What do you think?
Rate this book
Juventud
Growing up as the only daughter of a wealthy landowner in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, teenaged Mercedes Martinez knows a world of maids, armed guards, and private drivers. When she falls in love with Manuel, a fiery young activist with a passion for his faith and his country, she begins to understand the suffering of the desplazados who share her land. A startling discovery about her father forces Mercedes to doubt everything she thought she knew about her life, and she and Manuel make plans to run away together. But before they can, tragedy strikes in a single violent night. Mercedes flees Colombia for the United States and a life she never could have imagined. Fifteen years later, she returns to Colombia seeking the truth, but discovers that only more questions await.
In the bristling, beautiful prose that won her an IPPY Gold Medal for her short story collection Train Shots, Vanessa Blakeslee's Juventud explores the idealism of youth, the complexities of a ravaged country, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
In the bristling, beautiful prose that won her an IPPY Gold Medal for her short story collection Train Shots, Vanessa Blakeslee's Juventud explores the idealism of youth, the complexities of a ravaged country, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
300 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2015
7 people are currently reading
623 people want to read
About the author
Vanessa Blakeslee
6 books50 followersVanessa Blakeslee's debut short story collection, Train Shots, was released in March, 2014 by Burrow Press and is the winner of the 2014 IPPY Gold Medal in Short Fiction. The book was also long-listed for the 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Vanessa's writing has appeared in The Southern Review, Green Mountains Review, The Paris Review Daily,The Globe and Mail, and Kenyon Review Online, among many others. Winner of the inaugural Bosque Fiction Prize, she has also been awarded grants and residencies from Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Banff Centre, Ledig House, the Ragdale Foundation, and in 2013 received the Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. Vanessa earned her MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania, she is a longtime resident of Maitland, Florida.
Blakeslee's debut novel is scheduled for release by Curbside Splendor Publishing in Fall, 2015.
Blakeslee's debut novel is scheduled for release by Curbside Splendor Publishing in Fall, 2015.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
October 31, 2017
This is another book I only discovered after getting "Curbside Splendor" as my result in the Book Riot quiz, Which Indie Press Should You Be Obsessed With?" I had not heard of the publisher, and requested a bunch of interesting looking titles from interlibrary loan.
This book kept me up late into the night just because I couldn't stop reading it. I can't tell you the last time that happened; I am old now and reading usually puts me to sleep. But not this one, I was up until almost midnight because I "only" had 100 pages left.
Mercedes is a privileged teen living in Colombia. She attends private school and has a driver. Her father is a wealthy land owner and her mother is an American who left when she was an infant. She has no contact with her. But the situation in Colombia is violent and unstable, and her father wants to send her to the United States to finish her schooling.
You don't have to know a lot about Colombia in the 1990s to fall into this book. Mercedes has been protected from understanding the political situation, so we as readers learn about it as she finds out more about the FARC, ELN, the drug cartels, and the desplazado, the displaced people within Colombia who have had to flee their homes due to fighting, but are trying to find work and food and shelter.
Then Mercedes meets Manuel, an idealist revolutionary, and falls in love. And so the book is not so much a thinly veiled history lesson but a coming-of-age novel, a romance, a tragedy, etc. While the end section of the novel is Mercedes returning to Colombia as an adult, trying to make sense of some of the events, the majority is Mercedes as a teen and what she goes through. I thought it was very well written and well researched, and while it isn't an "#ownvoices" story from a Colombian author, and sometimes Mercedes is far more reflective than a 15 year old might be, I still think this novel is excellent. I hope the author is working on her next project.
This book kept me up late into the night just because I couldn't stop reading it. I can't tell you the last time that happened; I am old now and reading usually puts me to sleep. But not this one, I was up until almost midnight because I "only" had 100 pages left.
Mercedes is a privileged teen living in Colombia. She attends private school and has a driver. Her father is a wealthy land owner and her mother is an American who left when she was an infant. She has no contact with her. But the situation in Colombia is violent and unstable, and her father wants to send her to the United States to finish her schooling.
You don't have to know a lot about Colombia in the 1990s to fall into this book. Mercedes has been protected from understanding the political situation, so we as readers learn about it as she finds out more about the FARC, ELN, the drug cartels, and the desplazado, the displaced people within Colombia who have had to flee their homes due to fighting, but are trying to find work and food and shelter.
Then Mercedes meets Manuel, an idealist revolutionary, and falls in love. And so the book is not so much a thinly veiled history lesson but a coming-of-age novel, a romance, a tragedy, etc. While the end section of the novel is Mercedes returning to Colombia as an adult, trying to make sense of some of the events, the majority is Mercedes as a teen and what she goes through. I thought it was very well written and well researched, and while it isn't an "#ownvoices" story from a Colombian author, and sometimes Mercedes is far more reflective than a 15 year old might be, I still think this novel is excellent. I hope the author is working on her next project.
November 28, 2015
Full disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks to Curbside Splendor Publishing for making it available!
The epigraph of Vanessa Blakeslee's emotional debut novel includes a quote from the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez which I feel so accurately sums this book up: "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it."
Growing up the daughter of a wealthy landowner in Colombia, Mercedes Martinez lives a life of privilege—a driver takes her where she needs to go, maids take care of her every whim, and she never wants for anything. Yet her life isn't perfect—her mother left when she was very young and never tried to get in touch, and what Mercedes really hopes for is true love.
When she meets Manuel, a passionate young activist who is firmly rooted in his faith and the need for radical changes in their country, she is instantly smitten. Manuel and his brother Emilio open her eyes to the plight of the poor in Colombia, and how she cannot simply accept her father's worldview on what is happening around her.
It's not long before Manuel and Emilio cause Mercedes to re-evaluate all that her father has told her about his life before she was born, and why her mother left Colombia and never tried contacting them. She begins to suspect that her father is far more dangerous than she could ever have imagined, and wonders exactly why he is trying to keep her and Manuel apart, instead forcing her to go to boarding school in America.
An act of violence one night changes everything, and she realizes her only option is to flee to America and leave her old life behind her. But as she grows older, her life is always shadowed by her suspicions and the events of her teenage years. Fifteen years later, she returns to Colombia to try and find answers, but is absolute truth ever possible, or just more questions?
I'll admit I know very little about Colombian history and the violence which occurred in that country, so I found Juventud both enlightening and disturbing. Blakeslee really captured Mercedes' voice so well, and I felt she gave the character complexity so she was so much more than a pampered teenager who suddenly found a conscience. I also found that she had a deft hand when it came to evoking the dichotomy of Colombia's beauty and the extreme poverty and violence affecting the country.
At times the plot moved a little slower than I would have liked, and yet I felt it rushed a bit when Mercedes went to America. I felt as if some of the other characters were a little less fleshed out, but this is Mercedes' story. At its heart, Juventud is a moving story about love and loss, and how our lives are shaped not only by what we see and what we do, but also by the things we don't say, the questions we don't ask.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
The epigraph of Vanessa Blakeslee's emotional debut novel includes a quote from the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez which I feel so accurately sums this book up: "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it."
