With ten stories that move from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, Junot Diaz makes his remarkable debut. Diaz's work is unflinching and strong, and these stories crackle with an electric sense of discovery. Diaz evokes a world in which fathers are gone, mothers fight with grim determination for their families and themselves, and the next generation inherits the casual cruelty, devestating ambivalence, and knowing humor of lives circumscribed by poverty and uncertainty. In Drown, Diaz has harnessed the rhythms of anger and release, frustration and joy, to indelible effect.
I first heard of Mr. Junot Diaz from an article in Latina Magazine. I picked up his first book and wished I had read it sooner. A great and wonderful book. The reviewer who criticized it seems to want to down grade a popular book. This is no fade. Mr Diaz writes of humans in their greatest potential and cruelest reality, but give us a sense of self and humanism. The people, the places, the stories, he knows how to capture. He is a great writer. It may be cliche, but I could not put this book down; no matter how busy I was. I looked forward to his new release and his new novel too, does not disappoint. It is yet another reminder of why Mr. Junot Diaz is one of our great writers of our present time.
writes,
Only the second Dominican writer to be published in English in the US, Junot Diaz writes with such an authentic voice, such a clear cadence and rhythm, that your response to these perfect short storeis is a visceral as the writing itself. Often on the top of many people's favorite collections, these stories are exquisitely rough gems, bulletins from the abyss that simultaneously make you laugh out loud and wish you could hang with these sweet tigres. A must for anyone interested in learning how to develop voice, also essential for adolescents interested in global perspectives right in their own backyards.
writes,
This story collection started off a little choppy;
the best stories are at the end. The author
employs a stream of consciousness that reminds
you of Toni Morrison.
The characters' evolution as young adolescent teenage
boys is juxtaposed with Diaz's linear narration that
recalls the immigrant's life with desperation. Time
is not an issue in Diaz's work; the characters move
at their own paces and learn about life in their own
ways.
Though the machismo is a bit stifling at times, Diaz
is a gifted writer whom readers can expect many great
things from in the future.
