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Perpetual West
The riveting, brilliant new novel by the critically-acclaimed author of Sugar Run, Perpetual West is a brilliant and evocative story of borders—between the United States and Mexico, between lovers, and between facets of the self.
When Alex and Elana move from smalltown Virginia to El Paso, they are just a young married couple, intent on a new beginning. Mexican by birth but adopted by white American Pentecostal parents, Alex is hungry to learn about the place where he was born. He spends every free moment across the border in Juárez—perfecting his Spanish, hanging with a collective of young activists, and studying lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) for his graduate work in sociology. Meanwhile Elana, busy fighting her own demons, feels disillusioned by academia and has stopped going to class. And though they are best friends, Elana has no idea that Alex has fallen in love with Mateo, a lucha libre fighter.
When Alex goes missing and Elana can’t determine whether he left of his own accord or was kidnapped, it’s clear that neither of them has been honest about who they are. Spanning their journey from Virginia to Texas to Mexico, Mesha Maren’s thrilling follow-up to Sugar Run takes us from missionaries to wrestling matches to a luxurious cartel compound, and deep into the psychic choices that shape our identities. A sweeping novel that tells us as much about our perceptions of the United States and Mexico as it does about our own natures and desires, Perpetual West is a fiercely intelligent and engaging look at the false divide between high and low culture, and a suspenseful story of how harrowing events can bring our true selves to the surface.
When Alex and Elana move from smalltown Virginia to El Paso, they are just a young married couple, intent on a new beginning. Mexican by birth but adopted by white American Pentecostal parents, Alex is hungry to learn about the place where he was born. He spends every free moment across the border in Juárez—perfecting his Spanish, hanging with a collective of young activists, and studying lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) for his graduate work in sociology. Meanwhile Elana, busy fighting her own demons, feels disillusioned by academia and has stopped going to class. And though they are best friends, Elana has no idea that Alex has fallen in love with Mateo, a lucha libre fighter.
When Alex goes missing and Elana can’t determine whether he left of his own accord or was kidnapped, it’s clear that neither of them has been honest about who they are. Spanning their journey from Virginia to Texas to Mexico, Mesha Maren’s thrilling follow-up to Sugar Run takes us from missionaries to wrestling matches to a luxurious cartel compound, and deep into the psychic choices that shape our identities. A sweeping novel that tells us as much about our perceptions of the United States and Mexico as it does about our own natures and desires, Perpetual West is a fiercely intelligent and engaging look at the false divide between high and low culture, and a suspenseful story of how harrowing events can bring our true selves to the surface.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
January 25, 2022
3.5 Stars
1,171 days ago I finished reading her debut novel, Sugar Run, which I loved, so I was excited to read this one, Perpetual West, which explores the lives of Elana, and her husband Alex, a man who was originally born in Mexico, and adopted by missionaries from West Virginia.
This story begins in 2005, when George W. Bush was then President, and when Elana, 21, and Alex make the decision to move from Virginia to El Paso, Texas, where he is a grad student studying sociology. Once settled in El Paso, and only 9 miles from Juarez, they explore the area. This is how Alex meets Mateo, a lucha libre wrestler, and an attraction begins to take shape between the two as Elana has to return to the east coast due to an urgent family matter. Mateo offers to take Alex to Creel, Mateo’s home town. Alex is only too happy to see more of the country where he was born, and absorb the culture of this place he has spent so little time in, and knows so little about.
Elana returns, only to find Alex gone, and not answering his phone with good reason. He’s been kidnapped along with Mateo. Elana is determined to find him, but it isn’t an easy task since she has little to go on, and the police tend to dismiss her concerns, all but patting her on the head while trying to convince her that he’s either just decided to leave her or has decided to take a vacation. Language is difficult as her familiarity with Spanish is minimal, which adds to her frustration for anyone to take her seriously. As time passes, she begins to struggle more with no one believing her, or being willing to listen to her concerns.
Elana and Alex’s stories are essentially separate from each other as their stories continue. Elana, desperate to find Alex, and each desperately seeking a return to some degree of normalcy. The twists and turns that have changed the path they began when they first decided to go in search of a new life have changed them along the way.
Eventually, people come along that are willing to offer help, befriend her, even though they aren’t exactly sure what to do in order to find Alex. It is the willingness to offer that help which allows her even a glimmer of hope, and gives her that essential feeling of being heard.
A story about borders, the ones we physically cross as well as the ones we create between ourselves and others through secrets - both the ones we keep from others, as well as hide from ourselves.
Published: 25 Jan 2022
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Algonquin Books
1,171 days ago I finished reading her debut novel, Sugar Run, which I loved, so I was excited to read this one, Perpetual West, which explores the lives of Elana, and her husband Alex, a man who was originally born in Mexico, and adopted by missionaries from West Virginia.
This story begins in 2005, when George W. Bush was then President, and when Elana, 21, and Alex make the decision to move from Virginia to El Paso, Texas, where he is a grad student studying sociology. Once settled in El Paso, and only 9 miles from Juarez, they explore the area. This is how Alex meets Mateo, a lucha libre wrestler, and an attraction begins to take shape between the two as Elana has to return to the east coast due to an urgent family matter. Mateo offers to take Alex to Creel, Mateo’s home town. Alex is only too happy to see more of the country where he was born, and absorb the culture of this place he has spent so little time in, and knows so little about.
Elana returns, only to find Alex gone, and not answering his phone with good reason. He’s been kidnapped along with Mateo. Elana is determined to find him, but it isn’t an easy task since she has little to go on, and the police tend to dismiss her concerns, all but patting her on the head while trying to convince her that he’s either just decided to leave her or has decided to take a vacation. Language is difficult as her familiarity with Spanish is minimal, which adds to her frustration for anyone to take her seriously. As time passes, she begins to struggle more with no one believing her, or being willing to listen to her concerns.
Elana and Alex’s stories are essentially separate from each other as their stories continue. Elana, desperate to find Alex, and each desperately seeking a return to some degree of normalcy. The twists and turns that have changed the path they began when they first decided to go in search of a new life have changed them along the way.
Eventually, people come along that are willing to offer help, befriend her, even though they aren’t exactly sure what to do in order to find Alex. It is the willingness to offer that help which allows her even a glimmer of hope, and gives her that essential feeling of being heard.