Growing up the daughter of a wealthy landowner in Colombia, Mercedes Martinez lives a life of privilege—a driver takes her where she needs to go, maids take care of her every whim, and she never wants for anything. Yet her life isn't perfect—her mother left when she was very young and never tried to get in touch, and what Mercedes really hopes for is true love.
When she meets Manuel, a passionate young activist who is firmly rooted in his faith and the need for radical changes in their country, she is instantly smitten. Manuel and his brother Emilio open her eyes to the plight of the poor in Colombia, and how she cannot simply accept her father's worldview on what is happening around her.
It's not long before Manuel and Emilio cause Mercedes to re-evaluate all that her father has told her about his life before she was born, and why her mother left Colombia and never tried contacting them. She begins to suspect that her father is far more dangerous than she could ever have imagined, and wonders exactly why he is trying to keep her and Manuel apart, instead forcing her to go to boarding school in America.
An act of violence one night changes everything, and she realizes her only option is to flee to America and leave her old life behind her. But as she grows older, her life is always shadowed by her suspicions and the events of her teenage years. Fifteen years later, she returns to Colombia to try and find answers, but is absolute truth ever possible, or just more questions?
I'll admit I know very little about Colombian history and the violence which occurred in that country, so I found Juventud both enlightening and disturbing. Blakeslee really captured Mercedes' voice so well, and I felt she gave the character complexity so she was so much more than a pampered teenager who suddenly found a conscience. I also found that she had a deft hand when it came to evoking the dichotomy of Colombia's beauty and the extreme poverty and violence affecting the country.
At times the plot moved a little slower than I would have liked, and yet I felt it rushed a bit when Mercedes went to America. I felt as if some of the other characters were a little less fleshed out, but this is Mercedes' story. At its heart, Juventud is a moving story about love and loss, and how our lives are shaped not only by what we see and what we do, but also by the things we don't say, the questions we don't ask.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
August 19, 2018
This novel, about a young woman growing up amidst privilege and violence in Colombia had great potential. But the novel faltered under the weight of too much information that didn't propel the story forward. The second part, set in Florida, was better paced but still felt awkward.
May 2, 2016
Yes, yes, I know, an author has every right in the world to write about characters and situations that are vastly different than their personal life, and it's unfair to disparage a book just because the person who penned it doesn't seem "authentic enough" to get away with it; but that said, it's hard not to read Vanessa Blakeslee's Juventud without constantly thinking about the disparity of the subject in this case, of a white New England academe who's written a hefty novel all from the viewpoint of a teenage Latina girl in Central America, whose life takes a series of dramatic turns because of her father's role in a local drug cartel. I mean, I don't want to give the wrong impression; the book is well-written, and hits all the notes you would want from a solidly constructed three-act novel (and is also, by the way, one of the most beautifully designed books in the history of Curbside Splendor, and Curbside has put out a whole bunch of beautifully designed books over the years). But it's also an overly precious novel in that way you often see from full-time academic writers, a big turnoff for me and a lot of others; and it's also pushing a rather overt political agenda, and I'm not a fan of novels that primarily exist to make a political point. Definitely worth picking up if these things don't bother you, it can also be easily skipped if like me they do.
Out of 10: 7.4, or 8.4 for fans of MFA novels
Out of 10: 7.4, or 8.4 for fans of MFA novels
June 18, 2015
I obtained this as an advanced reading copy. All I can say is, pre-order and read this when it hits the bookshelves. Blakeslee is a wonderful writer with an inquiring mind. She proved her interest in complex characters in her short story collection, Train Shots. Now in her new novel, Juventud, she delves deep.
This is a big, arcing International coming-of-age story. The novel is about family, deception, Colombia's long, sad struggle with the FARC, but it is also about love. The power it has over us and how sometimes damaged souls are loath to allow the magic to squeak through our defense mechanisms.
I'll be writing a longer, more in-depth review for the Internet Review of Books, but for now consider this one a big, five-star read!
This is a big, arcing International coming-of-age story. The novel is about family, deception, Colombia's long, sad struggle with the FARC, but it is also about love. The power it has over us and how sometimes damaged souls are loath to allow the magic to squeak through our defense mechanisms.
I'll be writing a longer, more in-depth review for the Internet Review of Books, but for now consider this one a big, five-star read!
December 19, 2015
Terrific read! This novel has so much going for it. A well-researched look at life among the drug cartels in Colombia. An engaging coming-of-age story. Youthful romance. A harrowing escape. An immigrant’s struggle to adjust. A mother and daughter struggling to connect. A dark family secret that haunts and grows more complex. It’s beautifully written and entertaining throughout, and Blakeslee juggles all of these elements with a deft touch. I read it quickly and had a hard time putting it down.
July 22, 2015
Maestro, play me a song, a soft delicate song that will slay my heart, and bring me a bottle of wine.
October 8, 2015
Book buyers who viewed the Netflix Original Series "Narcos" will be engrossed by this thought-provoking novel set in Colombia, the U.S., and Israel. Juventud recounts the fictitious story of Mercedes Martinez, an idealistic young Colombian-American woman, as she grows to adulthood. (Juventud means "youth" in Spanish.) The author cleverly provides a behind-the-headlines perspective of various factions in conflict in Colombia during the 1990s: Young left-wing revolutionaries. Right-wing paramilitary groups. Ruthless drug lords. An ineffective government and corrupt police force. Idealistic social justice activists. The pro-peace Catholic Church. Wealthy landowners and poor, displaced peasants and villagers. In that context, the novel explores themes of fate, trust, family secrets, forgiveness, and the hope and idealism of youth. The narrative keeps readers guessing until the end: Did Mercedes Martinez's rich, sullen father Diego have her lover killed years ago? What exactly was Diego’s connection to drug overlord Pablo Escobar? Why did Mercedes' mother suddenly leave Colombia for Miami and abandon her as a baby? Will Mercedes remain estranged from her father or reconcile?
Readers who are experiencing estrangement with their family will also closely relate to the protagonist.
Readers who are experiencing estrangement with their family will also closely relate to the protagonist.
February 10, 2016
Being totally upfront: I have no idea why I'm giving Juventud four stars. There was a quality to this book where I couldn't put it down (I flew through this book in about 3 days). But there was another part of me that thought this was going to go in a totally different direction, and in a way, I'm disappointed it didn't go in the direction that I thought it was going to, or at least I'm disappointed that the protagonist didn't come to the same conclusions that I did.
Mercedes is an innocent 15 year old girl that lives on her father Diego's hacienda. She has a personal chauffeur, Fidel, and a host of jefes and guards live on her property. This is her normal. Her mother, Paula, abandoned her before she ever formed a memory of her. Mercedes knows virtually nothing about her mother except that she lives in the US. In Cali, where Mercedes lives, there is heightened violence and political tension between the ELN (a guerrilla group), the FARC (another guerilla group), and the paramilitary. Mercedes is mostly oblivious to all of this; she is rich, her friends are rich, and she lives a cushioned life where she knows virtually nothing about the desplazados that are being forcefully removed from their pueblos and are now homeless.
