La Perdida (Pantheon Graphic Novels)
3 journalers for this copy...
I found this fair-condition softcover at a local Savers thrift shop, and thought it looked intriguing: a graphic novel about a young woman who goes to Mexico City to "find herself" and gets caught up in some unexpected situations. (I enjoyed Abel's vampire-themed graphic novel Life Sucks.)
Later: This was actually a hard read for me, mainly because the protagonist, Carla, was difficult for me to like or even empathize with. Oh, her initial decision to set out for Mexico without much in the way of planning was intriguing - though not something I'd ever do, as I like to have some idea of where I'm going to stay and what I'm going to do before I start crossing international borders! But she wound up rooming with an ex, getting involved with a drinking-and-drug-using crowd, breaking social rules and behaving in a less-than-sympathetic manner all the while wondering why nothing seemed to be working out for her... Yeah. Even her attempts at finding work, which showed promise for a while, went wrong later.
And then the story took a very dark turn indeed, when the ex-lover she'd roomed with at the beginning of the story (and who'd eventually kicked her out after she'd looooong overstayed her welcome) gets kidnapped. She sees this in the paper - and finds it more fascinating than tragic. She's distanced herself from him, understandably, and I can grasp the voyeur instinct, but her attitude is awfully cold, something she admits herself.
The reader will have picked up on a number of clues that Carla has missed, so what happens next may not be that surprising, but the author takes the story into gut-wrenching, guilt-ridden territory - and even though I was in full agreement with Carla herself as to her culpability in all this, I wound up finding her more sympathetic than I'd have dreamed possible!
Not, perhaps, the best advertisement for vacationing in Mexico, but an involving story, gritty and dark and sometimes very funny. It also raises issues of racism and elitism - and reverse-snobbery, as Carla sometimes seems to be trying a bit too hard to discover her Mexican heritage, often at the expense of treating people like individuals.
Among my favorite side bits: the ones about William S. Burroughs and the death of his wife, inserted early on as local color. The fictional characters are staying in the same building where the shooting happened, though the author's notes at the end show that the building, too, was fictionalized. But this story comes back to bite our heroine in a dramatic scene at about the 1/3rd point of the book.
Later: This was actually a hard read for me, mainly because the protagonist, Carla, was difficult for me to like or even empathize with. Oh, her initial decision to set out for Mexico without much in the way of planning was intriguing - though not something I'd ever do, as I like to have some idea of where I'm going to stay and what I'm going to do before I start crossing international borders! But she wound up rooming with an ex, getting involved with a drinking-and-drug-using crowd, breaking social rules and behaving in a less-than-sympathetic manner all the while wondering why nothing seemed to be working out for her... Yeah. Even her attempts at finding work, which showed promise for a while, went wrong later.
And then the story took a very dark turn indeed, when the ex-lover she'd roomed with at the beginning of the story (and who'd eventually kicked her out after she'd looooong overstayed her welcome) gets kidnapped. She sees this in the paper - and finds it more fascinating than tragic. She's distanced herself from him, understandably, and I can grasp the voyeur instinct, but her attitude is awfully cold, something she admits herself.
The reader will have picked up on a number of clues that Carla has missed, so what happens next may not be that surprising, but the author takes the story into gut-wrenching, guilt-ridden territory - and even though I was in full agreement with Carla herself as to her culpability in all this, I wound up finding her more sympathetic than I'd have dreamed possible!
Not, perhaps, the best advertisement for vacationing in Mexico, but an involving story, gritty and dark and sometimes very funny. It also raises issues of racism and elitism - and reverse-snobbery, as Carla sometimes seems to be trying a bit too hard to discover her Mexican heritage, often at the expense of treating people like individuals.
Among my favorite side bits: the ones about William S. Burroughs and the death of his wife, inserted early on as local color. The fictional characters are staying in the same building where the shooting happened, though the author's notes at the end show that the building, too, was fictionalized. But this story comes back to bite our heroine in a dramatic scene at about the 1/3rd point of the book.
I'm putting this book in the manga/graphic novel bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Enjoy!
Taken from the manga box.
Sent out as part of the Wishlist Tag Game.
I was finding this slow-going to read, so I didn't finish it before sending it on to the next person.
I was finding this slow-going to read, so I didn't finish it before sending it on to the next person.
A girl with a lazy eye,
can't be bothered but
to follow it blindly.
can't be bothered but
to follow it blindly.