A story about borders, the ones we physically cross as well as the ones we create between ourselves and others through secrets - both the ones we keep from others, as well as hide from ourselves.
Published: 25 Jan 2022
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Algonquin Books
January 16, 2023
I loved this book but took a star off my rating because of the ending. The perfectly ambiguous moment I thought was the ending was unfortunately followed by another chapter in which Mesha Maren attempts to offer a resolution for this ambiguity. Which, paradoxically, makes it even more ambiguous because it is not really a true resolution.
It is as if she got cold feet, either did not trust her instincts or her readers’ faith in her narrative choices, or heck maybe even her publisher intervened with a big red pen. Come on, there is nothing wrong with an open-ended, er, ending.
If it is done right. Of course, I honestly think some writers just end a book when they run out of steam or ideas. But if you hit that one perfect note, as Mesha Maren does here, like a poem you do not understand but which still speaks to you and shakes your soul … that is an ending for gods and muses.
Speaking of poetry, the writing here is incandescent. Tactile and virile, I think some readers might think it detracts from what is rather a straightforward plot. But Maren’s eye for detail is incredible, and her characters leap off the page. She also writes sex scenes oozing lust and wild abandon … well, this is Mexico, after all.
When I finished reading, I quickly checked the blurb again and was pleased it does not give away the central narrative twist and subsequent events that the book depends on for its devastating and inexorable march into blood-soaked tragedy.
I actually put the book down at one point to read something else, as I was sure about where the story was going and knew in my mind that I was not really up for what I thought would amount to extended torture porn. Maren constantly wrongfoots the reader, however, but not for shock value. She genuinely understands how unpredictable and fucked-up people can be.
Sadly, while I was reading this El Paso was in the news for its migrant crisis, which continues with no resolution in sight. A 16 January Reuters article is headed: ‘New York Mayor says “no room” in his city for migrants’. Journalist Tim Reid points out: “The visit of a New York mayor to a southern border city about the issue of immigrants is unprecedented.”
While Maren’s book tackles quite a lot of heavy issues, she does so in the guise of a shimmering mythos of Mexico as an outlawed (and hence uncivilised) country that requires ‘taming’ by democratic forces (which is an oxymoron if there ever was one). She explains the theory of ‘perpetual west’ as
… this idea that, for those Americans who are still caught up in some form of the frontier thesis and manifest destiny, Mexico is the final and perpetual frontier, a place of eternal contrast that America can always compare itself favorably to. Mexico as the ultimate crucible for the formation of individual identity, a great plow to break yourself against and find out who you really are. ‘To be a gringo in Mexico—ah, that is euthanasia.’
The characters in this book wash up on the shore of this wasted frontier, where they think they can find both salvation and redemption in its unforgiving harshness, which is the exact mirror image of the verdant and sprawling United States they are used to. They are inevitably tried, found wanting, and broken repeatedly. What they discover in the wreckage is heart-breaking yet luminous in its merciless light of perpetual revelation.
It is as if she got cold feet, either did not trust her instincts or her readers’ faith in her narrative choices, or heck maybe even her publisher intervened with a big red pen. Come on, there is nothing wrong with an open-ended, er, ending.
If it is done right. Of course, I honestly think some writers just end a book when they run out of steam or ideas. But if you hit that one perfect note, as Mesha Maren does here, like a poem you do not understand but which still speaks to you and shakes your soul … that is an ending for gods and muses.
Speaking of poetry, the writing here is incandescent. Tactile and virile, I think some readers might think it detracts from what is rather a straightforward plot. But Maren’s eye for detail is incredible, and her characters leap off the page. She also writes sex scenes oozing lust and wild abandon … well, this is Mexico, after all.
When I finished reading, I quickly checked the blurb again and was pleased it does not give away the central narrative twist and subsequent events that the book depends on for its devastating and inexorable march into blood-soaked tragedy.
I actually put the book down at one point to read something else, as I was sure about where the story was going and knew in my mind that I was not really up for what I thought would amount to extended torture porn. Maren constantly wrongfoots the reader, however, but not for shock value. She genuinely understands how unpredictable and fucked-up people can be.
Sadly, while I was reading this El Paso was in the news for its migrant crisis, which continues with no resolution in sight. A 16 January Reuters article is headed: ‘New York Mayor says “no room” in his city for migrants’. Journalist Tim Reid points out: “The visit of a New York mayor to a southern border city about the issue of immigrants is unprecedented.”
While Maren’s book tackles quite a lot of heavy issues, she does so in the guise of a shimmering mythos of Mexico as an outlawed (and hence uncivilised) country that requires ‘taming’ by democratic forces (which is an oxymoron if there ever was one). She explains the theory of ‘perpetual west’ as
… this idea that, for those Americans who are still caught up in some form of the frontier thesis and manifest destiny, Mexico is the final and perpetual frontier, a place of eternal contrast that America can always compare itself favorably to. Mexico as the ultimate crucible for the formation of individual identity, a great plow to break yourself against and find out who you really are. ‘To be a gringo in Mexico—ah, that is euthanasia.’
The characters in this book wash up on the shore of this wasted frontier, where they think they can find both salvation and redemption in its unforgiving harshness, which is the exact mirror image of the verdant and sprawling United States they are used to. They are inevitably tried, found wanting, and broken repeatedly. What they discover in the wreckage is heart-breaking yet luminous in its merciless light of perpetual revelation.
February 2, 2022
Gritty and strange and a bit more violent than what I tend to go for, but still unique and fascinating.
March 12, 2023
A fascinating account of the doomed journeys that people take in an attempt to truly know themselves and their surroundings. Rich with cultural and academic discussions, Perpetual West is a seeping statement on the American Dream, the varying forms of love that we feel, and the deceptions that we weave in order to shield the inner workings of our minds and hearts. This novel poses the questions of: what does it mean to truly belong somewhere? Where is it that we are our most authentic selves? Who is in control of our decisions, and to what ends do we identify as individuals? A uniquely educational read.
Thank you so much to Goodreads and Mesha Maren for this giveaway copy!!
Thank you so much to Goodreads and Mesha Maren for this giveaway copy!!
