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

"The books opens with the death of Luisita's mother, which brings 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 family's and 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 community. 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.