By: Jessica Abel Publisher: Pantheon Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 288 Publication Date: May 20, 2008 Release Date: May 20, 2008 Studio: Pantheon
Product Description: From the Harvey and Lulu awardâwinning creator of Artbabe comes this riveting story of a young womanâs misadventures in Mexico City. Carla, an American estranged from her Mexican father, heads to Mexico City to âfind herself.â She crashes with a former fling, Harry, who has been drinking his way through the capital in the great tradition of his heroes, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Harry is goodâhumored about Carlaâs reappearance on his doorstepâuntil he realizes that Carla, who spends her days soaking in the city, exploring Frida Kahloâs house, and learning Spanish, has no intention of leaving.
When Harry and Carlaâs relationship of mutual tolerance reaches its inevitable end, she rejects his world of Anglo expats for her own set of friends: pretty-boy Oscar, who sells pot and dreams of being a DJ, and charismatic Memo, a left-wing, pseudoâintellectual ladiesâ man. Determined to experience the real Mexico, Carla turns a blind eye to her new friendsâ inconsistencies. But then she catches the eye of a drug don, el Gordo, and from that moment on her life gets a lot more complicated, and she is forced to confront the irreparable consequences of her willful innocence.
Jessica Abelâs evocative blackâandâwhite drawings and creative mix of English and Spanish bring Mexico Cityâs past and present to life, unfurling Carlaâs dark history against the legacies of Burroughs and Kahlo. A story about the youthful desire to live an authentic life and the consequences of trusting easy answers, La Perdidaâat once grounded in the particulars of life in Mexico and resonantly universalâis a story about finding oneself by getting lost.
no ^ better than some , not as good as others , somewhat predictable but then again arnet we all at times.
A rich exploration of the intertwining of two vastly different cultures ^ The quest to find one's self--that mythical, magical journey of self-discovery--is difficult enough in the country in which you were born. For Carla, our narrator and tour guide in Jessica Abel's La Perdida, it's an impossibility. Her personal journey leads her to Mexico City, a whirlwind of artistic and political endeavors, intense poverty and wealth, and the crime and drug use that spring up around both. It's also home to more than a few young American expatriates.
When Carla arrives in town, she is, in theory, just there to visit her ex-boyfriend, Harry, and enjoy a short vacation. Carla, half-Mexican by birth but entirely American in lifestyle and attitude, doesn't quite fit in in this strange new land, but she knows she wants to be there. She overstays her visa, frustrating Harry, who is more than ready to see his houseguest leave.Carla is a clueless, blundering tourist when she first arrives, unable to speak Spanish and unaware of how she and her fellow Americans are viewed by the locals. She's also a bit childish, selfishly overextending her stay with Harry without permission or invitation and remaining completely nonplussed at his many entreaties for her to leave. She's more interested in boorishly studying (and attempting to emulate) Frida Kahlo than becoming truly acquainted with the culture she now finds herself living in.
That quickly changes, mostly because Carla is, in ways she cannot fully comprehend, completely ready to change. She learns Spanish, finds her own apartment and meets her own friends--native citizens who educate her on Mexico's ways but may also be the wrong crowd to fall in with. There's Oscar, the drug-dealing hunk who becomes Carla's boyfriend; Memo, an outspoken cad who tries to woo Carla while also criticizing her capitalist upbringing; and, ultimately, el Gordo, leader of a drug business and a man with dangerous plans.
Carla doesn't realize just how deep she has fallen into trouble until it's far too late, and it's a testament to Abel's slow styling that we the readers don't either. An opening prelude warns us of what kind of tale to expect, but after that, Abel takes her time settling in, building up Carla's persona not only as a lost soul but as foolish, impulsive and headstrong. When she comes to see herself as she truly is (and all that she has become), we feel we've earned the journey along with her.
La Perdida is a rich exploration of the intertwining of two vastly different cultures joined by geography and circumstance yet existing worlds apart. Carla tries to find her place in this society, debating sociopolitical circumstances with Mexicans and Americans alike, never quite realizing just where all this blind ambition to fit in is leading her. That's the problem with coming of age: The person you ultimately turn into may not be who you wished you could be. La Perdida captures that poignancy brilliantly.
-- John Hogan
Doesn't quite live up to the hype ^ Carla, the narrator, is really oblivious. She is charmingly oblivious when she can't hold a taco right in the first few pages, but becomes more and more frustratingly oblivious as the story progresses: she has little direction or common sense, and so quickly gets dragged down by her circle of low-life "friends." Such a weak central figure deflates the work as a whole. Although readers are made to care about what happens to Carla while reading the story, afterwards, reading the book just feels like a waste of time. Carla is a dumb girl who learns very little, and doesn't apply that in life.
The narrative gets very tedious at points. The story does go quickly, I suppose, but reflects the directionlessness of Carla's life. The plot is rife with little characters that make brief cameos, muddy the waters, and then disappear.
Character development for recurring characters is a little flat; the characters don't flesh out much beyond the description in the dust jacket -- Oscar as a "pretty-boy who sells pot and dreams of being a DJ," and Memo as "a left-wing, pseudo-intellectual ladies' man." Harry is one-sidedly painted as a capitalist pig and privileged brat, and not allowed to develop much beyond that.
That said, there are some good points about Abel's graphic novel. It captures Carla's reasons (albeit vague and poorly thought-out) for going to Mexico and her desire to find her roots, although more attention could have been given to the culture shock that inevitably comes with entering and living in a new country. The culture shock is basically glossed over; she finds a few aspects of Mexico grimy but nets herself into even-grimier situations.