January 26, 2022
3.5 stars
Elana and Alex are a young married couple starting out life. Although they are the best of friends neither seems fulfilled in the home they have made for themselves. Both are wanting for more. Alex, a foundling who was adopted out of Mexico and raised by White missionaries wishes to connect with his natal land. Elana yearns for agency. For the ability to make choices for herself. To be seen and not to be left behind.
As much as this novel is dealing with political borders Maren dedicates a great part to the interior self, our identity, the boundaries that separate families and those that help us define our space in this world.
"So much pain so close to home only bolstered that feeling of being chosen: the promised land, the magic line."
When this thought pops into Elana's head she is only considering the sociopolitical dynamic between the United States and Mexico. She has yet to venture back home to Appalachia. Alex has yet to disappear into Mexico. As we travel with them we learn how much pain home represents for both of them. We see them struggle to come to grips with their identities. We're hoping that even if they never find their way back to each other that they fin safety in being themselves.
Quotes:
"I was going to start living. Once I knew myself, once I knew everything. I thought I'd meet myself, walking along the street, I'd find the real me."
"He thought he understood Elana now. To put something inside your body was a heavy decision; to break the boundary and let something in, it could wreck you. Emptiness was safety."
"This place was magical. You could come from nothing, piss-poor nothing, and put on a mask and transform everything. "Here in the ring, you can dream."
Thank you Algonquin books for granting me access to this book.
Elana and Alex are a young married couple starting out life. Although they are the best of friends neither seems fulfilled in the home they have made for themselves. Both are wanting for more. Alex, a foundling who was adopted out of Mexico and raised by White missionaries wishes to connect with his natal land. Elana yearns for agency. For the ability to make choices for herself. To be seen and not to be left behind.
As much as this novel is dealing with political borders Maren dedicates a great part to the interior self, our identity, the boundaries that separate families and those that help us define our space in this world.
"So much pain so close to home only bolstered that feeling of being chosen: the promised land, the magic line."
When this thought pops into Elana's head she is only considering the sociopolitical dynamic between the United States and Mexico. She has yet to venture back home to Appalachia. Alex has yet to disappear into Mexico. As we travel with them we learn how much pain home represents for both of them. We see them struggle to come to grips with their identities. We're hoping that even if they never find their way back to each other that they fin safety in being themselves.
Quotes:
"I was going to start living. Once I knew myself, once I knew everything. I thought I'd meet myself, walking along the street, I'd find the real me."
"He thought he understood Elana now. To put something inside your body was a heavy decision; to break the boundary and let something in, it could wreck you. Emptiness was safety."
"This place was magical. You could come from nothing, piss-poor nothing, and put on a mask and transform everything. "Here in the ring, you can dream."
Thank you Algonquin books for granting me access to this book.
March 31, 2022
This long novel (almost 15 hours on audible) told me much more about Mexican wrestling than anyone could possibly want to know and the principal characters, Alex, his wife Elana and his lover Mateo seemed pathetic and helpless. Yet I found the story totally engaging. Mesha Maren writes marvellously, brilliantly evoking the squalor of a border town and the terror of the drug cartels, where the cadets at the police academy moonlight as bodyguards for the kingpins. Alex was a foundling in Juarez, raised by Pentecostal Anglos from West Virginia, who has returned with his new wife to try to discover his roots. He is enrolled at University of Texas, El Paso, in a master’s program in sociology, while Elana completes an undergraduate English major while waiting table at Suzi’s Tex-Mex restaurant. Alex’s quest to immerse himself in Mexican culture leads him into studying the fascinating subculture of lucha libre, the Mexican version of professional wrestling. Unlike wrestlers in the United States, who are often well-known public figures in entertainment and even politics, Mexican luchadores almost never reveal their real identities, always fighting masked and costumed like comic-book superheroes. Hanging about gyms where wrestlers train, Alex encounters Mateo, who fights as El Vengador del Norte—the Avenger of the North, and they become lovers. Mateo is also married, and with children as well, but they seem emotionally much more passionately in love with each other than with their spouses. Unfortunately, the Avenger’s career encounters a hitch when he encounters a new sponsor, Neto, head of a powerful drug cartel. While Elana flies back to West Virginia to visit her family—her brother just graduated from drug rehab—Alex disappears. Deep in Mexico, he and Mateo have been abducted by Neto’s gang.
Mesha Maren makes the choreographed details of lucha vivid and fascinating. There are the tecnicos, the good guys who wrestle cleanly, and the rudos, the villains who throw metal chairs. I enjoyed Sugar Run more, especially for the main character Jodi McCarty and for its evocation of Appalachian culture, but Perpetual West is a powerful and emotionally wrenching story.
Mesha Maren makes the choreographed details of lucha vivid and fascinating. There are the tecnicos, the good guys who wrestle cleanly, and the rudos, the villains who throw metal chairs. I enjoyed Sugar Run more, especially for the main character Jodi McCarty and for its evocation of Appalachian culture, but Perpetual West is a powerful and emotionally wrenching story.
February 21, 2023
This book takes place at the Texas border and Mexico. Alex and Elana move to El Paso to start a new beginning. Alex is adopted by white parents but wants to learn more about where he comes from. Elana comes home from visiting family to find Alex is missing. The cops won’t help her so she takes it upon her own hands to find him.
This book is a slow going book. You pick this up if you feel like reading a longer book because it has a lot going on. I enjoyed reading it just felt like it could get wordy at times. I gave this book a B+
Thank you Algonquin books for an Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a slow going book. You pick this up if you feel like reading a longer book because it has a lot going on. I enjoyed reading it just felt like it could get wordy at times. I gave this book a B+
Thank you Algonquin books for an Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
December 5, 2021
Book: Perpetual West
Author: Mesha Maren
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars
I would like to thank the publisher, Algonquin Books, for providing me with an ARC.
So, I’m just going to be honest, I had no idea that this was a follow-up when I picked this one up. With that being said, I felt like I did have a pretty good understanding of the story. While this may be a follow-up, I do really think you can read it as a stand alone-although, I do want to pick up Sugar Run just to see if that adds anything to the story.
I really had no idea what to expect when I went into this one. I thought it was going to be your run of the mill literally fiction, but I was wrong. We start out by following a young couple, Elana and Alex, who have moved to El Paso, Texas and spend their time crossing the Mexican border. They have came here so that Alex can discover his Mexican roots. At first, this is what the story seems like it is going to be. Just a young couple, out of their own for the first time and trying to find themselves. As the story goes on, though, you start to see the layers take shape. While this book is still a journey of self-discovery, there is more to it than that.
