Drown

Here's the thing. Anything you read by Diaz is going to feel like heavy drinking in a rough-around-the-edges bar; the kind of place where it's too dark to see; where the soles of your shoes are sticky-stuck to the floor and there is the obsessively constant need to wipe your hands and mouth. Diaz has that conversational, lean in and listen way of talking that sounds slightly conspiratorial but always brutally honest. While the stories change direction and voice, the messages of culture, society, family, tradition and passion do not. Powerful characters are matched only by their fierce loves and tragic losses. Their triumphs and travesties are spilled across the page with a "so what?" wild abandon. It's as if you are elbow to elbow with show more Diaz as he whispers to you lush stories from his childhood, his coming of age, his entire history. Every story is intensely personal. But, But! But, all the while you are aware that this bar, these stories - this is his turf and you are not safe without him there. You need him to keep talking. show less

There are ten stories, linked around a young boy, first growing up in poverty in the Dominican Republic and then moving to a poor area of New Jersey. Another squalid place the American Dream has bypassed. There is an absent father, a strong loving mother and the only career choices available for a boy growing into manhood, are stealing and drug dealing. Dead ends.
His prose is spare and edgy: “We head down a road for utility vehicles, where beer bottles grow out of the weeds like squashes. The Hacienda is past this road, a house with orange tiles on the roof and yellow stucco on the walls. The boards across the windows are as loose as old teeth, the bushes around the front big and mangy like Afros.”
These are darkly beautiful show more stories, of pain, heartbreak and just enough flashes of distant hope. show less

Brilliant prose with not always likeable people and even the sympathetic characters engage in marginal behavior (drugs, etc.). Nonetheless, this is a powerful read to understand the immigrant experience.

Summer 2021 (July);

Another recommended pick-up from my APSI summer class, and another drilling down into the lives of persons of color.

This one started so well worded by pointing out 'The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you.' It was such a chillingly beautiful thing to see so clearly put forward. That the stories were already displaced by being put in the wrong language, same as the life lived and spoken in it. Already we being in a liminal space between language, cultures, and states of being.

This piece did so well at showing us the complicated network of the feelings and thought in multifaceted cultural interactions here. Sorrow and joy always mingled and sullied just slightly by the show more balance it had to hold itself in. This is a good eye-opener and reminder of those experiences being had around us, that they deserve the same respect and compassion as our own always. show less

I enjoyed immersing myself in the waters of Drown. An emotional collection of stories, one can surmise they are at least partly based on Diaz's personal experiences. The stories explore often ignored themes of masculinity, male friendship, and (most importantly) father-son relationships. In fact, there is a Kafka-esque search to comprehend a father's identity and actions. It is not an easy task with a father who is emotionally and, for a large part, physically distant. Women are present, of course, but usually found in beleaguered and lamentable circumstances. They are deficient in money and in the love that they seem to deserve. The young male protagonists want to be exceptional men to their female lovers, but suspect that inevitably show more they too will become neglectful. No one is safe from emotional turmoil in Diaz's stories. The struggles are private, familial and cultural---not individual but all interconnected. Isn't this always the case? show less

I enjoy Junot Díaz’s writing very much. This collection of stories is about his character Yunior - his childhood in the Dominican Republic, his memories and feelings about his father who was mostly absent. I believe this was Díaz’s first published book. I could see his talent and his potential for success. I think the other 2 books I’ve read, his later works, are much better - the realization of his potential. Those books are the novel, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO, and another collection of stories, THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER.

Diaz does a great job on giving you the feel for the Dominican immigrant experience. Although this is a story collection, it feels like a novel because it deals with the same characters as it bounces through different time frames and locals. Some in the Dominican Republic and some in New Jersey/NYC. His prose is great but sometimes you don't always have a feel for the characters, but what you do get is how difficult life can be for so many and especially for immigrants who don't speak the language. Our country is not always that welcoming but people still want to come here. This is a worthwhile read to get some insight into parts of life for which I have no personal experience. He has written 3 books and they are all excellent with one show more winning the Pulitzer prize. Still waiting for something new from him. show less