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Loading... Drown (edition 1997)by Junot Diaz
Work detailsDrown by Junot Díaz
 OshoOsho | Mar 30, 2013 |  Here is a collection of interconnected short stories that is gorgeous. The language is lush. The settings are vibrant. The characters are enthralling. Each story is this collection is brought to life with a barrage of delicately chosen words. Junot Díaz's Drown is a tense, yet lyrical collection which forces a reader pause from time to time in admiration. The best stories in this collection are the first two and the last three. This worked great for this book as it pulled me in quickly and left me satisfied at its conclusion. Drown is a wonderful debut. Unfortunately, this makes its brevity all the more disappointing. For all their beauty and intrigue, I was unable to fall in love with any character. Every time I felt I began to feel rooted in one place, I was ripped away and taken five years in the future to another location. Perhaps this is partially the author's intent--to give the reader a taste of these character's hectic lives. But in the end, I know, the richness of the language will stick with me longer than any of these stories will. Having a taste here of what Díaz is capable of, I am eager to see what he would do with a more focused story. Fortunately, I just acquired a copy of his Pulitzer-winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. (  ) chrisblocker | Mar 30, 2013 | I have now read all of Diaz's publications. For a first collection this was excellent . Diaz sticks with the area that he knows and it will be interesting to see in the future if he expands his subject matter. Although I enjoyed this collection I did find his subject matter repetitive. However, there is no denying his great use of language and his portrayal of the immigrant experience. I look forward to seeing what he does in the future. (  ) nivramkoorb | Dec 7, 2012 | Diaz, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), presents in his first collection a thematically-linked series of short stories dealing with the life of a character named Yunior. Yunior serves as an authorial stand-in in many ways, as the stories themselves are explicitly based upon Diaz’s own experiences growing up in poverty in the Dominican Republic and later, in New Jersey. Loud-mouthed, wild, but sensitive in his own way, Yunior is a compelling character surrounded on all sides by hardship and struggle. The stories have a raw and compelling tone and the language alternates between an unaffected simplicity and a soaring lyricism that complements the subject matter well. ( ) kmaziarz | Dec 6, 2012 | This particular set of stories is realistic, and with a writing/speaking style that seems 'authentic' to the situations they are presenting. The situations themselves are largely what I would call 'gritty'. Single parent homes where the fathers have gone to America (ostensibly to make money and send for them) only to disappear, leaving the young boys largely unsupervised. They spend their free time not learning in school, getting with girls, and talking about getting with girls (in much coarser language than that of course). The new immigrants working 18-19 hours a day, only to be treated like sh*t everybody outside their immediate community (While doing the jobs that no one else would do quite frankly). While the voices of the children are sometimes amusing, overall this series of short stories is somewhat dark. Towards the end the stories start overlapping, and we see the same story from the perspective of someone else (e.g. the father gone to America). I did enjoy that. (  ) Bcteagirl | Feb 9, 2012 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0679776575, Paperback)El lector tiene en sus manos una colección de relatos que viene precedida de una enorme expectación. Su autor, seleccionado por Newsweek como uno de los diez nuevos rostros para el noventa y seis, nos transporta desde los pueblos y parajes polvorientos de su tierra natal, la República Dominicana, hasta los barrios industrials y el paisaje urbano de New Jersey, bajo un horizonte de chimeneas humeantes. La obra triunfal que marcó el arranque literario de Junot Díaz puede ahora disfrutarse en una edición en español que conserva en su integridad la fuerza desabrida y la delicadeza del texto original.Los niños y jóvenes que pueblan las páginas de Negocios gravitan sin sosiego por territorios marginales, a mitad de camino entre la inocencia y la experiencia, entre la curiosidad infantil y la crueldad más descarnada. Criados en hogares abandonados por el padre, donde todo se sostiene gracias a la férrea abegación de la madre, estos adolescentes acarician sueños de independencia, asomándose con recelo a un mundo donde intuyen que no hay un lugar reservado para ellos. En estos diez relatos la prosa de Junot Díaz oscila con sabiduría entre el humor, la desolación y la ternura, desplegando en cada página un estilo palpitante de vida.(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:28:04 -0500) A collection of eleven stories by a young writer evoke his hard-fought youth in the barrios of the Dominican Republic and the bleak urban landscapes of New Jersey, combining a journalist's dispassionate eye with an ear for poetry. (summary from another edition) |
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Earlier short stories by the author of [b:The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao|297673|The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao|Junot Díaz|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275611938s/297673.jpg|3281466]. Most are linked by the character Yunior, and the collection is presumably autobiographical in some respects. It's lean and spare; where Oscar Wao exults in a frenzy of language, Drown is quieter but no less affecting. Similarly, where Oscar Wao is fragmented and postmodern, Drown includes straightforward narratives. The stories, of a Dominican family with an absent father, might most fruitfully be read before Oscar Wao to provide a more intimate and emotional backdrop to the novel. (