Feminist+Reads

Mary:

//La Perdida // by Jessica Abel.

In this gorgeous graphic novel, Carla, a Mexican American college student who doesn't speak Spanish and has never been south of the border, tries to rediscover her "roots." It's excruciating to watch Carla self-destruct as she searches blindly for some non-existent, idealized version of Mexico, and even worse to watch her pull innocent (and not-so-innocent) bystanders into her ignorant quest for "authenticity," but it's so intensely gripping you can't look away. It's like watching a slow motion car wreck. And that's //before// the Latin Kings get involved.

Her woes are multiplied by the fact that her womanhood, her youth, and her beauty are liabilities in the //machismo// culture of many Mexican men. Her desperate need to assimilate turns her into a sexist and cripples her identity. In one horrifying scene, she rips up a poster of Frida Khalo, an artist she once admired, screaming through her tears at the macho man she is trying to impress with this act because he told her Khalo was a shill for white people.

Don't start reading this if you have other things to do that day. You won't get them done. And don't let the pictures fool you: this ain't a kids' book. Mature readers only. As the title suggests, this is a novel about loss, and Abel does not pull any punches.