It happens pretty quickly too. Elana goes back to West Virginia to see her family. While she is gone, Alex slips back across the border. It is here that we start to see Alex’s second life start to come out-a life that Elana doesn’t know about. He is from Mexico, but has been adopted and raised in the US. He wants to find himself and he sees this is his chance, which Elana is all aware of. What she isn’t aware of is that Alex has fallen in love with a lucha libre fighter named Mateo. She has no idea that Mateo’s boss is also tied up with the Mexican drug cartel and that this is going to change their lives.
How? Well, Alex disappears and Elana finds herself alone. She goes into Mexico. She doesn’t have a firm grasp on Spanish nor the culture. With Elana, we get to see the American view of Mexico. We see her have to deal with the fac that she is trying to find her husband in a country that is well-known for its police corruption. We see her struggle with trying to communicate with what she is trying to do and trying to make others understand. She is isolated and doesn’t really know what to do. However, she does make friends and these friends will do everything in their power to help her. We get to see how people will come together to help someone in need and help their make it through a foreign country. We to get to see the human side of human nature.
The writing is amazing and will pull at you in all the right places. Everything is done through layers and as you get deeper into the story, you get to see just how complex and deep those layers run. It’s almost like you are in Mexico and expecting the events with the characters-that’s how good the writing is. You feel everything that happens, which is what makes me want to pick up more of this author’s works.
Anyway, I really did enjoy this title.
This book comes out on January 25, 2022.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/DVCdr3etx8M
Author: Mesha Maren
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars
I would like to thank the publisher, Algonquin Books, for providing me with an ARC.
So, I’m just going to be honest, I had no idea that this was a follow-up when I picked this one up. With that being said, I felt like I did have a pretty good understanding of the story. While this may be a follow-up, I do really think you can read it as a stand alone-although, I do want to pick up Sugar Run just to see if that adds anything to the story.
I really had no idea what to expect when I went into this one. I thought it was going to be your run of the mill literally fiction, but I was wrong. We start out by following a young couple, Elana and Alex, who have moved to El Paso, Texas and spend their time crossing the Mexican border. They have came here so that Alex can discover his Mexican roots. At first, this is what the story seems like it is going to be. Just a young couple, out of their own for the first time and trying to find themselves. As the story goes on, though, you start to see the layers take shape. While this book is still a journey of self-discovery, there is more to it than that.
It happens pretty quickly too. Elana goes back to West Virginia to see her family. While she is gone, Alex slips back across the border. It is here that we start to see Alex’s second life start to come out-a life that Elana doesn’t know about. He is from Mexico, but has been adopted and raised in the US. He wants to find himself and he sees this is his chance, which Elana is all aware of. What she isn’t aware of is that Alex has fallen in love with a lucha libre fighter named Mateo. She has no idea that Mateo’s boss is also tied up with the Mexican drug cartel and that this is going to change their lives.
How? Well, Alex disappears and Elana finds herself alone. She goes into Mexico. She doesn’t have a firm grasp on Spanish nor the culture. With Elana, we get to see the American view of Mexico. We see her have to deal with the fac that she is trying to find her husband in a country that is well-known for its police corruption. We see her struggle with trying to communicate with what she is trying to do and trying to make others understand. She is isolated and doesn’t really know what to do. However, she does make friends and these friends will do everything in their power to help her. We get to see how people will come together to help someone in need and help their make it through a foreign country. We to get to see the human side of human nature.
The writing is amazing and will pull at you in all the right places. Everything is done through layers and as you get deeper into the story, you get to see just how complex and deep those layers run. It’s almost like you are in Mexico and expecting the events with the characters-that’s how good the writing is. You feel everything that happens, which is what makes me want to pick up more of this author’s works.
Anyway, I really did enjoy this title.
This book comes out on January 25, 2022.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/DVCdr3etx8M
January 29, 2022
A literary fiction novel that discusses a myriad of topics regarding the cross-culture border issues with Mexico and the United States. This book shows you Mexico from the inside in, and from an outsider’s point of view.
Alex was adopted as an infant from Mexico and given to a family in West Virginia. As he becomes an adult, studying Mexican culture for his thesis, he finds himself in Juàrez, Mexico looking to find himself, or join himself there to help with his culture identity that was done away with once he was adopted by a white American religious couple. He’s also trying to work on his post-graduate degree program about the parallels in Lucha Libre fighting regarding the government and the power and corruption that goes along with it (the tecnico vs. the rudo). We also learn that Alex is married to Elana, and she is also in school, but finds herself getting lost in the reason why she’s in school, and losing interest in life in general. She’s also struggling with some issues of identity, mixed in with grief about her late mother, learning about her brother who is going through drug rehab, she somehow has some sort of eating disorder, and a distant father who isn’t really capable of helping her sort things out.
From Alex, we meet Mateo, who is a Lucha Libre fighter. We learn that that Alex and Mateo have fallen in love, and Alex’s love for lucha libra and Mateo are coming to a dangerous point of no return. Alex winds up missing after a secret rendezvous with Mateo, while Elana is back home welcoming her brother back from rehab, and Elana learns all of this when she gets back to El Paso, Texas after a week in West Virginia.
This book is so multi-layered and deep, it’s easy to fall in love with the way the author works this story out. There is a great deal of intensity, surprise, emotion, despair, action, thrill, and fierceness while we uncover all that’s happening in this book. This book is also having its own conversations about the cross-culture border issues that the US has with Mexico. We learn about how both countries interact, and how they do not. We see the limitations of the cross-cultural ties, and how they work with or against each other.
This book is also having a conversation about the dangers and peril many citizens face with the government in Mexico. The cartels and police who are essentially teamed up together and working in harmony to keep some sort of level of corruption visible, but unable to be unraveled at the same time. The slippery slope many people have to go down in order to survive or have some semblance of order around them because of the constant corruption.