This changes quickly. Within the first 20 pages, Mercedes meets Manuel, a 21-year-old devout Catholic that participates in peace rallies. From the readers' perspective, the relationship between Mercedes and Manuel is a little clunky, to the point that I believed that Manuel was just duping Mercedes to get information on her father and had no real feelings for her at all. This is heightened by the fact that much of the bonding time between Manuel and Mercedes is wordless; there is not enough dialogue to make their love story believable. Manuel basically divulges to Mercedes her own father's criminal past and asks Mercedes to eavesdrop and pay attention to see if he is still involved in any way, with either the guerrillas or the paramilitary, or if he is paying either of the groups off to stay safe, or keep his secret past secret, or something... unfortunately it's all a little vague. But Manuel keeps manipulating Mercedes, saying things like, imagine how powerful an image it would be if you, the daughter of Diego Martinez, were seen next to me at a peace rally!... even after Mercedes has expressed discomfort with the idea.
Here's an example:
"Promise me that you'll get away for this [peace rally]. I'll never ask you again, I swear."
"Helping you out here is one thing," I said slowly. "Those crowds--even with a thousand snipers and helicopters overhead, I don't feel safe."
His arms fell to his sides. "You think this place is any safer?" He lowered his voice and stepped closer; his lips grazed my ear. "You can be sure the ELN and the FARC, and I've no doubt whoever else is watching this block, are well aware that the motos and cars parked in the alley don't belong to customers shopping for their next bedroom set."
I set down the flyers, now cool. "Okay," Isaid. "That still doesn't mean the rally is any less dangerous."
"It's not," he said, and sighed. "But you're part of this too. Aren't you?" He held up the flyer, eyebrows raised, and dropped it onto the stack. Then sank into the chair and rubbed his face, his eyes puffy and hair mussed. He badly needed a cut. "It's just that you're my girlfriend, and it's that much more important to me. Not having you there feels like--almost like you don't exist." (133)
Then he promises her that he will delay a very dangerous journey until Mercedes is back from Costa Rica visiting her aunt, but doesn't at all, which like on hand one, there was some pretty high stakes, but on the other hand, why not just be honest with her and tell her you can't wait???
TLDR; I think Manuel is manipulative, I don't buy their love story, and I thought the flash forward to the future would have Mercedes reflecting on the fact that this relationship was a little ridiculous and more a combination of puppy love and lust, and that it got all the more out of hand because they decided to run off and elope (seems a little bizarre to me especially as Manuel, the devout and hypocritical Catholic didn't even bother to introduce Mercedes to his parents even once?)
The tensions and dislike between Diego and Manuel heighten. Meanwhile, Diego has been pushing to get Mercedes to go to boarding school in the US and she has been very resistant during the first pangs of love. He hires her an English tutor, Sister Rosemary. Mercedes goes around lying to everyone and paying off her chauffeur to go and have sex with Manuel in his personal side apartment that he shares with his brothers where his parents never ever go. It's all weird. All of it.
And then the night before Manuel and Mercedes and set to get hitched and run away from home and never talk to Diego again,
Once Mercedes ends up in the US, however, it is not much like she thought it would be. She meets her mother, who has become a citizen of Israel, but her mom is cold, distant, and doesn't want to be called "Mom." She's not ready. They have no substantial conversations about anything besides school and work. They are awkward strangers. Mercedes grandparents are nicer, more involved, and caring. She lives with them and her mother goes back to Israel. Nine years later, her mom finally says it's alright for her to call her "Mom." I'm shocked at this gap because if it took my mom that abandoned me 9 years after having a relationship with me to allow me that concession, I would never. Paula is basically a shitty mom whom Mercedes forgives because she puts herself in her shoes: If I had abandoned my daughter because I didn't want to be in that country and felt too alone and isolated and my husband was involved in crime, but I knew he would be a good father (???) it would be hard for me to accept this sudden emergence of my teenaged daughter and I, too, would be aloof.
It's all very weird, I'm telling you.
Mercedes goes to college, and Mercedes goes on a Jewish Heritage trip to Israel, and Mercedes takes her first lover since Manuel on that Jewish heritage trip, and he is the first and only person she confesses everything that happened in Colombia. He totally avoids her after that, like a total dick, but it's all awkward because Mercedes kind of imagined being married to him after like, one hook-up. He tells her he can't be with someone with her father's kind of criminal past because he's in the Israeli army. Mercedes shuts herself off emotionally forever. Mercedes goes to grad school, Mercedes goes for her PhD, Mercedes falls in love with a nice Southern boy, and everything is great and wonderful except that her nice Southern boy has really strong ties to family and wants a big wedding and that PANICS Mercedes. She never tells him what happened in Colombia. He dumps her because of it, and she's devastated, and she waits too long to do anything about it. Her career advances... and advances... and advances, until it takes her back to Colombia where she discovers that
So essentially the entire novel boils around to: Mercedes fucks up most aspects of her life, including with the person who raised her and loved her, the person who wanted to marry her and loved her, and her entire perception of reality by basing all of her decisions around her 15-year-old love interest who sort of emotionally manipulated and didn't respect her? Bummer deal.
But hey, I liked it, and that cover is gorgeous.
And here's two quotes I liked:
"You know, I didn't realize there could be so much disagreement right away, even if you're in love with someone. That one person could need another to do things, you know?" Her gaze shot up, and I shook my head. "Not what you're thinking. I mean how you fit another person into your life, what they expect. Not that I'm fighting with Manuel or anything."
"Ah, yes," Inez said, and clicked her teeth. "You disagree, good. You don't want to be the kind of woman who just goes along with things. That's just as bad as fighting all the time."
"It is? How?" I'd been rocking and stopped.
"That's how you lose yourself. And the other person. No is like a magic staff. If you don't use it, well--..." (133)
From the beginning I had been drawn to his intellect and lack of pretense, and later on I wondered how I had overlooked the even-keeled warmth between us as a sin of something more--that the cornerstone of a great relationship might not lie in a flush of desire, but in a trusted friend. Someone who shared similar passions and perspectives, and laughed with you at the end of a hard day. (278)
Mercedes is an innocent 15 year old girl that lives on her father Diego's hacienda. She has a personal chauffeur, Fidel, and a host of jefes and guards live on her property. This is her normal. Her mother, Paula, abandoned her before she ever formed a memory of her. Mercedes knows virtually nothing about her mother except that she lives in the US. In Cali, where Mercedes lives, there is heightened violence and political tension between the ELN (a guerrilla group), the FARC (another guerilla group), and the paramilitary. Mercedes is mostly oblivious to all of this; she is rich, her friends are rich, and she lives a cushioned life where she knows virtually nothing about the desplazados that are being forcefully removed from their pueblos and are now homeless.
