In this novel, the reader meets a variety of individuals who live in Southern California. Some are recent immigrants from Mexico and other countries in Central or South America. Some are families with Latino backgrounds who have been in the area longer than the English pioneers who came to settle the land. Some are police, some are criminals. Some live in poverty, some are rich through work or luck.

The individual stories wrap around and the reader may become confused where the book is going. Yet as it progresses, the stories often merge and events that happened twenty years ago play out in the present. Other stories are just beginning and no one knows if they will have connections to the other ones.

Susan Straight is a native California from the area she writes about. Her work has gained awards with past works being named an NPR Book Of The Year and a National Book Award finalist. I listened to this book with its multiple narrators. Each did a good job although I think an added layer of richness would have applied if those presenting the story of recent immigrants had that accent. Readers will learn about the land and its people, often in ways never considered. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

The story has multiple storylines to the point I was very confused half of the book! The story could have been more enjoyable without all the jumps!
Mecca is a community in California, named that for its climate. Its people are a mix of ethnicities and backgrounds. And the story is following different characters, Mexicans, black, Latinos, native Americans...
The stories were interesting and has a mix of historical and contemporary fiction.

I liked listening to the audiobook but it took forever! Mainly due to the confusion.

I was very intrigued by this title and excited when I started. Unfortunately, I could not connect to this book and dnf'ed at 32%. From the beginning, I was missing a clear set up as to who I was learning about and how the characters were connected. I did not care about any of the characters nor was I interested in where their lives where going. The narration was okay.

Thank you to netgalley and Recorded Books for providing with me an audio advanced copy.

This book caught my eye because it was based on my home town, Mecca, CA. Not only did this book bring me a lot of nostalgia, it also shared a great story. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and would defiantly re-read this book as well as recommend it.

I really enjoyed all the intersecting stories and characters that make up this novel. The book also has a very strong sense of place.

I wanted to love this book--a portrait of a diverse community in Southern California told through multiple POVs in interconnecting story lines. It's totally my thing; I usually love it. But I don't think the author pulled it off here. Mecca is a clumsy attempt, and the stories ultimately do not come together in any impactful way. If anything, I was frequently confused about the timeline, setting, characters, really the point of all of it. Some of the individual POVs are very good, but others are flat and unnuanced, and frequently characters did things that made little sense or they were reduced only to the oppression they experienced--they rarely felt like heroes of their own story, which truly gave me the ick since this book is written by a white woman. I do think Straight does a good job of writing about the setting of Southern California--I could feel the heat of the desert, the fear of fire. And it was interesting to see an author tackle writing about COVID and its many consequences. I'm sad that so many of the other aspects weren't working for me, and that overall there was a lack of character development. 2 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the ARC

Mecca is a novel that will stay with me for quite some time. Not only is the writing beautiful, but I got attached to the characters. Highly recommend the AUDIOBOOK. Thank to the author, publisher and NetGalley

Mecca covered so much ground, but ultimately the book centered around Johnny Frias, a patrol cop descended from countless generations of Californians. Because of his Hispanic blood, he's prone to casual racism despite his liberal surroundings. Much of the story centers around his recollection of his rookie year when he killed a man to defend a woman being attacked. However, the woman vanished and he is in constant fear that this incident will unfold and rip apart his life as he knows it.

The book shifts perspectives from various characters that are often pinned to the background of other stories. I loved that each moment and added character felt so realistic. I also get such a kick out of intertwining lives of characters, as was the case in Mecca.

This book painted a vivid portrait of the varied people of California and the issues that are front and center (COVID, ICE). This is definitely a novel I'll be thinking about for a while.

Mecca is a wild ride through California through the eyes of several interconnected narrators. Just as I was becoming invested in one storyline, the author pivoted to an new equally compelling perspective. I was kept on the edge of my seat waiting for some of the threads to be resolved. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a tremendously human and gritty depiction of the day to day life of some of southern California’s most overlooked populations.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this ALC.

Susan Straight has a way of quickly building deep, multifaceted characters and Mecca is no exception. Mecca is a wonderful series of character sketches that tackle everything from Latino Californians whose family have lived there for generations but still face inane, racist questions, and know that if something goes wrong they will take the blame, to undocumented workers, who fear the law and their employers alike. Set over a few years, characters cross paths or are connected by events, including the pandemic. Straight tackles real issues through the lives of real people and both makes the reader think about complex topics as well as feel for her flawed, complicated characters.