The book also focuses on Elana and her identity issues. She and Alex are very young and newly married, with limited adult experiences, and we see her grow disillusioned with academia. We also see her struggling with decisions about her life, and her eating. There is a conversation about control (self-control vs. willingness vs. forced behaviors) that is consuming her. In the midst of her grappling with being a new couple, struggling with Alex’s determination with learning about his Mexican heritage, and her limited knowledge of Spanish, and her frequent trips to Juàrez, we see her trying to find herself. In the middle of all this, Alex winds up missing after venturing into Juàrez while she’s in West Virginia, and she has to find some control over herself as she goes looking for Alex.
There is so much to discuss in this book, that I would think it would be a great bookclub read. However, there is something missing to me here in this story that I found this story incomplete. There were lots to explore, but sadly, none of those tangents were really expounded on or explained. They just sort of drifted throughout the story and it seems like it’s up to the reader to put some of the pieces together.
Some of the topics discussed in this book:
- Self-discovery
- Identity
- Cross-culture border issues
- Violence/corruption
- LGBTQIA+
- Mexican culture
- Colonialism
- Eracism of culture after adoption (transracial adoptee)
TW: eating disorder (i.e., anorexia), kidnapping
Overall, this book was well-written, though a bit long in some parts, and the ending for me was anti-climatic and vague despite all of the exorbitant detail in the rest of the book. I give this 3.5 stars, but will not round it up. I would like to read her first book, “Sugar Run,” to see if there is more to add to this story, as I learned this was a follow-up book to her first one.
Thank you to Algonquin Books and the author Mesha Maren for this book in exchange for a fair and honest opinion.
Alex was adopted as an infant from Mexico and given to a family in West Virginia. As he becomes an adult, studying Mexican culture for his thesis, he finds himself in Juàrez, Mexico looking to find himself, or join himself there to help with his culture identity that was done away with once he was adopted by a white American religious couple. He’s also trying to work on his post-graduate degree program about the parallels in Lucha Libre fighting regarding the government and the power and corruption that goes along with it (the tecnico vs. the rudo). We also learn that Alex is married to Elana, and she is also in school, but finds herself getting lost in the reason why she’s in school, and losing interest in life in general. She’s also struggling with some issues of identity, mixed in with grief about her late mother, learning about her brother who is going through drug rehab, she somehow has some sort of eating disorder, and a distant father who isn’t really capable of helping her sort things out.
From Alex, we meet Mateo, who is a Lucha Libre fighter. We learn that that Alex and Mateo have fallen in love, and Alex’s love for lucha libra and Mateo are coming to a dangerous point of no return. Alex winds up missing after a secret rendezvous with Mateo, while Elana is back home welcoming her brother back from rehab, and Elana learns all of this when she gets back to El Paso, Texas after a week in West Virginia.
This book is so multi-layered and deep, it’s easy to fall in love with the way the author works this story out. There is a great deal of intensity, surprise, emotion, despair, action, thrill, and fierceness while we uncover all that’s happening in this book. This book is also having its own conversations about the cross-culture border issues that the US has with Mexico. We learn about how both countries interact, and how they do not. We see the limitations of the cross-cultural ties, and how they work with or against each other.
This book is also having a conversation about the dangers and peril many citizens face with the government in Mexico. The cartels and police who are essentially teamed up together and working in harmony to keep some sort of level of corruption visible, but unable to be unraveled at the same time. The slippery slope many people have to go down in order to survive or have some semblance of order around them because of the constant corruption.
The book also focuses on Elana and her identity issues. She and Alex are very young and newly married, with limited adult experiences, and we see her grow disillusioned with academia. We also see her struggling with decisions about her life, and her eating. There is a conversation about control (self-control vs. willingness vs. forced behaviors) that is consuming her. In the midst of her grappling with being a new couple, struggling with Alex’s determination with learning about his Mexican heritage, and her limited knowledge of Spanish, and her frequent trips to Juàrez, we see her trying to find herself. In the middle of all this, Alex winds up missing after venturing into Juàrez while she’s in West Virginia, and she has to find some control over herself as she goes looking for Alex.
There is so much to discuss in this book, that I would think it would be a great bookclub read. However, there is something missing to me here in this story that I found this story incomplete. There were lots to explore, but sadly, none of those tangents were really expounded on or explained. They just sort of drifted throughout the story and it seems like it’s up to the reader to put some of the pieces together.
Some of the topics discussed in this book:
- Self-discovery
- Identity
- Cross-culture border issues
- Violence/corruption
- LGBTQIA+
- Mexican culture
- Colonialism
- Eracism of culture after adoption (transracial adoptee)
TW: eating disorder (i.e., anorexia), kidnapping
Overall, this book was well-written, though a bit long in some parts, and the ending for me was anti-climatic and vague despite all of the exorbitant detail in the rest of the book. I give this 3.5 stars, but will not round it up. I would like to read her first book, “Sugar Run,” to see if there is more to add to this story, as I learned this was a follow-up book to her first one.
Thank you to Algonquin Books and the author Mesha Maren for this book in exchange for a fair and honest opinion.
March 22, 2022
I really wanted to like this book. It had so much potential to tell a very relevant story about my heritage, Mexico, the border, Mexican culture, the in between-ness of Mexican-Americans & immigrants. What a hot mess!
December 26, 2021
probably 3 stars on balance, but the comment about elana having been on a birthright trip (specifically, visiting kibbutzim, and subsequently not analysed and never mentioned again) was fucking weird
Rep: gay Mexican mc, bi Mexican mc, Jewish mc, Jewish side characters
CWs: violence, drug use, past death of a parent, disordered eating, zionism (mention of birthright trip), self harm, vomiting, torture
Rep: gay Mexican mc, bi Mexican mc, Jewish mc, Jewish side characters
CWs: violence, drug use, past death of a parent, disordered eating, zionism (mention of birthright trip), self harm, vomiting, torture
January 25, 2022
This was a challenging read for the subject matter and important for providing a different viewpoint. The author is definitely talented and I can't wait to share some quotes.
Full RTC.
Thank you to Algonquin Books and the author for the gifted review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: 01/25/2022
Full RTC.
