Mesha Maren

Perpetual West is a quasi-thriller about life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The novel takes place in 2005 and features two young newlyweds from West Virginia who have enrolled as students at a university in El Paso: Alex, a Mexican adopted as a baby by an American family, and his wife, Elana. Their lives are changed when they meet Mateo, a Mexican wrestler who goes by the name El Vengador del Norte (Avenger of the North); via Mateo’s story line we are introduced to the delirious show more world of lucha libre in Mexico City, where the sport has been infiltrated by the country’s dangerous criminal mafias.

When Elana flies east for a family emergency, Alex takes off with Mateo to visit Mateo’s hometown of Creel. You see, Alex has fallen in love with Mateo. Then, after Elana returns to El Paso, Alex is nowhere to be found, and she discovers he left his cellphone behind. Following a single clue—an ATM withdrawal from Creel—Elana sets out in search of Alex. Meanwhile, he and Mateo have been kidnapped by the nephew of a narcotraficante, who demands the wrestler compete for him.

Perpetual West is a lyrically written, queer odyssey from Virginia to Mexico. Her characters are well drawn but not wholly endearing. I'm not sure if I found Alex to be empathetic. Nor Mateo. I understand that folks are often not honest with themselves about their true selves. But, I have a hard time caring for a character who cheats on his wife regardless of his identity. Elana's plight, her depression, her anguish over losing Alex is the crux of what drives the novel and what kept me engaged because I found the novel to be too long. It could have been trimmed down to just about 300 pages and the main points of the story would have been altered.

Somewhat unlikable characters and novel length aside, this novel does some interesting things with colonialism, wrestling, kidnapping, and sexual identity. It sheds a light on violence and corruption in Mexico, a problem that the U.S. has in some ways created through our arrogance and insatiable appetite. It is also a novel about identity and what it means to belong. And while the novel ends abruptly, nothing prepares you for the heartbreaking (and frustratingly unresolved) ending. show less

This read like my friends' LiveJournals of late 2000s to early 2010s, when they were all doing a bunch of drugs, drinking heavily, having constant sex, and making bad decisions. I was part of it too, but was -not- so casual, and -not- so explicit. This was when I drank heavily, and later would drink energy drinks and then have alcohol to calm down my pounding heart. No drugs, and not the kind of sex everyone else was having. But the energy matched. I was the type of: it is okay for me to do, show more but I won't blog about it, and it is okay for you to do but I will not read about it. Halfway through the book, it clicked: that's exactly what the author was going for. I was deeply annoyed, but somehow it was absorbing. The author can write. I want to know what else she will do. This is a better version of "Mosh Pit," one updated for modern times and audiences. It has better plotting and is far more realistic. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone though. show less

2024. This book definitely kept me reading, but if you’re looking for redemption, look elsewhere. It’s all downhill for Shae. Pregnant at 17, her baby daddy, transitioning to be a woman, Shae has a difficult birth and is put on Oxy for the pain. She becomes addicted while trying to care for her infant, and becomes less and less able to do so. Cam, her baby’s father, grows further and further apart from Shae, as she transitions, goes to law school, and moves in with her boyfriend in show more Charleston. Shae starts working at the strip club to make enough money to get more oxy when her prescription runs out, but she effs that up too missing too many shifts and gets fired. Eventually she robs one of her stripper friends, and in the course of trying to steal Cam’s boyfriend’s stereo and blu-ray she gets caught and goes to jail. If that wasn’t bad enough she gets kicked out of the drug rehab program in jail and loses her chance for early parole. Oh and she loses custody of the baby. I would have preferred some kind of character development, but I guess it wasn’t in the cards for Shae. This takes place in rural West Virginia where excitement seems to be a shopping trip to Walmart or Costco. It was a depressing story told well. show less

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 show more 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. show less