What We Become

Gripping! Complex!

In the first three pages or so I was a tad confused. I felt detached, disoriented even. As I should! I was crossing the Atlantic bound from Lisbon to Buenos Aires--ar least the characters I was about to become totally engaged with were. As I read on I became absolutely fascinated with them all. Max, I envisage as an aging Pierce Brosnan type, suave and sophisticated harbouring the faint memory of a rougher beginning. As we go between Max's past and present, between his coming to know Mecha onboard the luxury liner where he works as a dancer, and their last meeting, the threads are electrifyingly taut. The tango discussions between Mecha's husband, Armando de Troeye (a famous composer), Mecha, and Max are robust and show more heady laced as they are with the undercurrent of explicit yet restrained sexuality. De Troyeye is seeking to compose a new piece, a tango, as part of a bet with another composer. This is the connection between the three that becomes a catalyst for all that follows.
The interplay between Mecha and Max over the years is puzzling, yet riveting. I found it hard to put 'What We Become' down. The language is vivid. One is there in Buenos Aires, in the old tango places, reeking with an edge of danger, smoke and complex sexuality. You feel the tensions in Nice, as Italy is becoming a fascist state, and then later in Sorento where things come full circle, Max and Mecha meeting once more.
The story in told in those three places across three times, constantly changing between them.
1928 onboard a cruise ship bound for Buenos Aires where Max and Mecha first meet.
1937 in Nice where Max is dragged into a fascist connection.
1996 in Sorento. The Cold War is still a memory and the Russian chess champion, complete with KGB entourage, is playing an important match here. Mecha's son is involved. Once again intrigue and danger come into play, a signature of Mecha and Max's passionate relationship.
The complexity that is Mecha is slowly revealed, although the layers of who she really is never fully unveiled. As this happens we get a better glimpse of de Troyeye, and of the dark areas of Mecha's relationship with him.
Substantive and intriguing, highly personal, with some wonderful twists and subtleties. a treat!

A NetGalley ARC show less

From the author who is "incapable of writing a bad novel" comes a novel that begins with a seaboard tango and ends in a third encounter some forty years later, when the protagonists are no longer young but still capable of taking great risks. Max is a professional dancer, card sharp, thief, and gigolo, from an Argentinian slum. Mecha is wealthy and married to a noted composer. When they meet on a cross Atlantic cruise, Max takes the couple to a tango dive in Buenos Aires and the three let the erotic cards fall where they may. A decade later, Max encounters Mecha again, this time while working on a robbery that will impact the Spanish Civil War. When Max and Mecha are both in their sixties, another coincidental meeting finds Mecha with a show more world chess champion son and a cheating Russian opponent.

Each engagement is sexually charged and ends abruptly, with no plans ever made for another set-to. The first two time periods are overflowing with sumptuously expressed raptures of physical beauty and a seemingly never-ending list of chic clothing descriptions, which could bore some readers. All of the three contain a small mystery that results in a most satisfactory unwinding. Max has the PoV throughout, and the structure has the three timeframes told in alternating chapters. They certainly don't make men like Max anymore, and Perez-Riverte captures the eras and personas of the wealthy and the strivers magnificently. show less

While you must dodge the landmines of misogynist statements in this book--sweeping (and rather uninformed) judgments about women's nature and repeated criticisms about how women age--you will also enjoy a romantic, bittersweet double tale of crime and passion. Recommended for all libraries.

Historias de encuentros y desencuentros, de amores correspondidos que no por ellos están destinados a ser, y de telón de fondo, el tango, el ajedrez, el espionaje y tres momentos en la vida de dos personas. Perez-Reverte sabe cómo dar esos giros, como volver al pasado y mantenerte interesado, como amar a Max y Mecha y entenderlos, casi verlos.

Max and Mecha first meet in the late 1920s aboard an ocean liner bound for South America — Mecha is traveling with her husband, a well-known composer, and Max is employed by the cruise line as a professional ballroom dancer whose sole responsibility is to dance fabulously with unaccompanied first-class women. A dance with Mecha initiates a series of events that will connect the pair, over distances and decades, for life.

When I picked up this novel in translation I went in blind, and I'm rather glad I did. Based on the cover flap now it doesn't seem like a plot I would gravitate to naturally, and I enjoyed the historical setting in places and times exotic to me, as well as a peek into a world of unfamiliar experiences. I would read show more more by Pérez-Reverte. show less

WHAT WE BECOME flits through time following Max and Mecha through forty years from their first meeting aboard a cruise ship to Buenos Aires in 1928 to Sorrento in 1966.
Perez-Reverte is one of my favorite writers and an auto buy. His characters are always rich, revealing themselves over the course of the story. Max and Mecha are no exception, except that I felt I never knew Mecha as well as Max. Parts of her seemed veiled, elusive; or perhaps it’s that I saw her filtered through Max.
He also deftly manages to bring the decadence and glamour of each era to life for readers, as he tells their story in a back and forth fashion, unfolding slowly as bits and pieces are revealed in each era, akin to a tapestry.
As with every Perez-Reverte show more there’s always something specific the characters revolve around, that brings them together, in this case it’s tango, dance. I always learn so much when I read his books.
Since all the elements I so enjoy were present it’s beyond me why WHAT WE BECOME didn’t have the usual effect on me. Typically, whenever I pick up a Perez-Reverte I resent my inability to simply do nothing but read through to the end. That didn’t happen this time, and try as I might there was never a connection with Max and Mencha. I’m flummoxed.
WHAT WE BECOME is everything I expect from Perez-Reverte, writing wise, yet Max and Mencha fell flat for me. They didn’t engage me as his leads usually do. I enjoyed the story but never experienced the immersion into their world.
So, for writing I give WHAT WE BECOME 4 stars. Purely personal for the effect, or lack of, on me, 3 stars.

Reviewed for Novels Alive TV & Miss Ivy’s Book Nook Take II show less

Definitely not one Perez-Reverte's best. While there are interesting chapters on the origins of tango, on the seedy parts of Buenos Aires in the 20's and 30's, there is so much repetition, it drags down the tempo of the book. And, something surprising is the insistence on sartorial descriptions! Like something out of a fashion magazine.