Thank you to Algonquin Books and the author for the gifted review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: 01/25/2022
January 31, 2022
I just finished Perpetual West by Mesha Maren. This one had the feel of a really dark noir with a somber cast of characters. The writing is picturesque and you feel transported to the setting. The story alternates between two POV's. I preferred Alex, the husband's POV because it felt more fully fleshed out and I enjoyed the lucha culture contained in his storyline. This one is very, slow paced and stays that way throughout so you really get the sense of dread and uncertainty that dominates this whole story. If you're looking for a story that is deeply contemplative, has beautiful prose and you have no expectations of happy endings then this one will work for you.
Essentially this was a story with dark themes about:
🏜 Borders:
● how people wall themselves up in relationships to protect themselves, their secrets and their trauma
● how physical land borders are perceived based on the observer and the power hierarchy
● the ways that borders are used to determine who is allowed entry and who is "the other"
🏜 Life in El Paso, the physical environment and how it has its own culture
🏜 Transracial adoption:
● how it doesn't sever the tie to homeland and search for identity
● how your culture lives in you innately
● how language is important to reconnecting with your roots
● erasure of culture that occurs
🏜 Lucha libre as a metaphor for power and corruption and the dark side of the industry
🏜 How the U.S. is complicit in creating the border crisis and the rise of criminal enterprises like cartels
🏜 How people perceive others based on their own cultural lens
🏜 Complicated queer love story
🏜 Disordered Eating
🏜 Religious mission trips and white saviorism
Thanks to @algonquinbooks for the gifted copy.
Essentially this was a story with dark themes about:
🏜 Borders:
● how people wall themselves up in relationships to protect themselves, their secrets and their trauma
● how physical land borders are perceived based on the observer and the power hierarchy
● the ways that borders are used to determine who is allowed entry and who is "the other"
🏜 Life in El Paso, the physical environment and how it has its own culture
🏜 Transracial adoption:
● how it doesn't sever the tie to homeland and search for identity
● how your culture lives in you innately
● how language is important to reconnecting with your roots
● erasure of culture that occurs
🏜 Lucha libre as a metaphor for power and corruption and the dark side of the industry
🏜 How the U.S. is complicit in creating the border crisis and the rise of criminal enterprises like cartels
🏜 How people perceive others based on their own cultural lens
🏜 Complicated queer love story
🏜 Disordered Eating
🏜 Religious mission trips and white saviorism
Thanks to @algonquinbooks for the gifted copy.
January 21, 2022
Young marrieds Elana and Alex have multifaceted intentions behind their move to El Paso. Both plan to continue their college studies, with Alex focusing his research on lucha libre--a kind of theatrical Mexican wrestling. Alex also hopes the proximity to Juarez will provide opportunities to learn more about his Mexican birth mother. Neither Elana nor Alex openly acknowledges the fault lines in their marriage, or the complicated motivations that drive their decisions once their El Paso life begins. When Elana returns home to deal with a family crisis, Alex pursues a closer relationship with Mateo, a well-known wrestler with demons of his own--a choice that draws him deep into Juarez’s underbelly. When Alex disappears, Elana finds herself alone--knowing in her heart that something terrible has happened, but being told at every turn that Alex has simply left her. The truth lurks in territory neither one of them is prepared to confront.
The border of El Paso and Juarez is both the physical setting of this novel and its thematic center. At times, Alex and Elana’s position as Americans in Mexico seems to be all-defining; yet their commitment to their own journeys allows them a more intimate access. Mesha Maren succeeds in offering readers an insider’s view of impenetrable communities, and Elana’s search for Alex will leave readers breathless.
***Review originally written for the City Book Review. I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.***
The border of El Paso and Juarez is both the physical setting of this novel and its thematic center. At times, Alex and Elana’s position as Americans in Mexico seems to be all-defining; yet their commitment to their own journeys allows them a more intimate access. Mesha Maren succeeds in offering readers an insider’s view of impenetrable communities, and Elana’s search for Alex will leave readers breathless.
***Review originally written for the City Book Review. I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.***
February 3, 2023
{3.5 stars}
“How we other-ize people, separate ourselves from them, and how this allows us to stop feeling compassion.”
———————
Whew, boy, I am 100% sure that there was so much in this that went over my head. The writing was really beautiful… And there are so many quotes that struck me very deeply, above is just one example.
I enjoyed the story, and, as usual, I liked one story more than the other… but unusually my story preference switched halfway through. initially, I was really bought into Elana’s story about her drug addicted brother in the Appalachian’s and not so much in Alex’s story. But as Alex went missing, I was much more interested in his story than Elana finding him. I completely understood the allusion of the physical border to the borders we hold in our minds. The evolution of Elana and Alex as individuals was really compelling.
What I am sure I missed was the more political and philosophical messages. I am glad I read it… But I think this is one that probably needs a second read to fully absorb all that there is contained within.
Thanks to Algonquin books for the gifted copy. All opinions above are my own.
“How we other-ize people, separate ourselves from them, and how this allows us to stop feeling compassion.”
———————
Whew, boy, I am 100% sure that there was so much in this that went over my head. The writing was really beautiful… And there are so many quotes that struck me very deeply, above is just one example.
I enjoyed the story, and, as usual, I liked one story more than the other… but unusually my story preference switched halfway through. initially, I was really bought into Elana’s story about her drug addicted brother in the Appalachian’s and not so much in Alex’s story. But as Alex went missing, I was much more interested in his story than Elana finding him. I completely understood the allusion of the physical border to the borders we hold in our minds. The evolution of Elana and Alex as individuals was really compelling.
What I am sure I missed was the more political and philosophical messages. I am glad I read it… But I think this is one that probably needs a second read to fully absorb all that there is contained within.
Thanks to Algonquin books for the gifted copy. All opinions above are my own.
February 26, 2022
Mesha Maren has some skills when it comes to describing landscapes, architecture and retelling historical events. Every primary character in “Perpetual West” is complex and troubled which makes for an heavy reading experience. It was hard to like or root for any of them and there are too many woke topics for one story.
Immigration, cartels, drugs, LGBTQ, crooked government, warped evangelicals; these are some of the key themes running thru the storyline; it’s just too much for one book, IMO. It takes a long time for the story to get going and develop.
After finally finding it’s rhythm around the 275 page mark, there are 100 fast moving, engrossing pages. I suddenly realized there were just a few pages left, (12, I think), and no resolution in sight. What is going on? A cliffhanger? I hate those! Nope, no cliffhanger, it’s a compact ending that I found unsatisfying.
