From Publishers Weekly Torregrosa's memoir， framed by and interspersed with events around her mother's funeral in 1994， opens as she and her five siblings gather for the first time in 15 years. Torregrosa， a New York Times editor， peels away the layered memories of siblings of different ages， revealing a complex portrait of the family and the island they grew up on in the 1950s. The life in Puerto Rico she describes is one of high status， privilege and isolation from those with neither. The family， assiduously rooted in Spain rather than Puerto Rico， was always comfortable， usually wealthy. Her grandmother was brought up by governesses and tutors; her mother， a lawyer， was formerly a cheerleader and sorority queen who rode horses and played the piano; and her father had the "ambition of the hard-born，" but an acceptably Spanish genealogy. Reconstructing the pleasant picture， however， reveals an indulgent father with a violent temper and a mother "trapped by tradition and her own fantasies of romance." In this highly stratified world， where family members left Puerto Rico not to seek fortunes but to study abroad and obtain Ivy League degrees， a brother's marriage to a Nuyorican was a sort of disgrace. As Torregrosa's memoir reaches deeper than the beautiful island and her idyllic past， it becomes a coming-out story， as she leaves behind a repressive class structure， a racist orientation and a required heterosexuality. Torregrosa's deft， vivid characterizations capture a multigenerational cast， and her keen sense of sound and scene makes this a moving， believable and fresh story of growing up Puerto Rican and being American.Copyright © Reed Business Information， a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Book Description 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. See all Editorial Reviews