It's a point of contention with me when authors ignore grammar. That isn't to say I'm against authorial intent -- not using a comma or using one for emphasis -- but when some are just tossed out lackadaisically I have to wonder why. There are moments in Drown where there is no reason not to use the proper grammar, and being a big fan of the impact grammar can have on a reader (when used correctly) this irks me. Why do (or not do) something if it has no effect? It just seems lazy to me. On the other hand, the merging of dialogue into the exposition and description without any quotations does have an interesting affect. I find myself disconnected from the characters and the action; all of the story seemed to just merge into a single melting pot where there was no distinct action or break, just one seamless narrative. This was an interesting choice, but I ultimately prefer the norm. It was too easy for me not to care about anything I was reading when the dialogue was removed and tone was so journalistic to began with.The stories themselves seem to fluctuate wildly in meaning, symbolism, and impact. Some of them are slightly whimsical, some depressing, some highly meaningful, but they are all (it seems) about the same character and his family. I thought it an odd choice that some of the stories would be told in such completely different voices. Yunior seems to waver between tragic hero and heroic villain. His father is much the same; (although ultimately more a villain) a figure of domination and pain upon his family until we are given 'Negocios', which seems to contradict much of what we know of the character. As far as I'd read before the father was an imperceptibly quiet monster with no concern whatsoever for his family or anyone else, and yet he is a young man with hopes and dreams and love. This is all fine, characters just like people can change, but there is no reason given. This character goes from optimistic to abusive in the span of pages and for no concrete reason. I do not think I am naive in thinking there should be a reason for this. I've seen any number of people change and it never seems to be just for the hell of it, so seeing it described in such a way leaves me a little perplexed. Also, I wonder how it is Yunior even knows these stories. His father hardly talked to him, and treated him even less like a son, so I have to wonder how it is Yunior learned any of this from a man who beat his family and cheated openly on their mother. Who would have filled in these details?Perhaps a large majority of my complaints were done purposefully. Perhaps we are not supposed to know what exactly caused the change in Papi or how it is his son came to learn all of this, but dammit, that's stupid. I want to know that. Assuming this was actually Diaz, he knows, so why not tell us? Without the details these stories fluctuate in quality and cohesion and I can't think it would have harmed a thing to have let us in on the how and why.It's an interesting style, but not, ultimately, one I am a fan of.
I feel a closeness to Junot Díaz that I don't with most authors. There's something so familiar and inviting about his prose; when I read it, I'm transported there. "I can totally hear him saying that!" The people in his novels are So Real to me, and when he talks coming-of-age, all his characters are versions of the people from my childhood.Junot, please write more. I require more than just this and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. How it is you make us laugh and cry as cathartically as you do, I'll never know. How, motherf*cker, how?!"Everyone had a different opinion on the damage. Tío said it wasn't bad but the father was very sensitive about anything taunting his oldest son, which explained the mask. Tía said that if we were to look on his face we would be sad for the rest of our lives. That's why the poor boy's mother spends her day in church. I had never been sad more than a few hours and the thought of that sensation lasting a lifetime scared the hell out of me."."Mami must have caught me studying her because she stopped what she was doing and gave me a smile, maybe her first one of the night. Suddenly I wanted to go over and hug her, for no other reason than I loved her, but there were about eleven fat jiggling bodies between us. So I sat down on the tiled floor and waited."."We could never get Mami to do anything after work, even cook dinner, if she didn't first sit awhile in her rocking chair. She didn't want to hear nothing about our problems, the scratches we'd put into our knees, who said what. She'd sit on the back patio with her eyes closed and let the bugs bite mountains onto her arms and legs. Sometimes I climbed the guanábana tree and when she'd open her eyes and catch me smiling down on her, she'd close them again and I would drop twigs onto her until she laughed."."Homegirl was too beautiful, too high-class for a couple of knuckleheads for us. Never saw her in a t-shirt or without jewelry. And her boyfriend, olvídate. That nigger could have been a model; hell, they both could have been models, which was what they probably were, considering that I never heard word one pass between them about a job or a fucking boss. People like these were untouchables to me, raised on some other planet and then transplanted into my general vicinity to remind me how bad I was living."
Do You like book Drown (1997)?
I shelve my fiction alphabetized by author’s last name, each author’s works further displayed in chronological publishing order. Presidential biographies start with Washington and travel in order to Obama. Histories stands pretty much as they occurred. Not exactly OCD, but the nuns can certainly be proud of the order they instilled. So I can’t explain why, when I open a book of short stories for the first time, I do not read them in order. I jumped around here, although I did read the final story last. Book closed, I think I would have been better served reading the stories in the order presented. Like Olive Kitteridge, these stories share characters and a family history. They must certainly be semi-autobiographical. They span locations: ‘Nueva York’ and the Dominican. And mostly they are in the voice of ‘Yunior’, a young boy with very wide eyes and ears. The language is hip but nevertheless restrained, almost minimalist. The lessons, though, are hardly unique: wounds of childhood, searching for some toehold, loss, fathers and sons. Such a different life told here, and yet I recognized, felt, the shame, the hope, things I can safely predict will eventually wake Diaz in the middle of the night, the wonder of it all.So up you go, between Pete Dexter and Isak Dinesen, right before your later The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. For no good or special reason. Just because as things unravel, I will know where to find you.Thanks once again to Goodreads Giveaways. Love winning free books.
—Tony
4.5 starsI'm really amazed at Junot Diaz's ability to create such a richly imagined and realistic history of a fictional character. Yunior, the central character of most, if not all, of these short stories, appears in Diaz's other works, This Is How You Lose Her and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I think this shows remarkable skill for a debut collection, and to have all this story built up in his mind that flows over into his other works is amazing.I definitely recommend starting with this collection if you are looking into reading anything by Junot Diaz.
—Maxwell
This was a really good collection of short stories that follow Dominican and dominican-American characters and their day to day lives. About half of the stories are narrated by Yunior, the narrator of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and the stories not narrated by him are often somehow connected to him or his family. As usual, Junot Diaz's writing style is just great. The stories all flowed well, with great pacing. I really enjoyed how conversations were integrated into the prose, without any quotations. I found this aspect made the prose flow nicely and seamlessly.We really learn a lot about Yunior through these stories- his experiences, his family and in many ways get to understand why he acts the way he does. I would say my favourite story was the last one, which was specifically about Yunior's father. This story seemed to have a similar purpose the stories about Yunior had, namely, for the reader to better understand these characters, their struggles, and why they act the way they do.Part of me wishes the whole book had been about Yunior and his family, the stories dealing with other characters just weren't as compelling overall in my opinion and dragged the book down a bit. I feel like either Yunior and his family should not have had such a large focus, or the whole book should have been about them. Because the book fell somewhere in the middle, it seemed more like a random patchwork than a seamless collection at times.Honestly, I would rate this more 3.5/5 for the reason stated above. I decided to bump it up to 4/5 mostly for the style, and how much I enjoyed Yunior's stories. I definitely recommend this for anyone who likes short stories, enjoys immigrant narratives, or who has read and enjoyed Diaz's work in the past!
—Elli (The Bibliophile)