All things considered, definitely an adult rated book for language, sex and violence📚
Immigration, cartels, drugs, LGBTQ, crooked government, warped evangelicals; these are some of the key themes running thru the storyline; it’s just too much for one book, IMO. It takes a long time for the story to get going and develop.
After finally finding it’s rhythm around the 275 page mark, there are 100 fast moving, engrossing pages. I suddenly realized there were just a few pages left, (12, I think), and no resolution in sight. What is going on? A cliffhanger? I hate those! Nope, no cliffhanger, it’s a compact ending that I found unsatisfying.
All things considered, definitely an adult rated book for language, sex and violence📚
January 31, 2022
this book is a parody of itself —
“So an Anglo woman's perspective on other Anglo perspectives on Mexicans, no Mexican perspective necessary at all."
no real gay plot line, and for a book mostly set in Mexico it sure revolves a lot around white people. no representation, just the most tokenizing stereotypes u can imagine
“So an Anglo woman's perspective on other Anglo perspectives on Mexicans, no Mexican perspective necessary at all."
no real gay plot line, and for a book mostly set in Mexico it sure revolves a lot around white people. no representation, just the most tokenizing stereotypes u can imagine
February 12, 2022
Alex and Elena grew up in West Virginia. Elena's family had lived there for years but Alex was adopted as a baby by local residents who had gone to Mexico as missionaries. They got close in college and married, sure that each had found their soulmate. Restless, the couple came up with the plan to move to El Paso so that Alex could try to investigate his origins.
The two entered graduate programs in Texas. Alex decided to write his thesis on lucha libra, the wrestling industry that so enchanted the population. The wrestlers are idolized and are like rock stars. Alex didn't expect to fall in love with Mateo and Elena has no idea that Alex has drifted from her and their relationship.
When Elena goes home for a week for a family issue, Alex takes the opportunity to spend the week in Mexico with Mateo. But Mateo has his own issues. He is caught up in a struggle within the industry and the drug cartel wants to move in and take the contracts of the top wrestlers. Mateo and Alex are kidnapped and taken to the home of the cartel head.
When Elena returns, she begins to search for Alex. She quickly learns how little of his life she knew and she thinks of all the secrets she had been hiding from him. Did they know each other at all? Was their marriage ever anymore than a convenience to propel them out of West Virginia? As she travels through Mexico looking for him, Elena meets many people who help in their own ways but she has no success.
Mesha Maren has written one other novel, Sugar Run. In this novel, she explores the loneliness we all carry and the difficulty in breaking down the barriers and letting others know our secrets. The reader will feel the desperation and despair that Elena feels as she searches and Alex's terror as he contemplates where his secrets have brought him. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.
The two entered graduate programs in Texas. Alex decided to write his thesis on lucha libra, the wrestling industry that so enchanted the population. The wrestlers are idolized and are like rock stars. Alex didn't expect to fall in love with Mateo and Elena has no idea that Alex has drifted from her and their relationship.
When Elena goes home for a week for a family issue, Alex takes the opportunity to spend the week in Mexico with Mateo. But Mateo has his own issues. He is caught up in a struggle within the industry and the drug cartel wants to move in and take the contracts of the top wrestlers. Mateo and Alex are kidnapped and taken to the home of the cartel head.
When Elena returns, she begins to search for Alex. She quickly learns how little of his life she knew and she thinks of all the secrets she had been hiding from him. Did they know each other at all? Was their marriage ever anymore than a convenience to propel them out of West Virginia? As she travels through Mexico looking for him, Elena meets many people who help in their own ways but she has no success.
Mesha Maren has written one other novel, Sugar Run. In this novel, she explores the loneliness we all carry and the difficulty in breaking down the barriers and letting others know our secrets. The reader will feel the desperation and despair that Elena feels as she searches and Alex's terror as he contemplates where his secrets have brought him. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.
August 3, 2022
This book was doing too much. The writing was too over the top, where every miniscule object, place, and thing had to be described in such painstaking elaborate detail that it distracted more than added to the story. The story itself was trying to tackle soo many topics but didn't really explore any of them that well. It also didn't feel authentic to me, everything about this novel was steeped in way too many cliches and stereotypes about Mexico and Mexican people, and clearly wasn't written by a Mexican person. The characters were just...there. There was no reason to connect to them, I just didn't care about them. Things just...happened. Like, a lot of things happened, it was plot heavy and had stakes galore, but I was never that interested, as everything felt too hammy and drawn out after a while and was trying too hard. I wanted to like this story, but I kept zoning out as the book just never hooked me in despite the fascinating premise. I was not only lost, but bored.
December 16, 2021
I was a huge fan of Maren's debut, Sugar Run, and was so excited to read this second novel by her. While there were some familiar things - the writing, the dark and gritty nature of the story, the attachment formed as you read - there was also something missing for me. I appreciated Maren's commentary on Mexico through the eyes of Americans, I loved the lucha libre fighting part of the book, and I also thought the cross border culture was captivating and interesting. But as the story unfolded, I began to get lost in some of Maren's tangeants - and I'm bummed because I'm sure there's something there, it just didn't make the connection for me in a way that I could relate it the overall reading experience.
July 13, 2023
I went in to this a little blind and I'm so glad I did. I didn't know it was a companion/follow up type of novel because I hadn't read the first one, but I think it stands well on its own and I didn't feel like I was missing anything.
But the story swept me away. The relationship, the searching for his roots and identity. It was amazing and heartbreaking and I was so invested. Once Elana is on her own searching, my heart just broke since we had so much more information that she did.
This was a great read, one that swept me up and held me until the end. I loved it!
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
But the story swept me away. The relationship, the searching for his roots and identity. It was amazing and heartbreaking and I was so invested. Once Elana is on her own searching, my heart just broke since we had so much more information that she did.
This was a great read, one that swept me up and held me until the end. I loved it!
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
February 20, 2022
I expected more from Alex's character development, especially because of where he found himself as he followed El Vengador into the nether worlds of ethnic wrestling and drug cartels. His slide into the abyss was almost too easy for the intellectual personality he brought into the relationship with Matteo. Seemingly disparate was Elana's awakening as a young woman who finds her voice after going through a series of deliberate nihilistic behaviors. Although their familial genesis from Appalachia and subsequent journeys into the border towns of Texas and Mexico is consequential to the plot's denouement, I found the resolution too abrupt in light of the themes raised regarding identify.
