Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Perpetual West

There are 0 reviews and 1 rating from Canada

Amazon Customer

Great story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

New author for me. I have enjoyed reading both of her books. The story pulled me in and I didn’t want it to end.

Pete

Very Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

Having lived in the El Paso/Juarez metro area for four years, and traveling in Mexico (to include Mexico City), I really wanted to like this book; but, unfortunately, that was not the case. While the author clearly does her homework related to settings: El Paso, Juarez, Mexico, W. Virginia, etc.; I'm not sure one will be satisfied with the story-telling ability. At times, the story moves along smoothly, ...then it gets "cerebral" (for no know purpose) and stalls miserably. Wanted to stop reading it several times, but forced myself to continue thinking the "all over the place" approach (as if there were two authors) to the story would come together in the end. Well it didn't- a very unsatisfying finish. With that said, it could make a very good movie in the hands of a strong screenplay writer and director.

One person found this helpful

Thomas A. Holmes

Engaging story--

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 4, 2023

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Set principally on the border between El Paso and Juarez, Mesha Maren's PERPETUAL WEST offers an engaging tangle of three characters, Alex, a Latinx Mexican-born man adopted in his early childhood by white Appalachians and struggling with identity issues, his wife, Elana, who comes from a conflicted family and wrestles with her self-destructiveness, and Mateo, a lucha libre professional who attempts to disentangle himself from associations with a crime boss. The symbol of the border, with its ties of territory, "us vs. them" mentality, and identity, pervades the work. The novel openly alludes to TRUE ROMANCE, whose screenplay was written by Quentin Tarantino, and has some of the characteristics of his films in that we see many interlacing stories whose connections do not become fully apparent until we get near the end of the novel. The novel also offers an engaging subtheme of how canonized Western literature, as demonstrated in works by Graham Greene and D H Lawrence, have perpetuated the "otherness" of Mexican people. While I found editorial quibbles (some of the sentences could have used different arrangement of their elements; questions of fact like whether traffic signs in Juarez would be in Spanish or English), I found the story engaging and read over half the book in one sitting. Maren made me care about her characters, and I just had to see what happened to them. I will likely read it again.

Liz

Blaming myself for the DNF

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 2, 2022

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I'm going to be honest - this book was a DNF (did not finish) for me. I started trying to read it three separate times and just could not get engaged. I'm not going to blame the book - it is well written and I did not see any glaring errors. The genre is a bit different than what I normally read and, while there is a tease of a mystery in the first chapter, this isn't developed very quickly. There are LGBTQ+ themes/romance but I did not get far enough in the novel to see how these themes were handled. Mateo was, by far, the most interesting character introduced by the time I finally gave up reading.

I still feel guilty that I was not able to power through, as the book does promise to touch on some really important themes, but hopefully it does resonate with someone else.

Lily

A decent multicultural read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 8, 2022

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

3.5 stars

Elena and Alex are young newlyweds. From the start of PERPETUAL WEST, during their move to El Paso from West Virginia, trouble in their relationship seems apparent. They are physically together, but they struggle with connecting with each other.

Alex crosses over to Mexico, hungry to learn more about the culture where he was born. He goes missing. When Elena doesn’t hear from him and starts looking for him, struggles, both internal and external, surface, ranging from rejecting her self-image to not being taken seriously when she searches for her missing husband.

Alex, in pursuing his passion for lucha libre (or Mexican wrestling) and his budding attraction to and love for a lucha libre fighter—Mateo—ends up getting tangled up in the web of a Mexican cartel.
I appreciate Mesha Maren navigating the complexities of multicultural living and addressing numerous issues that surface. Maren also wrote well, and her core characters had their own unique voices.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for me to really, really like or love the novel. Moving through the chapters took me longer than I had hoped or planned. But I was determined to make it to the end, which, I must confess, I found baffling.

Thank you to Algonquin Books for the review copy.

This book has scenes that are sensitive in content, including: anorexia, sex, infidelity, kidnapping, torture.

Petunia P.

Slow to start, improves as it goes

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 27, 2022

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This one was a little hard for me to rate. I love books, and I love reading, and if I can learn a little about other cultures in the process, then it's all the better as far as I'm concerned. So, I feel like I should have absolutely loved this book. But for some reason, the beginning of the book with all of the descriptions of Texas and Mexico, when I should have been enthralled, instead, I felt bored. It was really hard for me to hang in for the first 30% of this book. I just wasn't that interested. By the halfway point, I was a little interested, and by about 60% into the book, I was really enjoying it. I honestly would have walked away from this one, if I hadn't been reading it for a review. But ultimately, I'm glad I stuck it out and once the story picked up, I really enjoyed it. I love the cross references between the borders of the countries and our personal boundaries as well as the nuances related to how much we really know about people, what they share with us, and what stays tucked away close to our hearts. There are a lot of good things to enjoy about this novel and so I'm coming in with a 3.5 star review rounded up to a 4.

One person found this helpful

Kari Russell

Interesting book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 17, 2022

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This book kept my interest and was a good and smooth read.

Alyssa

Page Turner

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 2, 2022

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This is a fascinating and thrilling book!

Full of twists and interesting themes this book is a ride. It blends exploration of past, family, and the future. The book centers around romance, but takes place in a complex and interesting place. Full of flawed characters and interesting discoveries this is an interesting read that is hard to put down.

C.M. & T.M.

haunting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 28, 2022

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I didn't find this book to be a thriller, even though there was some edge-of-your-seat moments. To me it was more like a very very slowly paced episode of Breaking Bad, with some of the same themes. However, it did haunt me and I found myself thinking of it while and after I read it, which is not always the case when I read. Even though the themes are not those I normally read/engage in (cartels, international politics, Mexican wrestling) I had no issues picking up this book and being sucked right in.

Ian D.

Too flowery and slow to really be a "thrill ride"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 14, 2022

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I've put off reviewing this for a while because, frankly, the book just didn't suck me in and keep me reading as I would expect from something that is said to be suspenseful and thrilling. The story has a few interesting moments of action early on, but a lot of it is slow and focused on setting the scene and developing the characters. The characters are generally pretty interesting and relatable, but at the same time, many are somewhat unremarkable, which doesn't necessarily lend well to making the reader care about their fates. Full disclosure, I haven't finished yet, even after several months with the book in my possession. I'd like to think I will sooner or later. If you're keen on a lot of flowery description and slow-paced development (that kind of feel like showing off literary prowess), this book might be for you. If you're expecting a faster-paced read, like a real page turner, you'll need to look elsewhere.

One person found this helpful

5 star		39%
4 star		37%
3 star		17%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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