The artwork is pretty good, but one or two panel transitions are confusing. The aesthetic is also very cluttered. When she details the backgrounds, she uses the same thickness of line, which makes it annoying to try to process what's foreground and what's not. Dialogue is all crammed together. The text boxes for Carla's "voiceovers" sometimes work really well, but sometimes give a sense of trying to fit too much into too, too little space. It's a major relief when Abel provides visual space once in a while.
Overall, a dense read, a bit off-putting if you don't like profanity in every other panel, okay if you're already an avid graphic novel fan but not recommended if you want a user-friendly first-time graphic novel to sink your teeth into. I hope that this never gets made into a movie, though--it would be a disaster.
accomplished, fascinating graphic novel ^ For what it's worth, I'm related to Jessica Abel. If that thought suggests to you that I am trying to elevate her rating on Amazon, well, take my review with as many grains of salt as you'd like. I am not particularly close to her, although she answers my e-mail within a reasonable time when I write to her :).
I was not immediately aware that Abel had released this book and finally, for any number of reasons, only finished it a week ago. Regardless, it is a very interesting take on self-discovery and the tension between self-confidence and an openness to the world. It is the story of Carla, a young Mexican-American who speaks almost no Spanish and, planning only to stay with an ex in Mexico City for a little while, ends up caught up in serious criminal activity and with a much more nuanced understanding of what it means to know oneself and where one comes from. Abel combines genres as few are able (no pun intended) or willing to do and I think she does it largely successfully. I would say I found it a little difficult to believe that a girl as intelligent as Carla is, who learns Spanish in fairly short order and who works almost from the start as an ESL teacher in Mexico City, is still so stupid that she allows herself to be conned by some of the rather shallow, elementary arguments against US economic and cultural imperialism to which she does allow herself to held hostage to. That is not to say that the US does not have policies and ideas which it should not be ashamed of. It just seemed clear to me-perhaps owing to the fact that I am a little older than Carla-that the arguments against economic and, to some degree cultural, imperialism, were not really policies to which she subscribed or supported. She engages with people who have varying degrees of sincerity about the imperialism of the US and it's obvious-she interacts with "regular" Mexicans, learns Spanish in the city, lives with a Mexico City native-that she is more than interested in seeing how regular folks live and not sealing herself off from the everyday experience a la her ex-Harry. Yet she allows them to suggest that she is one of the purveyors and a prime example, of the sort of imperialism which she clearly separates herself from. That said.......exploring the challenge of finding the appropriate balance of involvement in a society foreign to oneself and retaining one's own identity is a tough thing to do and Abel does it quite well.
I am not a connoisseur of comics although I have found myself more interested in recent years, but I would imagine that Abel is among a tiny number of those able to explore such themes so masterfully in the indie comic world. Her drawing is beautiful, capturing the broad cityscape, the close encounter, and what was always impressive to me, the lingering feeling. When Carla had a strong feeling-the sort that you have and that you let come out and it lingers-Abel draws Carla having the sort of dreamlike gaze that overcomes one at a time like that. This emotion is conveyed via the glazed-eye look for a couple of panels.
This book would be interesting I think, to anyone who has parents of different racial backgrounds, one of which they may feel less connected to. The storytelling, and Abel's ear for dialogue and empathy for motivation, would make this book attractive to anyone. The limning of the human desire to know oneself and the complexity of doing so, make this a fascinating book.
La Perdida ^ La Perdida has complex issues of identity and culturally themes that many people born in one country from immigrant parents from other country, might be able to relate to, feeling of lost or undeclared identity. In this case, Carla the protagonist, a Mexican-American born, takes a journey through exploring and taking in the cultural blend of the entire city of Mexico City. During her journey, she desires to embody a true and authentic Mexican experience, which leads to some complicated turn of events that are as out of control as the traffic in Mexico City. Carla goes to Mexico City, hardy knowing any spanish, only one famous female Mexican artist, an ex-boyfriend from the U.S, and nothing else beside that she wants to surround herself with Mexico. She arrives to Mexico meeting and staying with an ex-boyfriend, Harry, which does not have the same interests as Carla of submerging herself in the Mexican culture. She wishes to learn more Spanish, have Mexican friends, and leave her American views and way of thinking out the door, which leads to a wrong turn. Carla makes new Mexican friends, Memo and Oscar, two people that will lead her into a major traffic jam. Choosing to be part of the wrong crowd, Carla gets into drugs, helps sells knock-off shirts, and has a conspiracy report of the ransom of her ex-boyfriend Harry. She is later repents having these new Mexican friends, and leaves the Mexico City and heads home to Chicago, where she feels like she is an exile, because of threats from the ransom group back in Mexico. Through this experience, Carla engulf herself a great deal, losing track on her actual purpose of her journey, which was to find your cultural identity in Mexico. Some aspects of Carla's characteristics and responses to certain events have a naïve reaction, which may be view as a disapproving part of her character. At the beginning of La Perdida, Carla was enjoying herself in a new city, visiting all the touristy places that Mexico City has to offer; one of them being Frida Kahlos house. Once she arrived to the Frida museum, she was happy and fully enthusiastic, but once she started to hang our with her new Mexican friends, who deny Frida Kahlo popularity, she too jumped on the bandwagon. She also gets irritated with her American friends, because they don't have any Mexican friends or like to do anything "Mexican". Carla can play off as poser, who thinks she is better than her American friends because she has Mexican friends and has an earning to learn about the Mexican culture. Other than her pretending to be better than some people, Carla is generally good character with moral but picks the wrong friends. At the end, I truly enjoy reading Jessica Abel's La Perdida, because of my connection to the main character. Being a Mexican-American, I could understand how you could feel like a tourist in the country of your parents, since you didn't have the same experience as others. I love how Carla really wanted to have an authentic experience in Mexico and find herself through the cultural identity of a city. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to see great sequential art and enjoy a trip to Mexico City.
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