This changes quickly. Within the first 20 pages, Mercedes meets Manuel, a 21-year-old devout Catholic that participates in peace rallies. From the readers' perspective, the relationship between Mercedes and Manuel is a little clunky, to the point that I believed that Manuel was just duping Mercedes to get information on her father and had no real feelings for her at all. This is heightened by the fact that much of the bonding time between Manuel and Mercedes is wordless; there is not enough dialogue to make their love story believable. Manuel basically divulges to Mercedes her own father's criminal past and asks Mercedes to eavesdrop and pay attention to see if he is still involved in any way, with either the guerrillas or the paramilitary, or if he is paying either of the groups off to stay safe, or keep his secret past secret, or something... unfortunately it's all a little vague. But Manuel keeps manipulating Mercedes, saying things like, imagine how powerful an image it would be if you, the daughter of Diego Martinez, were seen next to me at a peace rally!... even after Mercedes has expressed discomfort with the idea.
Here's an example:
"Promise me that you'll get away for this [peace rally]. I'll never ask you again, I swear."
"Helping you out here is one thing," I said slowly. "Those crowds--even with a thousand snipers and helicopters overhead, I don't feel safe."
His arms fell to his sides. "You think this place is any safer?" He lowered his voice and stepped closer; his lips grazed my ear. "You can be sure the ELN and the FARC, and I've no doubt whoever else is watching this block, are well aware that the motos and cars parked in the alley don't belong to customers shopping for their next bedroom set."
I set down the flyers, now cool. "Okay," Isaid. "That still doesn't mean the rally is any less dangerous."
"It's not," he said, and sighed. "But you're part of this too. Aren't you?" He held up the flyer, eyebrows raised, and dropped it onto the stack. Then sank into the chair and rubbed his face, his eyes puffy and hair mussed. He badly needed a cut. "It's just that you're my girlfriend, and it's that much more important to me. Not having you there feels like--almost like you don't exist." (133)
Then he promises her that he will delay a very dangerous journey until Mercedes is back from Costa Rica visiting her aunt, but doesn't at all, which like on hand one, there was some pretty high stakes, but on the other hand, why not just be honest with her and tell her you can't wait???
TLDR; I think Manuel is manipulative, I don't buy their love story, and I thought the flash forward to the future would have Mercedes reflecting on the fact that this relationship was a little ridiculous and more a combination of puppy love and lust, and that it got all the more out of hand because they decided to run off and elope (seems a little bizarre to me especially as Manuel, the devout and hypocritical Catholic didn't even bother to introduce Mercedes to his parents even once?)
The tensions and dislike between Diego and Manuel heighten. Meanwhile, Diego has been pushing to get Mercedes to go to boarding school in the US and she has been very resistant during the first pangs of love. He hires her an English tutor, Sister Rosemary. Mercedes goes around lying to everyone and paying off her chauffeur to go and have sex with Manuel in his personal side apartment that he shares with his brothers where his parents never ever go. It's all weird. All of it.
And then the night before Manuel and Mercedes and set to get hitched and run away from home and never talk to Diego again,
Once Mercedes ends up in the US, however, it is not much like she thought it would be. She meets her mother, who has become a citizen of Israel, but her mom is cold, distant, and doesn't want to be called "Mom." She's not ready. They have no substantial conversations about anything besides school and work. They are awkward strangers. Mercedes grandparents are nicer, more involved, and caring. She lives with them and her mother goes back to Israel. Nine years later, her mom finally says it's alright for her to call her "Mom." I'm shocked at this gap because if it took my mom that abandoned me 9 years after having a relationship with me to allow me that concession, I would never. Paula is basically a shitty mom whom Mercedes forgives because she puts herself in her shoes: If I had abandoned my daughter because I didn't want to be in that country and felt too alone and isolated and my husband was involved in crime, but I knew he would be a good father (???) it would be hard for me to accept this sudden emergence of my teenaged daughter and I, too, would be aloof.
It's all very weird, I'm telling you.
Mercedes goes to college, and Mercedes goes on a Jewish Heritage trip to Israel, and Mercedes takes her first lover since Manuel on that Jewish heritage trip, and he is the first and only person she confesses everything that happened in Colombia. He totally avoids her after that, like a total dick, but it's all awkward because Mercedes kind of imagined being married to him after like, one hook-up. He tells her he can't be with someone with her father's kind of criminal past because he's in the Israeli army. Mercedes shuts herself off emotionally forever. Mercedes goes to grad school, Mercedes goes for her PhD, Mercedes falls in love with a nice Southern boy, and everything is great and wonderful except that her nice Southern boy has really strong ties to family and wants a big wedding and that PANICS Mercedes. She never tells him what happened in Colombia. He dumps her because of it, and she's devastated, and she waits too long to do anything about it. Her career advances... and advances... and advances, until it takes her back to Colombia where she discovers that
So essentially the entire novel boils around to: Mercedes fucks up most aspects of her life, including with the person who raised her and loved her, the person who wanted to marry her and loved her, and her entire perception of reality by basing all of her decisions around her 15-year-old love interest who sort of emotionally manipulated and didn't respect her? Bummer deal.
But hey, I liked it, and that cover is gorgeous.
And here's two quotes I liked:
"You know, I didn't realize there could be so much disagreement right away, even if you're in love with someone. That one person could need another to do things, you know?" Her gaze shot up, and I shook my head. "Not what you're thinking. I mean how you fit another person into your life, what they expect. Not that I'm fighting with Manuel or anything."
"Ah, yes," Inez said, and clicked her teeth. "You disagree, good. You don't want to be the kind of woman who just goes along with things. That's just as bad as fighting all the time."
"It is? How?" I'd been rocking and stopped.
"That's how you lose yourself. And the other person. No is like a magic staff. If you don't use it, well--..." (133)
From the beginning I had been drawn to his intellect and lack of pretense, and later on I wondered how I had overlooked the even-keeled warmth between us as a sin of something more--that the cornerstone of a great relationship might not lie in a flush of desire, but in a trusted friend. Someone who shared similar passions and perspectives, and laughed with you at the end of a hard day. (278)
July 10, 2023
A little bit of a slow start, but this one really spoke to me in the end.
We’re following 15-year-old Mercedes Martinez at the end of the 20th century. She’s a Colombian teenager with an estranged American mother she’s never met. Her father is a prosperous sugar cane farmer with a shady past, and her life behind gates means she’s had little exposure to the sectarian violence rocking her country.
This changes when she meets a radical Catholic peace activist, a few years her senior, named Manuel. Manuel, a gifted musician, is also highly charismatic, and makes a name for himself, especially when his brother is kidnapped, speaking out against these problems.
Mercedes grows to love him in tandem with a political awakening that leads her to be more critical of her father’s dealings. Her Papi, meanwhile, is desperate to send her to a boarding school in the U.S., out of harm’s way. Tension ratchets up, and it’s almost like Martinez could be a chew toy gripped between Papi and Manuel, except that Blakeslee gives her main character more agency than that. Also, both male characters are fleshed out to the point where neither is wholly good or evil.
