Edgardo Vega Yunqué

857: 624: 606: 843: 1628: 731: 372: 145: 464:, Vega's "ribald and rambling style reverberates throughout his third novel ... he deftly skewers the politics of academia, the tyranny of mediocrity in contemporary American literature, and America's ongoing prejudice against Puerto Ricans. Vega, unlike many formulaic novels he disparages, definitely has a lot to say." 871: 387:

called it "a powerhouse of a novel ... it brings vividly to life, with its polyphony of voices, the simmering ethnic stew of the great American city", but also noted "flat-footed dialogue" and "the characters' belabored internal commentaries", saying "he climax is so ghastly that the book never quite

407:

described it as "a sprawling, iconoclastic, ambitious, stunningly written novel that is part picaresque, part bildungsroman, and part recapitulation of America's last half century ... Like jazz and like America, this novel is fluid, unpredictable, full of verve and smarts. But it is not merely an

322:

Since my work is about people and my affection for them, I don't lose track of who they are just like I don't lose track of my children or other relatives and acquaintances. I have friends – and characters – whom I don't see for a long time, but as soon as we get together we pick up where we left

492:

announced "the author is a bravura storyteller with an extraordinary ability to create fascinating, emotion-engaging characters...the novel's subplots involving political terrorism and immigrant resistance to imposed assimilation are absolutely relevant to today's America."

541:

praised Vega's portrayal of "the consuming struggles and sorrows of Puerto Ricans in New York ... the stories betray a deep concern and love for people living precariously between two worlds. A fine, provocative addition for Latino and large general fiction collections."

1024: 1635: 739: 450: 152: 1028: 50: 394:

hailed it as a "hypnotically readable novel--about jazz, about race, about coming-of-age, and above all, about New York ... honest, wrenching emotion, free of all artifice ... Vega Yunqué may just be the

1734: 1749: 1509:, I: Introductory Essays, Chicano and Chicana Authors; II: Cuban and Cuban American Authors, Dominican and Other Authors, Puerto Rican Authors. New York: Scribner's; 2004. pp. 1019–1030. 1714: 696:

blogged, "his novels captured the crazy glory of this city and its people, with jazzy riffs and elegant solos that flowed with rhythm. His words could dazzle, amuse and even infuriate."

515:

Vega "shows us, in twelve funny and personality-laden tales, that there is indeed much more to life in Spanish Harlem than gang warfare; set to the strains of Bernstein and Sondheim."

1724: 1054: 327:

Vega's literary influences were subtle and complex. In addition to William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and the magic realist writers, he was heavily influenced by

1528: 460:

declared the book a "raucous outing ... his characters hold forth in hilarious broken Spanglish ... vivid, wry, tragicomic ... Vega Yunqué is a potent talent." According to

1689: 1684: 689:

hailed Vega's honesty and his "picaresque, combustive and sometimes flamboyantly comic expressions of the Puerto Rican experience in New York’s multicultural maelstrom."

523:"a dozen loving comic fables about the Puerto Rican experience in New York City…well-written, affecting and gritty tales of El Barrio life: reality beginning in dreams. 977: 1571: 408:

entertainment. Deeply revisionist, tinged with tragedy and yet doggedly optimistic, this is a work that belongs on the shelf with its epic siblings: E.L. Doctorow's

1709: 1704: 318:

in 1977. He wrote fourteen novels and three story collections. He said that he often worked on several books at once and had no problem keeping track of them:

1098: 533:

to be "brilliantly traced ... a multivocal journey through layers of miscegenated consciousness, intensely bound to a nation that often works like a dream."

1759: 1754: 1699: 818: 431: 164: 1769: 497:

noted the book's "distinctive architecture, mystery and suspense," that it was "highly descriptive," and contained "all the features of fine drama."

264:. During his free time Vega focused on reading and analysis of American literature, after finding a large collection of books at his sister's house. 1764: 1679: 1674: 1739: 760: 1025:"No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again, by Edgardo Vega Yunque" 1564: 1423: 646: 1719: 1540: 558: 1055:"No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again; A Symphonic Novel" 294:

Patricia Jean Schumacher on December 31, 1961; their marriage ended in divorce in 1997. They had three children: Alyson, Matthew, and

229:

in 1949. Even as a child he loved to read, and became familiar with many of the great European works. His seminal influences included

1363: 1694: 331:

and by the concern of the Irish members of his childhood neighborhood, for the independence and reunion of their native country.

1253: 1557: 1234: 1128: 562: 383: 919: 1729: 470:

announced that "Vega Yunqué has a keen intelligence, an ear for dialogue and a flair for zany passages of magic realism."

1456: 1183: 961: 884: 1744: 1099:"The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle by Edgardo Vega Yunqu - Kirkus Reviews" 654: 1534: 1274: 1388: 1076: 633: 615: 346:

No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again.

1629: