
In the end, it came off as a non-committal story that wasn't sure if it wanted to be about her, her family, a travel story. it was all of those but none were good.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author uses her mother's death to review her own life and her family's story. Her mother's story is essentially two different lives: one in Puerto Rico and the other in Texas. Luisa Lopez Torregrosa's life is divided into two parts, as well: one is her childhood, her father and Puerto Rico and the other is coming of age, living everywhere but Puerto Rico and coming to terms with her sexuality and her writing life.

It is a compelling story but it is marred by the emotional distance the author takes because she is afraid to fully embrace one or the other life. But I was bothered by the meanness in her descriptions of everyone. She comments on the physical flaws of all her family members as they age, even as she might say something nice about them. But I was struck at her discussion of their personal flaws, their mistakes in life and I thought how difficult she makes it for them to live their lives now when she so publicly reveals these things.

The story came together a bit better in the last 40 pages or so but not enough to satisfy me. The writing was fine but I found some of the author's stated feelings about people didn't ring true in her actions. Do I like this book less because I wanted her to act differently? Perhaps partly but it's more that she seems ready to pick at everyone else but we know so little about her even at the end of the book.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Noise of Infinite Longing is a page turner. "For many years I hadn't remembered much about the place, but the color blue, all the shades you see all over Latin America, and the noise that fills the spaces in those towns, the noise of people who explain their lives on the street, in br corners, at the drugstore, the noise of infinite longing" . This memoir is the first work that I read from author Luisita Lopez Torregrosa. With the descriptive prose and beautfully written narratives it reads more like a novel. I was completely engrossed in both the familial reltionships and dynamic between the author and family and also to her place of origin Puerto Rico. She has lived an incredibily rich and colorful life and this book was an amazing ride.

[Emma Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book in Manteo, NC on a family vacation. As soon as I read the first page, I was hooked. It's a wonderful memoir about a family, about place, about longing, about finding yourself. I loved it and learned some things about Puerto Rico.

One of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Junctures, there are junctures that you see only when you are looking back, when things change, when decisions are made that are immutable, irreversible. My life had been a life of junctures. I made decisions without weighing consequences. I assembled and disassembled my life in one moment. I knew it later, when that life no longer existed, when I had passed through it, had lived it, and it was gone."

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a memoir about an upper-class family in Puerto Rico. The adult children of the family come together after their mother's death and their life stories are revealed in the book. I can't exactly say why but it just never captured my interest. Like another reviewer mentioned, I kept at it for awhile but it was draggy to me and I finally gave up on it.

[Maria Cruz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose to read this book because it's written by a Puerto Rican. Sadly I did not enjoy it. The author writes this memoir but doesn't really write about herself. She holds back alot, but can easily write negatively about her family members. All I got from this book is that she's ashamed of where she came from and ashamed of her family.

[Kerry]

Really interesting window into growing up in Puerto Rico. Lively memoir.

[Barbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...This wasn't a terrible book, but it just wasn't terribly interesting. I kept soldiering on, hoping it would get better, but by the end of it, I was just flipping pages so I could finish it.

[Harry T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very few accounts from an upper middle class Puerto rican woman growing up .

[Dorothy Moore grindle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was part of this great family for 12 years. And glad I was. Great book!

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drawn to the title...