March 12, 2022
A strange book about identity, culture, language, loneliness, eating disorder, wrestling, kidnapping, sexuality and characters that are troubled.
The book goes through multiple character’s perspectives, and one of them had a personality/ thought progress that was off-putting. I found that character quite unlikeable.
As for the other two characters, they were more interesting but frustrating in their own ways. The writing is pretty good— with detailed descriptions of places and surroundings.
However, I couldn’t get into the story despite the interesting premise because of my lack of investment in the characters. I won this book via Goodreads Giveaway.
The book goes through multiple character’s perspectives, and one of them had a personality/ thought progress that was off-putting. I found that character quite unlikeable.
As for the other two characters, they were more interesting but frustrating in their own ways. The writing is pretty good— with detailed descriptions of places and surroundings.
However, I couldn’t get into the story despite the interesting premise because of my lack of investment in the characters. I won this book via Goodreads Giveaway.
March 28, 2022
While it took me awhile to finish this book, each time I picked it up I couldn’t put it down, I just didn’t read much this past month. With that being said, this book is one of the best I’ve read in the last few months. It brought up many hard topics, but they made the story what it was. As a warning, there is some violence in the book, which I know isn’t always for everyone. This book truly got me out of my reading slump!
September 6, 2022
Cuckoo no conclusion ending!
I really enjoyed the themes of community and the idiocy of identity. Betrayal and boundaries. Very meandering and thematic but with urgent plot which is fun, but not super concise in its ideas. The loose switching perspective is just what contemporary fiction is now, I guess. Would love to read Maren again!
I really enjoyed the themes of community and the idiocy of identity. Betrayal and boundaries. Very meandering and thematic but with urgent plot which is fun, but not super concise in its ideas. The loose switching perspective is just what contemporary fiction is now, I guess. Would love to read Maren again!
dnf
February 18, 2023DNF. I couldn’t get into this one at all. The characters weren’t interesting to me and it felt very slow.
May 2, 2023
This was a really good book that I didn't much like. Took me a long time to get through, and left me with too many unanswered questions. Some beautiful parts, but didn't come together for me.
February 7, 2023
(3.75 stars rounded up) PERPETUAL WEST by Mesha Maren is a novel about two cities (El Paso and Juarez), two countries (the USA and Mexico), and two people (newlyweds Alex and Elana), swirled together in a blend of domestic drama, lush prose, and a tinge of noir.
Newly settled in El Paso, Alex is working on his thesis on lucha libre, hanging out with lefties in Juarez, and reconnecting with his Mexican roots. Elana is working at a diner, skipping class, and forgoing meals. Unbeknownst to her, Alex has become involved with Mateo, a lucha libre wrestler, and when he goes missing, Elana starts a quest to track him down.
Leaping from meth addiction and religious devotion in rural West Virginia to the vise-like grip of drug cartels in Mexico, the book covered a lot of themes, including queer identity, adoption, the white gaze, corruption, and who we become under pressure. The absolute highlight of this novel for me was Maren’s dazzling writing. Her descriptions of the setting caught my breath, and the sense of place was incredible throughout.
However, I definitely wished to see how Alex and Elana interacted as best friends before things went off the rails, because a lot of the emotional valence of the book rides on Elana being keen to find him, and I wasn’t convinced. Plus, the epilogue raised way more questions than the already ambivalent (and totally adequate) ending of the book.
My hesitation in recommending this one is that if I were Mexican or Mexican American, I’m not sure how I’d feel about a non-Mexican writing this kind of narrative about my homeland. I couldn’t find any Own Voices reviews, but I’m committed to reading two books by authors of Mexican descent after this one! Also, its target audience may be hard to pinpoint – possibly readers who would enjoy the unlikely love child of Deepti Kapoor’s AGE OF VICE (also a violent thriller about the underbelly of the lives of the corrupt and wealthy) and Hernan Diaz’s IN THE DISTANCE (for its evocative depictions of the land).
Newly settled in El Paso, Alex is working on his thesis on lucha libre, hanging out with lefties in Juarez, and reconnecting with his Mexican roots. Elana is working at a diner, skipping class, and forgoing meals. Unbeknownst to her, Alex has become involved with Mateo, a lucha libre wrestler, and when he goes missing, Elana starts a quest to track him down.
Leaping from meth addiction and religious devotion in rural West Virginia to the vise-like grip of drug cartels in Mexico, the book covered a lot of themes, including queer identity, adoption, the white gaze, corruption, and who we become under pressure. The absolute highlight of this novel for me was Maren’s dazzling writing. Her descriptions of the setting caught my breath, and the sense of place was incredible throughout.
However, I definitely wished to see how Alex and Elana interacted as best friends before things went off the rails, because a lot of the emotional valence of the book rides on Elana being keen to find him, and I wasn’t convinced. Plus, the epilogue raised way more questions than the already ambivalent (and totally adequate) ending of the book.
My hesitation in recommending this one is that if I were Mexican or Mexican American, I’m not sure how I’d feel about a non-Mexican writing this kind of narrative about my homeland. I couldn’t find any Own Voices reviews, but I’m committed to reading two books by authors of Mexican descent after this one! Also, its target audience may be hard to pinpoint – possibly readers who would enjoy the unlikely love child of Deepti Kapoor’s AGE OF VICE (also a violent thriller about the underbelly of the lives of the corrupt and wealthy) and Hernan Diaz’s IN THE DISTANCE (for its evocative depictions of the land).
Read
March 10, 2022
Trigger & Content Warnings
Disordered eating
Self-harm
Drug use
Emesis
Death of a parent recounted
Torture
Disordered eating
Self-harm
Drug use
Emesis
Death of a parent recounted
Torture
March 29, 2023
As indicated by my choice of stars, I really liked this book. I think the prose was beautiful, subtle descriptions inviting you to see the scenes and feel the things. There were details about politics and people, lucha libre and border towns, religious fanaticism and eating disorders that also made the story seem real, the people real, the situation real... but, I'm just not sure how I feel about the ending. It works. I respect it for its ambiguity, but what it made me feel most, was just how difficult endings can be to write in a satisfying way ;)
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