Drown

This book, a collection of short stories, is written in the same style as Diaz' novel, The Short Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao. While the novel provides the scope for this voice to flower and bloom in spectacular fashion, the stories tend to sound flat and forced as one peters out and another tentatively fades in. To torture the flower analogy the stories are like seeds that could have nurtured into spectacular blooms but once planted, ignored while the next is prepared. Lots of potential here, unrealized.

My cousin gave me this book and it took me a long time to read it. But when I finally did I didn't expect to connect with the story and feel deeply for what was happening. It was a great book.

Reviewing this book and rating it is difficult due to the controversies surrounding the author. Regarding my rating: reading this was not necessarily “enjoyable”, but you cannot help but care about the characters. That being said, the controversies surrounding the author make the work itself just feel cynical. But, do bad people have things perhaps worth saying and to consider? Hopefully, I think.

I will say, I do want to read the other books (I read this one because I wanted to read them, and that I still do is a mark in its favor). What does Yunior look like grown up? How does a grown up Junot Diaz write him? Hopefully one day we will find out.

I brought this book on our road trip down to Florida for American Thanksgiving. The author‰ЫЄs been getting so much positive attention and we had this book of stories and I‰ЫЄm not sure what else I can say about my motivation. But I was on vacation and reading was a lower priority than staring out the window or talking to family or poking at my new iPhone. I liked it enough to finish it in the car the first day driving home (bent close to my lap, one arm hiding the windows from view so I wouldn‰ЫЄt get carsick), if that tells you anything. The stories were of the gut-kicking variety, with wrenching poverty and sad families but a bit of joy here and there. Made me feel sick and over-privileged, like I have my priorities all wrong. But I know enough that it wasn‰ЫЄt a feeling that would last (and maybe that‰ЫЄs why I wanted to finish it so much).

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.

I'm filing this along with Julia Alvarez under Books that Are Improved by Reading them in the Dominican Republic.

I mean it was good, but it didn´t leave me raving about it or anything.