Still, after a long period of taking the reader through this romantic affair, things end in tragedy for Mercedes. She does elect to leave the country—behind her father’s back—and cuts off all ties with her paternal family. She meets her mom and maternal family for the first time, and she chafes under her trauma.
This is the breaking point between Blakeslee’s “part one” and “part two,” though “part one” is about twice the size. It’s obvious that this affair with Manuel, plus the aftermath, is a defining moment (or several months, more accurately) of Mercedes’s life. For the next decade and a half her life goes on in America (and other places) but she’s hobbled by the past.
Some people won’t like the rapid pacing of part two, or the fact that Mercedes’s narration shifts slightly. In part one, unless I’m forgetting something, the scene setting is as immediate for the reader as it is for the protagonist. We’re experiencing it all together. In part two, Mercedes starts talking to us from the future, looking back occasionally to cast judgment or foreshadowing. It becomes apparent that the narrative is shifting to say that whatever happens in the second act, it’s all defined by the first.
So we skip over lots of Mercedes’s experiences in her late teens and twenties, pausing only to gauge how the past just keeps creeping on in. Mercedes’s maternal family is Jewish, which largely means a couple of nods to holidays and a subplot that takes place in Israel. Said subplot carries a lot of pathos, though, as Mercedes views her Israeli experience through the lens of what she experienced in Colombia. This also leads to her opening up to a new lover, Asaf, about her past, only to be coldly rebuffed. And, of course, there’s a domino effect when it comes to how she continues to hide her past from other’s in her life, even torpedoing a relationship with her fiancé.
Ultimately, Mercedes returns to Colombia to try and tie up loose ends, though of course it doesn’t go as smoothly as she might hope. But the whole thing struck me as so real—about the complexities of relationships, politics, even growing up and forming narratives, for good, bad or in between, about our lives. Maybe Blakeslee made too strong an argument about how horrible it is to live your life without a mate, but eh. :P Maybe she even has a little bit of a point. :/ Insomuch as its hell to live life inside your own head, cutting everyone off due to trauma. That’s one way to ensure that it’ll never end.
But hey—to be a liiitle spoilery—writing (which one might gage Mercedes is doing throughout, given all the “looks back,”) turns out to be therapeutic! So brava. We end on a hopeful note after all.
We’re following 15-year-old Mercedes Martinez at the end of the 20th century. She’s a Colombian teenager with an estranged American mother she’s never met. Her father is a prosperous sugar cane farmer with a shady past, and her life behind gates means she’s had little exposure to the sectarian violence rocking her country.
This changes when she meets a radical Catholic peace activist, a few years her senior, named Manuel. Manuel, a gifted musician, is also highly charismatic, and makes a name for himself, especially when his brother is kidnapped, speaking out against these problems.
Mercedes grows to love him in tandem with a political awakening that leads her to be more critical of her father’s dealings. Her Papi, meanwhile, is desperate to send her to a boarding school in the U.S., out of harm’s way. Tension ratchets up, and it’s almost like Martinez could be a chew toy gripped between Papi and Manuel, except that Blakeslee gives her main character more agency than that. Also, both male characters are fleshed out to the point where neither is wholly good or evil.
Still, after a long period of taking the reader through this romantic affair, things end in tragedy for Mercedes. She does elect to leave the country—behind her father’s back—and cuts off all ties with her paternal family. She meets her mom and maternal family for the first time, and she chafes under her trauma.
This is the breaking point between Blakeslee’s “part one” and “part two,” though “part one” is about twice the size. It’s obvious that this affair with Manuel, plus the aftermath, is a defining moment (or several months, more accurately) of Mercedes’s life. For the next decade and a half her life goes on in America (and other places) but she’s hobbled by the past.
Some people won’t like the rapid pacing of part two, or the fact that Mercedes’s narration shifts slightly. In part one, unless I’m forgetting something, the scene setting is as immediate for the reader as it is for the protagonist. We’re experiencing it all together. In part two, Mercedes starts talking to us from the future, looking back occasionally to cast judgment or foreshadowing. It becomes apparent that the narrative is shifting to say that whatever happens in the second act, it’s all defined by the first.
So we skip over lots of Mercedes’s experiences in her late teens and twenties, pausing only to gauge how the past just keeps creeping on in. Mercedes’s maternal family is Jewish, which largely means a couple of nods to holidays and a subplot that takes place in Israel. Said subplot carries a lot of pathos, though, as Mercedes views her Israeli experience through the lens of what she experienced in Colombia. This also leads to her opening up to a new lover, Asaf, about her past, only to be coldly rebuffed. And, of course, there’s a domino effect when it comes to how she continues to hide her past from other’s in her life, even torpedoing a relationship with her fiancé.
Ultimately, Mercedes returns to Colombia to try and tie up loose ends, though of course it doesn’t go as smoothly as she might hope. But the whole thing struck me as so real—about the complexities of relationships, politics, even growing up and forming narratives, for good, bad or in between, about our lives. Maybe Blakeslee made too strong an argument about how horrible it is to live your life without a mate, but eh. :P Maybe she even has a little bit of a point. :/ Insomuch as its hell to live life inside your own head, cutting everyone off due to trauma. That’s one way to ensure that it’ll never end.
But hey—to be a liiitle spoilery—writing (which one might gage Mercedes is doing throughout, given all the “looks back,”) turns out to be therapeutic! So brava. We end on a hopeful note after all.
January 3, 2016
Overall, I found this novel to be captivating -- ambitious in its layers and full of consistent metaphors and illustrations of its themes. Young love is wistful and spontaneous, political passion is idealistic and romantic, and reality is unfeeling and disappointing and inevitable.
It's a love story. It's also a story about loyalty -- familial, social, and national. It's a story about idealism. coming of age, and loss of innocence. It's a story of social justice, freedom, privilege, and poverty, and how those concepts vary from country to country.
My one disappointment is with the structure of the novel. The first 2/3 of the story cover 5 months in the protagonist's life. It's more than back story; it is the source of the entire story and the more compelling plotline. But present day is where the meat of the story is, where the protagonist reconciles her past with her present life and where the past comes full circle. For this reason, I wish the story had been set in the present, and that the novel had alternated between flashback and present. Telling the story in a linear fashion made the protagonist's adult life seem rushed -- as it was all hurried to get her back to the reconciliation, and the last 1/3 of the novel crams in 15 years of the protagonist's life and is a vehicle for plot line development.
It's a love story. It's also a story about loyalty -- familial, social, and national. It's a story about idealism. coming of age, and loss of innocence. It's a story of social justice, freedom, privilege, and poverty, and how those concepts vary from country to country.