“The wind had started up at 3 a.m., the same way it had for hundreds of years, the same way I used to hear the blowing so hard around our little house in Fuego Canyon that the loose windowsills sounded like harmonicas. The old metal weather stripping played like the gods pressed their mouths around the screens in the living room, where I slept when I was growing up.”
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I hadn’t read any of Susan Straight’s works before picking up Mecca, but I was taken in by her beautiful writing from that first passage. She took me deep into Southern California and explored a world of racism and prejudice towards people based upon their skin color. It read like short stories as it wove in and out of family lives until we find the connecting thread. It wasn’t a happy novel, but wow, the writing is amazing.
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Thanks to the publisher - RB Media for providing ARC in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.

1/5 stars

The story has multiple storylines. There are different POVs to it. All, in the end, are interconnected to revolve around Johnny, being the center of the plotline.

All of this is fine by me. What's not fine is that it didn't pay off well in the end. In fact, nothing worked out for me in the end. It was all so disjointed and clumsy for me to be ok with. I felt disjointed With the story on a broader picture, if that makes sense. I'm happy to have finished with this book so that I can get into a story I'm more invested in.

Release Date: 15 Mar 2022.

Review Posted: 07 Apr 2022.

This was a very unique and relevant story.
It gave me slight RAZORBLADE TEARS vibes, but overall was a completely different type of book.

This story is set in CA and hops around from different Hispanic residents and displays a glimpse of their daily life. We see the struggles they face, the racial injustices they deal with and the overarching fear of being deported.
The stories were powerful and intriguing. I was excited to see how they all came together through the course fo the book as well.

The ending was frightening and ended on such a cliff hanger. As I was listening to it, it left me scratching my head a bit as I think there are several gaps we as the reader can fill in.
I think this is a powerful story and very educational to see the different perspectives. It really honed in on the overarching presence of hope no matter what your situation.

I will say I am very glad I listened to this book. There were so many foreign words I would not have know how to pronounce and the narrators did an amazing job. I actually tried to listen and read this book simultaneously, but found I enjoyed the audio more.

Narrator 5 stars
The narrators did a great job with this book

Book 3 stars
There is a lot to unpack with this book and all the characters. While I found it hard to get absorbed in it, it was an interesting story from the perspective of multicultural people.

Mecca by Susan Straight is a book I was expecting to be profound or highly insightful. I wanted to try something outside my typical listening genres, and this one came across as highly recommended and the blurb sounded interesting. Unfortunately, I did not connect to the characters or storyline. The three narrators in this book all brought great point of views and made the listen interesting. Frankie Corzo, Patricia R. Floyd, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett each added to the storyline. They brought the characters to life and I could envision so many details. I want to thank #NetGalley and #RB Media for allowing me to listen to this review copy.

Decent writing/story. I think it suffered greatly by following Vagabonds!, which is also a story about a place told through the characters living there.

Also... I don't believe authors should only write versions of themselves. I'm a straight man who writes LGBT women, so obviously I'm not in that camp. I'm fine with a white author writing Hispanic characters. But when the author starts throwing around slurs... I mean, I get that Frías would experience it given his job and the current climate, but it felt so cringy every time it happened. It doesn't matter if you put them in the mouths of villainous characters, it's still a vile thing to hear multiple times.

AUDIOBOOK
Highly Recommend! Immerse yourself in the hidden world of Southern California via a beautiful intertwined series of stories by National Book Award nominee Susan Straight.
In Mecca, we meet the under resourced, the working poor - those of the invisible economy, of Indian and or Mexican Descent. The Santa Ana winds are as much of a character in the stories as these indigenous and Mexican descendants fighting to survive in the modern world. The story opens with Johnny Frías, a California Highway Motorcycle patrolman who killed a man raping a young woman many years ago. The woman fled in fear and these actions set off a chain of events that unravel through the story. Johnny has not been able to move on from the trauma and it's colored his entire career and personal life.

Through the eyes of Oaxacan women and a circle of friend leading back generations, we see a whole new side of Southern California and learn of the trials and tribulations that make up the vast majority of the state.A must read for fans of Susan Straight, literature lovers and American History and cultural buffs. Absolutely love it and the voices!
#FarrarStraus&Giroux #NetGalley #Mecca

The book tells the story of Johnny Frias, whose heritage involves generations of Californians. But because he’s Hispanic, he’s treated like he’s just arrived. Straight covers the casual prejudice, the racism. “Okies and Mexicans. They never get it out of their minds. California thinks they’re the most liberal and they fuckin love everybody. But they’ll ask you where you were born just like people do in a small town in Texas. Same old shit.”

’The wind started up at three a.m., the same way it had for hundreds of years, the same way I used to hear the blowing so hard around our little house in the canyon that the loose windowsills sounded like harmonicas. The old metal weather stripping played like the gods pressed their mouths around the screens in the living room, where I slept when I was growing up.’

While often heartbreaking, there is also beauty in the way this is shared, along with a realistic portrayal of loss, grief, racism, as well as the impact of COVID on all during these last few years.