By Junot Díaz
Publisher: Riverhead Books (A member of Penquin Group USA)
Junot Díaz uses short stories to depict the life of a young Dominican man who is devoid of total emotional commitment to the women he loves. His first story takes the reader through a series of events describing his inner thoughts as he cheats on his girlfriend Magda. Junot does an excellent job of capturing the feelings of a great relationship in all its glory, its downswings, and when it eventually ends. He makes you feel for the characters on both sides; the cheater and cheated. His gift of effective writing grabs at your heartstrings and makes you feel as if you’ve been on that same emotional rollercoaster ride sometime in your life.
His analysis of characters such as Nilda, his brother’s girlfriend, captures the “wishful” dreams of someone so young, yet lost to the world. Inside, you know someone just like her and wish you could reach in and pull her aside to give her advice. Junot’s strength in writing comes from his outstanding ability to pull at heartstrings and get into our heads.
Junot goes on to tell the story of Yunior’s brother Rafa and his battle with leukemia. It is told through the eyes of a younger brother and is altogether revealing, sad, and moving. It is not the typical story of a leukemia patient, but in the end it leaves you asking the same questions that the characters in the book must have asked – “but why.” He uses a connected yet sometimes disconnected way to show this tragedy. It the end, it captures death in the raw.
The telling of how the family adjusts to a cold winter in an unpleasant setting in New Jersey after coming from the Dominican Republic puts the reader in the scene. Junot again uses his great gift of word management to make you feel for the characters.
Although this book attempts to cover the various “types” of love; from illicit to fading to maternal, it leaves the reader coming away with only the infidelities and focuses more on the sadness versus the positive. Still, it is a great book because it gives us the side of life that most books fail to include. Junot’s style of writing is informal but his use of verbiage to portray his characters is effective. It is both original and concise.
After reading this book, I came away feeling sad for the characters, but still wanting to read on. Was this Junot’s intent? If so, he did an exceptional job of making me want to read more of his work. It is no wonder that he won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Did this book achieve its goal? I can’t help but answer with, “What didn’t it achieve?” The title immediately drew me in, the first story was full of raw emotion, and each story thereafter was just as enticing. Would I recommend this book? Absolutely! Absolutely! Absolutely!
Source: Book was bought and reviewed by Corina Martinez Chaudhry.
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