My one disappointment is with the structure of the novel. The first 2/3 of the story cover 5 months in the protagonist's life. It's more than back story; it is the source of the entire story and the more compelling plotline. But present day is where the meat of the story is, where the protagonist reconciles her past with her present life and where the past comes full circle. For this reason, I wish the story had been set in the present, and that the novel had alternated between flashback and present. Telling the story in a linear fashion made the protagonist's adult life seem rushed -- as it was all hurried to get her back to the reconciliation, and the last 1/3 of the novel crams in 15 years of the protagonist's life and is a vehicle for plot line development.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 25, 2015
Terrific book (and especially of interest as I'm going to Colombia in February.) Teenage girl growing up in Cali on an enormous hacienda. Her mother (Jewish, American) left when she was a baby; she has had no contact with her mother and her family since then. Father domineering, gradually - as Mercedes becomes more liberated and connected to friends - he and his friends/associates become frightening. Of course, there's a serious love interest, best girlfriends, all of the expected romance angles - but in a setting where there has been serious political violence for years, with peasants fleeing the land and the violence, and the presence of coca (with the wealth and violence that comes with drug trade.) I found this a totally engaging read, couldn't put it down.
September 27, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed Juventud. Blakeslee took me to another world with the book's setting and tone in Colombia in the novel's first act. The protagonist, Mercedes, comes of age with all manner of struggles and intrigues during an already difficult time of growing up. Then we follow her through international travels and blossoming into adulthood, learning how her unique teenage years in Colombia continue to influence her world view and choices as a successful woman. The book felt—escapist isn't the right word—transportive, taking me to other places and teaching me many things along the way.
October 26, 2016
This is the story if a young Colombian girl. When I picked up the book, I thought it was written by a Columbian. At first I thought the awkwardness of this book was that it was a translation. Nope this book was written by an American. First part 2 stars but it did improve when the character's life was close to the author's realm of experience.
I likely would not have finished this book if it weren't something I promised to read for a book swap. Others seem to really enjoy this but it seemed hollow to me. There are likely many similar stories written by Columbians and those might be a better read.
I likely would not have finished this book if it weren't something I promised to read for a book swap. Others seem to really enjoy this but it seemed hollow to me. There are likely many similar stories written by Columbians and those might be a better read.
March 28, 2016
I really enjoyed this coming-of-age story about young love amidst the turbulent 90s Colombian drug wars.
The first half of the book is told through the eyes of teenager Mercedes Martinez; the second half of the books picks up fifteen years later, when Mercedes returns after living in the US for an extended period.
It very much reminded me of Julia Alvarez, and of the more political writings of Isabel Allende. If you enjoy good writing, Latin American political stories, you'll enjoy this book.
The first half of the book is told through the eyes of teenager Mercedes Martinez; the second half of the books picks up fifteen years later, when Mercedes returns after living in the US for an extended period.
It very much reminded me of Julia Alvarez, and of the more political writings of Isabel Allende. If you enjoy good writing, Latin American political stories, you'll enjoy this book.
March 8, 2016
A sweeping story of a troubled time in a troubled place, and their effect on one girl seeking the truth about who she is and what her life is meant to look like. Blakeslee has created a riveting portrait of Colombia, with the kind of detail and compassion that make this fictional world wholly realized. As Mercedes evolves from a fifteen-year-old with little idea about her family's darkest secrets into a woman who gives perhaps too much importance to the past, Blakeslee shows us the dangers inherent in believing the worst of those we love the most.
November 8, 2015
Truly enjoyable! Review to come.
Read
November 24, 2015Review by Renita Last for the Jewish Book Council.
May 25, 2016
Maestro, play me a song, and bring me a bottle of wine, that I may drink while I am transported to another world by the notes from your vibrating strings.
November 28, 2018
2.75
Rich girl falls in love with an average compassionate guy and in their attempt to run away together their worlds shatter.
Rich girl falls in love with an average compassionate guy and in their attempt to run away together their worlds shatter.
October 31, 2018
"How have I spent the last fifteen years punishing the wrong man?"
So begins Vanessa Blakeslee's novel, Juventud, set in Colombia in 1999 and told from the perspective of a fifteen year old girl (at the time), Mercedes Martinez. When I first began this novel, this line left me breathless and aching--a phantom pain I couldn't quite pinpoint. Immediately I suspected that something had happened to Mercedes' lover, Manuel, and this knowing feeling carried me through Mercedes's tale of her last six months in Colombia before she moved to the USA. Mercedes is the daughter of a well-off Colombian farmer and wants for nothing materialistically. However, inside, she yearns to be in love. Manuel satisfies that need. Passionate, intense, fighting for peace and for what's right--he awakens something visceral in Mercedes, and she begins to look closer into her father and his business where she finds that her father has concealed much from her.
What happens next in these six months changes everyone's lives forever and sets them each on the course that will define the rest of their years. And for others--the ends of those years. What draws me the most to Juventud is Blakeslee's ability to viscerally convey intense emotions with such unaffected, simple prose. It is realistic; it is straight to the point. It is not a style I implement in my writing and not one I prefer, but there is something achingly beautiful about it. A quiet ache that mirrors Mercedes' pain after she experiences tragic loss firsthand. Blakeslee has perfected her simple style, and it's brilliant. I finished this book, looked up, and cried. Some books hit you in the face with emotions; this one cuts you little by little until you are torn open. I found Blakeslee's use of the quote by T.S. Eliot, "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper" so incredibly fitting, as Juventud screams this quote in nearly every scene--especially those with Manuel. Mercedes is bleeding. She will always bleed. She will never be whole. Yet by the end of her story, she has learned and grown in ways she wouldn't have had tragedy not befallen her. Her insights at the end were beautiful and raw and painful. Indeed, the conversation Mercedes has with her friend Gracia, made me weep:
"'I didn't think about Manuel for so long,' I said, fingering my napkin. 'I've been dreaming about him lately. What do you think that means?'
'It means you really loved him.'"
And the lines that follow after this will stay with me forever. (I would add if not for spoilers)
Thus, Juventud is a rare five-star read for me. Not because it is not without flaws, but because of the sheer beauty and questioning it forces you to do, like I have found with most literary fiction. I find midway through the book (when Mercedes arrives in Florida) the novel drags a bit. I often found I wanted to be placed more into her life as she was learning and growing during this stage--like readers can see with her life in Colombia when she was 15. But that is likely a preference and stylistic incompatibility as I am a writer myself. In addition, Blakeslee is one of my former professors, and I learned a great deal from her and have developed my own unique style since I graduated. Therefore, 5/5.
Please, please, please read this book.
So begins Vanessa Blakeslee's novel, Juventud, set in Colombia in 1999 and told from the perspective of a fifteen year old girl (at the time), Mercedes Martinez. When I first began this novel, this line left me breathless and aching--a phantom pain I couldn't quite pinpoint. Immediately I suspected that something had happened to Mercedes' lover, Manuel, and this knowing feeling carried me through Mercedes's tale of her last six months in Colombia before she moved to the USA. Mercedes is the daughter of a well-off Colombian farmer and wants for nothing materialistically. However, inside, she yearns to be in love. Manuel satisfies that need. Passionate, intense, fighting for peace and for what's right--he awakens something visceral in Mercedes, and she begins to look closer into her father and his business where she finds that her father has concealed much from her.
