Iguana from Vincent Traughber Meis Review

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

After losing his parents and terminating long -term relationships, a man moved to Mexico to find a new beginning. In Vincent’s Iguana Traub Mace, he begins a complex relationship with a divorced young father.

Synopsis

Reducing from the end of the long -term relationship and the death of his parents over the years of Covid, Dawson Woznak tries to rediscover in Mexico. He is able to continue his work by working remotely as an editor of a West Coast publisher. He dives into this new world, becoming friends with ex-Mexicans, including the author of the best-selling ones who has abandoned writing, the author of the author who leads him on the path of his new life in a funny sea and a bizarre repatorted Mexican with ideals of a new time.

One evening during a raging thunderstorm, Dawson has a meeting with an iguana and then steals a kiss from a young man uncertain about his sexuality. A minute later, the two witnesses to the death of a young Mexican falling from the roof of the Dawson building. These events are forever connected in his head, outlining a rock connection with Ivan, the divorced father with whom he shared the kiss. Dawson is forced to look at himself strongly and what it means to be a foreigner in Mexico, which makes him make decisions that complicate his life and that of Ivan. They are thrown into a network of emotional, psychological and moral dilemmas. Despite the complications, Dawson believes that his new life is the antidote to the unfulfilled life he has left in the United States. The enigmatic attraction between the two men finds its pace, and they continue to return to each other against all chances, while Dawson’s other friends alternate between warning and applauding his new relationship.

Review

What a deeply engaging and memorable read! The author created complex, relevant and thoughtful characters with whom readers can identify and fall in love. The delicate balance between the life of one’s life and the understanding of the complexity of society plays in the story as history develops and grows, and readers immerse themselves in the life of the characters so carefully.

The heart of this story is the network of topics that intertwine. The heart, which comes with a loss, from the parents of the main character and the young man who falls to his death, even to meeting the titular iguana, made this topic stand out firmly from the beginning. Mixed with this is the topic of identity and vision of the main character has his sexuality, while having to learn about the cultural and social difficulties with which the people with whom he becomes the whole story has made this powerful reading story.

Verdict

Despite, cordial and engaging, the “iguana” of the author of Vincent Traub Mace is a must -have novel. The nature of the story, deepening of the losses that so much experienced during the pandemic of Covid-19 and the idea of ​​personal identity in a changing world, still embedded in deep cultures, has made it one of my favorite readings from 2025 so far. If you are not yet, be sure to take your copy today!

Evaluation: 10/10

For the author

Vincent Mace grew up in Decare, Illinois and graduated from Tulan University in New Orleans.

He has worked as English as a second language teacher (ESL) in the area of ​​San Francisco, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, publishing many academic articles in his field, as well as articles to teach ESL abroad. He also traveled widely to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and the Central and South America. He owns Spanish. As a result of his trips and time abroad, he publishes a number of pieces, mainly travel articles, but also several poems and reviews of books, in publications such as Advocate, La Weekly, in style and our world in the 1980s and 90s. His trips have inspired four novels, all placed at least in part in foreign countries: the desert rose of Eddie (2011), Thio Jorge (2012) and down in Cuba (2013) and Deluge (2016). Thio Jorge in 2012 in Cuba received two bisexual fiction awards in 2012, received two Rainbow awards in 2013. Deluge won the Rainbow Award in 2016. Recently, his stories have been published in several collections, including: new gay fiction, the best gay gay gay gay and the best gay gay gay. Four Call Burds will be published. In 2021, he published two books with Ninestar Press, the mayor of Oak Street, a novel and away from Home, a collection of short stories.

https://www.vincentmeis.com/