Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
New York: Pantheon Books, c2006. ix, 275 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. 1st ed
Pages
ix; 275
Description
From the Harvey and Lulu award-winning creator of Artbabe comes this riveting story of a young woman's misadventures in Mexico City. Carla, an American estranged from her Mexican father, heads to Mexico City to "find herself." 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 good--humored about Carla's reappearance on his doorstep--until he realizes that Carla, who spends her days soaking in the city, exploring Frida Kahlo's house, and learning Spanish, has no intention of leaving. When Harry and Carla's 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, pseudo-intellectual ladies' man. Determined to experience the real Mexico, Carla turns a blind eye to her new friends' 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 Abel's evocative black-and-white drawings and creative mix of English and Spanish bring Mexico City's past and present to life, unfurling Carla's 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 Perdida-at once grounded in the particulars of life in Mexico and resonantly universal-is a story about finding oneself by getting lost. From the Hardcover edition.… (more)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2006-03-07 (collection)
Physical description
ix, 275 p.; 9.1 inches
ISBN
0375423656 / 9780375423659
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member janeajones
This graphic novel is a coming-to-consciousness tale, a very slow coming-to-consciousness. Carla, recently graduated from college, decides to go to Mexico City to connect with the culture of the father who abandoned her. Initially she moves in with an ex-pat old boyfriend, but eventually finds a
Show More
job teaching English and gets her own apartment. Trying to escape the ex-pat experience, she connects with Oscar, a young Mexican who wants to move to the US to become a DJ, and Memo, a self-styled Communist revolutionary, who seduces Carla's mind while mocking her Americanness. As a typical 20-something, Carla indulges in sex, alcohol, drugs, drama and fiestas -- believing that she is experiencing Mexico with real Mexicans. But on the edges of her life, another Mexico looms with drug cartels and goons and violence. This is a cautionary tale. While at first I found the story interesting, I became increasingly annoyed with Carla's refusal to see what was in front of her face. Like all graphic novels this one reads quickly and the drawings capture the hectic life of young adults -- if not much of Mexico. Finally, I was disappointed -- La Perdida just doesn't have the same punch of something like Persepolis -- maybe I'm just too old Show Less
LibraryThing member pinprick
I found La Perdida in the "teen" section of the library, which surprised me. While the protagonist of the story, Carla, is a young woman, the themes in this book are decidedly adult. Race, class, insider vs. outsider, political theory, sexism, it's all in there. Along with drugs, sex, and a
It starts out ordinarily enough; Carla is a biracial young woman, with a white mother and an absent Mexican father. After a botched attempt at college she heads down to Mexico to find her roots and travel around a bit. She interested in how it is to live as a Mexican in Mexico, and at first sets up "house" with a rich, ex-boyfriend expat. She soon tires of living as an outsider, a tourist, and settles in with her Mexican friends. Her three week trip soon becomes months, as she deals with her own personal identity, how she fits into Mexican life, and learns about the culture and herself. Carla isn't always a likable character, which is quite a feat when telling a story. She's definitely a flawed woman, but Abel's honesty about that, the way she reveals her faults and reconciles them with the story are great. Even though you don't necessarily always like her, you do feel for her and are interested in her story.
Art-wise, the book is drawn beautifully. Abel shifts from a more relaxed style to a more formal, detailed style at times, according to the story. At times the dialogue is at the forefront, other times the art, the feeling, is more important. The drawings of Mexico city are lush and lovely, and are an integral part of the story. You have a better understanding of why Carla is there, why she stays, why she gets into the trouble she does. It's a great book, interesting on a lot of different levels.
Show More
kidnapping gone bad. It starts out ordinarily enough; Carla is a biracial young woman, with a white mother and an absent Mexican father. After a botched attempt at college she heads down to Mexico to find her roots and travel around a bit. She interested in how it is to live as a Mexican in Mexico, and at first sets up "house" with a rich, ex-boyfriend expat. She soon tires of living as an outsider, a tourist, and settles in with her Mexican friends. Her three week trip soon becomes months, as she deals with her own personal identity, how she fits into Mexican life, and learns about the culture and herself. Carla isn't always a likable character, which is quite a feat when telling a story. She's definitely a flawed woman, but Abel's honesty about that, the way she reveals her faults and reconciles them with the story are great. Even though you don't necessarily always like her, you do feel for her and are interested in her story.
Art-wise, the book is drawn beautifully. Abel shifts from a more relaxed style to a more formal, detailed style at times, according to the story. At times the dialogue is at the forefront, other times the art, the feeling, is more important. The drawings of Mexico city are lush and lovely, and are an integral part of the story. You have a better understanding of why Carla is there, why she stays, why she gets into the trouble she does. It's a great book, interesting on a lot of different levels.
Show Less
LibraryThing member marnattij
Gritty, realistic travelogesque tale of a woman's search to find herself in Mexico. What she finds, however is not the woman she want to be or the life she wants to live. Nonexplicit sex, drug use, and violence make this graphic novel more appropriate for older teens and adults.