What happens next in these six months changes everyone's lives forever and sets them each on the course that will define the rest of their years. And for others--the ends of those years. What draws me the most to Juventud is Blakeslee's ability to viscerally convey intense emotions with such unaffected, simple prose. It is realistic; it is straight to the point. It is not a style I implement in my writing and not one I prefer, but there is something achingly beautiful about it. A quiet ache that mirrors Mercedes' pain after she experiences tragic loss firsthand. Blakeslee has perfected her simple style, and it's brilliant. I finished this book, looked up, and cried. Some books hit you in the face with emotions; this one cuts you little by little until you are torn open. I found Blakeslee's use of the quote by T.S. Eliot, "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper" so incredibly fitting, as Juventud screams this quote in nearly every scene--especially those with Manuel. Mercedes is bleeding. She will always bleed. She will never be whole. Yet by the end of her story, she has learned and grown in ways she wouldn't have had tragedy not befallen her. Her insights at the end were beautiful and raw and painful. Indeed, the conversation Mercedes has with her friend Gracia, made me weep:
"'I didn't think about Manuel for so long,' I said, fingering my napkin. 'I've been dreaming about him lately. What do you think that means?'
'It means you really loved him.'"
And the lines that follow after this will stay with me forever. (I would add if not for spoilers)
Thus, Juventud is a rare five-star read for me. Not because it is not without flaws, but because of the sheer beauty and questioning it forces you to do, like I have found with most literary fiction. I find midway through the book (when Mercedes arrives in Florida) the novel drags a bit. I often found I wanted to be placed more into her life as she was learning and growing during this stage--like readers can see with her life in Colombia when she was 15. But that is likely a preference and stylistic incompatibility as I am a writer myself. In addition, Blakeslee is one of my former professors, and I learned a great deal from her and have developed my own unique style since I graduated. Therefore, 5/5.
Please, please, please read this book.
April 10, 2021
This book is a very delightfully accurate description of Latin America.
The environment Mercedes just so happened to grow up in, and Blakeslee’ cultivated ability to depict it all was my favorite part.
That is something that foremost, very much pleases me. I absolutely love the beginning of the book. I’ve got to say that the turn of events didn’t surprise me and turned out to be westernized to the end. I guess I shouldn’t have expected much with Mercedes considering the lifestyle she grew up in and all the privileges within reach.
Another point to consider that I hadn’t given much thought about is dating outside of my ethnicity, and Blakeslee really put that into perspective. It takes much more than love to be with a different culture. It’s something that doesn’t get spoken or discussed about often.
I can proudly say Blakeslee is an author that I am looking forward.
The environment Mercedes just so happened to grow up in, and Blakeslee’ cultivated ability to depict it all was my favorite part.
That is something that foremost, very much pleases me. I absolutely love the beginning of the book. I’ve got to say that the turn of events didn’t surprise me and turned out to be westernized to the end. I guess I shouldn’t have expected much with Mercedes considering the lifestyle she grew up in and all the privileges within reach.
Another point to consider that I hadn’t given much thought about is dating outside of my ethnicity, and Blakeslee really put that into perspective. It takes much more than love to be with a different culture. It’s something that doesn’t get spoken or discussed about often.
I can proudly say Blakeslee is an author that I am looking forward.
January 11, 2021
“Juventud” is a stunning novel. It’s the story of Mercedes Martinez. Raised by her father on his well-protected sugarcane plantation and ranch in Columbia, at 15 she falls in love, attempts to piece together her father’s secrets, and begins to recognize the suffering around her. There will be no spoilers here. You’ll have to read the book to see the crazy trajectory her life takes. This was one unexpected turn after another. I found “Juventud” a beautiful, compelling, tragic, read that won’t soon leave me. And, get this, Vanessa has created a trailer for her book that you can watch on her website www.vanessablakeslee.com. How cool is that?
March 28, 2018
This book was a little slow at first but then last part redeemed that!! Vanessa blakeslee crafted the suspense masterfully. Interspersed is little nuggets of beautiful worded wisdom. I could not put the book down during the 2nd part. Although my only complaint is that the protagonist Mercedes is not very likeable. I’ll admit I had a hard time reading tot he end. Up until part 2 the only thing that compelled me to finish was the suspense, but I did so dragging. However, The ending was wonderful
January 10, 2018
This book was gorgeous and heartbreaking. I feel like this one will stay with me for awhile.
June 23, 2016
For more reviews of literary fiction by women, see my blog, www.readherlikeanopenbook.com.
As serendipity would have it, I ended up reading two books set in South America back to back. After a steady diet of fiction set in the U.S. and Europe, spending time in Colombia and Brazil constituted a much-needed change of scenery for my Westernized imagination.
Juventud (Youth) is Vanessa Blakeslee’s first novel after a stellar short collection, Train Shots. The standout story in that book was set in Costa Rica, so it’s not surprising that she would write about the manifold issues of life in Colombia at the turn of the millenium.
The story is narrated by its 30-year-old protagonist, Mercedes Martinez, who guides us through a multi-level coming of age story. The novel begins in 1999, as she looks back 15 years to the period in her life when everything changed. Mercedes is the 15-year-old daughter of a wealthy Cali landowner and an American mother who long ago fled to her home country. She adores her father, dreams of her long-absent mother (about whom she knows little and has had no contact with), and frets about her social life. She is, in other words, a fairly typical adolescent.
Mercedes’ opening observations set the stage for the textured depiction of a young woman navigating a complex set of conflicts in her personal life and her homeland.
“Along with most of the professional- to upper-class, I moved through my daily routine largely unaffected by their troubles: one in five residents out of work and unemployment rising, the streets jammed with listless young men, guerillas and government still at war after four decades, one- to two-million Colombians displaced from their villages by the bloodbaths….Otherwise, the disparity outside my windows didn’t faze me much. I was still mourning the loss of my first crush, whom I’d met at a Valentine’s dance and whose parents had swiftly enrolled him at a military school in the United States a few weeks later, after the FARC [the dominant rebel army] captured and assassinated three indigenous-rights activists, all American. That was my luck, I thought, almost sixteen and still no boyfriend. Like any teenage girl, I yearned to fall in love. Beyond that, I had few desires.”
Soon Mercedes meets Manuel, a handsome 21-year-old activist and devout Catholic, who shows her the brutal reality of the economic and cultural woes of her country. She experiences an awakening of her social conscience and now views the desplazados (displaced ones) who camp on the fringes of her family’s sugarcane plantation with new eyes. But a greater awakening awaits her, as the social justice work of Manuel causes her to examine her assumptions about her father and the past he has left shrouded in silence and misdirection.
As Mercedes becomes increasingly involved with Manuel and his activities, the fog of her youth lifts and she begins to see more clearly the circumstances of her privileged life, especially the precarious nature of her father’s financial success and social status.
