May 7, 2007

Borderline Personalities

“The Virgin’s Guide to Mexico,” by Eric Martin

Plucky girls in the city? Whatever. Mopey young men on the road? Please. Enough already with the same old coming-of-age novels.

Time to try something different — like Eric Martin’s frenetic, gender-bending, identity-delving new novel, The Virgin’s Guide to Mexico.

When Alma Price’s assimilated Mexican mother and dot-com gajillionaire father refuse to let her take a year off between high school and Harvard to explore her roots, the awkward Texas teen heads south in search of the grandfather she’s never known.

On her way, she goes incognito as a boy, hangs with tranny hookers, befriends Mexican goths, finds herself in all kinds of danger, and learns that who you are is less about where you’re from and more about how you move forward.

All of which makes it an entirely new kind of coming-of-age tale.

One that’s anything but by the book.

Available online at amazon.com or your local bookstore.