LibraryThing member saltypepper
This is a beautiful, well-executed graphic novel. The way the dialog moves from English to spanglish to "spanish" is well-thought out, and the drawings can make you feel like you're there. The main character is a well-meaning naif who moves to Mexico City and gets in over her head. The situations
Show More
and characters feel very real, particularly the main character. I avoid people like her in real life, so it is a powerful testament to the high quality of Abel's work that I found it hard to finish the book because the protagonist was so realistic I didn't want to spend time watching her get more than she bargained for in Fictionland. Show Less
LibraryThing member YAlit
La perdida is a fictional account of Carla, A young Mexican-American woman who travels to Mexico to seek and understand the father she has never met. Carla ends up becoming disillusioned with her boyfriend and his idea of how to live the expatriate life and leaves him to seek out a more "authentic"
Show More
experience. Falling in with a crowd of disaffected young men who quickly become petty and not-so-petty criminals, Carla is swept into a lifestyle that becomes more and more uncomfortable until she finally discovers she is in over her head. Abel's sparsely drawn images of Mexico City landmarks are as engaging as her colorful characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member Knicke
The art in this book is great, and I enjoyed the story too. I just have some quibbles with how it was done. The language thing was clunky (especially the footnote translations), but then again, I suppose it was somewhat important to capture the transition from uncomprehending gringa to Spanish
Show More
speaker. It was hard to read, though. The other thing that was annoying was that the set-up took such a long time. But I guess that's also essential - if things had happened more abruptly, it would be harder to believe that the protagonist had gotten herself mixed up in such a bad situation. Despite these two big drawbacks, I enjoyed this book very much and will probably look up more of Abel's work in the future. Show Less
LibraryThing member eeio
The story has a real mexican weight to it. Ciudad de Mexico is well depicted and the darkness and stupidity of it all. It is also sensitive, very, in that autobiographical way certain comic books allow. The spanglish works well. Drawings are great. Fast and simple and effective.
LibraryThing member agingcow2345
Most graphic novels tend towards super hero shallow even without masked spandexed POV characters. This one is different and special. It is a quite well done coming of age story and a decent take on some aspects of the expat lifestyle. I take off one star because the last third got quite predictable
Show More
and somewhat repetitive but it is well worth a read if you like either genre. The last page while expected is still excellent. Show Less
LibraryThing member raschneid
Art, dialogue, and evocation of a place - great! But the ending was disappointing. Instead of leaving us with a complex character or even a complex image of Mexico City, it's rather flat and melodramatic.
LibraryThing member Maggie_Rum
A drawn tale of a young women starting a life in Mexico city.
LibraryThing member amelish
Finally, the long-sought first graphic novel purchase!
I really like the way Jessica Abel draws in this one. Lots of black that actually creates space rather than fill it.
I really like the way Jessica Abel draws in this one. Lots of black that actually creates space rather than fill it.
LibraryThing member questbird
A naïve American twentysomething crosses the border with vague ideas of finding the 'real' Mexico. She initially moves in with an ex-boyfriend who is 'slumming it' pretending to write. But she rejects her USA heritage, deliberately misses her return flight and becomes an illegal immigrant. She
Show More
begins to hang around with some dodgy locals. The story is quite well told, but it is hard to like the protagonist: she is deluded, dishonest with herself and others, and never escapes being a 'gringita' no matter how hard she tries. She also has very poor judgement of character. Show Less
LibraryThing member poetontheone
Jessica Abel's graphic novel makes for some thought provoking commentary on race, culture, and the search for a sense of identity. Carla's search for her roots on a sojourn to Mexico becomes suffused with denial, isolation, and bad choices. Her experience is transformative, but not at all in the
Show More
way she expected. She's not necessarily a likable character, and some of the people that she meets are even less so, but she is made sympathetic as we sit back and grumble about her wrong moves. Abel's lines employ a lot of black space, and as you acclimate to her technique you see how it speaks to the content and adds another layer of meaning to many of the panels. Show Less
LibraryThing member Smokler
More than anything a coming of age graphic novel where the young person is not only the narrator but their identity and that of a county lurching into the 21st century. The narrative trips over itself a few times and the dialogue can feel a little set-upy instead of natural. But make no mistake. La
Were it slows up is a passing annoyance compared to what Jessica Abel has done here. Bravo. I was to see more.
Show More
Perdida is a huge-friggin achievement, amazingly drawn, so sure of its setting in Mexico City and place in time (late 90s) that it feels as much a diary or historical document. Or just a conversation with a magnificent storyteller who probably lived it. Were it slows up is a passing annoyance compared to what Jessica Abel has done here. Bravo. I was to see more.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ErsatzHaderach
Starring the dumbest expat ever, this is basically an extended episode of Locked Up Abroad with a bonus crash couse in Mexican profanity.
LibraryThing member melissarecords
Carla wants to discover her Mexican heritage, so she takes an extended visit to Mexico. She rejects the community of American expats that her boyfriend hangs with and decides that she needs to immerse herself in the "real" Mexico. But she ends up getting pulled into violence and crime when she
Show More
blinds herself to some of the suspicious activities of her Mexican buddies. The thing that I liked about this book is that Carla comes across as such a real person in her passions, enthusiasm, innocence, foolishness, and misguided loyalty. Yeah, we all do stupid things. Really engaging graphics and storyline. Show Less
LibraryThing member jennybeast
I liked the art, I liked the protagonist, but I found it hard to believe in her obliviousness. Frankly, she seemed rather unbelievably stupid to me, which was disappointing given the overall quality of the rest of the book.