An explosive event (no spoilers here) forces her to flee to the United States. The second half of Juventud follows Mercedes as she navigates culture shock, completes her education, and moves into life as a young professional. Her memories of life in Colombia remain a powerful presence and an unshakable part of her character. Her mother may have been American, and she may have lived there from age 16 on, but she is Colombian. After 15 years, events call her home, where she confronts the truth about her father and the life she thought she understood.
Blakeslee has written a multi-faceted novel that combines a coming of age story, a socio-political exploration of modern Colombia, and a sympathetic fish out of water story full of cultural conflict. It seems well-researched and accurate (to the extent I am able to judge that) and never struck a wrong note in its detailed descriptions or crisp dialogue.
What struck me as I read Juventud was that, with some judicious editing, it would make a terrific Young Adult novel about a time, a place, and a set of social and economic issues that the adolescents of 2016 know little or nothing about but would certainly find involving and enlightening.
Juventud is a satisfying and thought-provoking read, intelligent fiction that informs as it entertains.
As serendipity would have it, I ended up reading two books set in South America back to back. After a steady diet of fiction set in the U.S. and Europe, spending time in Colombia and Brazil constituted a much-needed change of scenery for my Westernized imagination.
Juventud (Youth) is Vanessa Blakeslee’s first novel after a stellar short collection, Train Shots. The standout story in that book was set in Costa Rica, so it’s not surprising that she would write about the manifold issues of life in Colombia at the turn of the millenium.
The story is narrated by its 30-year-old protagonist, Mercedes Martinez, who guides us through a multi-level coming of age story. The novel begins in 1999, as she looks back 15 years to the period in her life when everything changed. Mercedes is the 15-year-old daughter of a wealthy Cali landowner and an American mother who long ago fled to her home country. She adores her father, dreams of her long-absent mother (about whom she knows little and has had no contact with), and frets about her social life. She is, in other words, a fairly typical adolescent.
Mercedes’ opening observations set the stage for the textured depiction of a young woman navigating a complex set of conflicts in her personal life and her homeland.
“Along with most of the professional- to upper-class, I moved through my daily routine largely unaffected by their troubles: one in five residents out of work and unemployment rising, the streets jammed with listless young men, guerillas and government still at war after four decades, one- to two-million Colombians displaced from their villages by the bloodbaths….Otherwise, the disparity outside my windows didn’t faze me much. I was still mourning the loss of my first crush, whom I’d met at a Valentine’s dance and whose parents had swiftly enrolled him at a military school in the United States a few weeks later, after the FARC [the dominant rebel army] captured and assassinated three indigenous-rights activists, all American. That was my luck, I thought, almost sixteen and still no boyfriend. Like any teenage girl, I yearned to fall in love. Beyond that, I had few desires.”
Soon Mercedes meets Manuel, a handsome 21-year-old activist and devout Catholic, who shows her the brutal reality of the economic and cultural woes of her country. She experiences an awakening of her social conscience and now views the desplazados (displaced ones) who camp on the fringes of her family’s sugarcane plantation with new eyes. But a greater awakening awaits her, as the social justice work of Manuel causes her to examine her assumptions about her father and the past he has left shrouded in silence and misdirection.
As Mercedes becomes increasingly involved with Manuel and his activities, the fog of her youth lifts and she begins to see more clearly the circumstances of her privileged life, especially the precarious nature of her father’s financial success and social status.
An explosive event (no spoilers here) forces her to flee to the United States. The second half of Juventud follows Mercedes as she navigates culture shock, completes her education, and moves into life as a young professional. Her memories of life in Colombia remain a powerful presence and an unshakable part of her character. Her mother may have been American, and she may have lived there from age 16 on, but she is Colombian. After 15 years, events call her home, where she confronts the truth about her father and the life she thought she understood.
Blakeslee has written a multi-faceted novel that combines a coming of age story, a socio-political exploration of modern Colombia, and a sympathetic fish out of water story full of cultural conflict. It seems well-researched and accurate (to the extent I am able to judge that) and never struck a wrong note in its detailed descriptions or crisp dialogue.
What struck me as I read Juventud was that, with some judicious editing, it would make a terrific Young Adult novel about a time, a place, and a set of social and economic issues that the adolescents of 2016 know little or nothing about but would certainly find involving and enlightening.
Juventud is a satisfying and thought-provoking read, intelligent fiction that informs as it entertains.
April 13, 2017
Mixed feelings about this one...it's flawlessly, gorgeously written, and a very compelling story. Great characters and so many shades of gray as it explores issues of ethics, memory, and the line between personal and political. Mercedes makes for a perfect narrator, older and wiser and writing from the perspective of her naive younger self. Still, I had my issues with not really feeling the love story (why did they like each other? Why did Mercedes break from her privileged upbringing and join what she knew was a risky cause?) and occasionally feeling like Mercedes was sounding a little too American (was that on purpose, as she assimilated more? Or is it the author projecting her own culture onto her Colombian characters? Or just me not knowing Colombian culture myself?). And while I liked the slow build and abrupt climax, the bits in between her high school graduation and return to Colombia felt muddled and kind of superfluous.
Okay, some stuff bugged me, but...the writing is just so pretty, yet easy to follow, and the author explains the politics without hitting you over the head with them, and those things are rare. If you like litfic that takes on war, politics, and poverty alongside the characters' personal lives, you'll enjoy this one.
Okay, some stuff bugged me, but...the writing is just so pretty, yet easy to follow, and the author explains the politics without hitting you over the head with them, and those things are rare. If you like litfic that takes on war, politics, and poverty alongside the characters' personal lives, you'll enjoy this one.
April 2, 2016
I thought I would like this book better than I did. I lived in Medellin, Colombia for three years in the late 1980s and experienced the unrest between guerillas, narco-trafficers, and the general violence in the country. In telling Mercedes story of a teenager coming to an awareness of the role her wealthy rancher-father might have played in this unrest in the late 1990s in the area around Cali, she brings out the political and personal issues well. What troubled me the most was a sense that the author had never been to Cali, Colombia. The local things did not ring true. Cali has a fairly hot climate and he most likely would not raise alpacas in such a place. Like the ceviche that they all seem to eat and the alpacas, these things are more Peruvian than Colombian. Because the local did not ring true, I found myself not fully believing the rest. If a book has a specific locale like this, people who have been there need to feel that there is an authenticity to it in the writing.
February 1, 2016
In this impressive debut novel, Blakeslee recounts the story of Colombian teenager Mercedes Martinez, who lives with her father on a sugarcane plantation. We see the turmoil and beauty of Colombia through Mercedes’s eyes as she falls in love with a young revolutionary, tries to determine the role her father may have played in the drug trade, and attempts to reconnect with her estranged mother. A great read.
October 8, 2016
A coming of age story. I liked this one. It was a story of a girl growing up, but it was also about Colombia and drug cartels and wealth/poverty. It had romance and family drama and secrets... I think book clubs would have much to discuss. Juventud was an education and held my interest throughout.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews