Author: Junot Diaz
Length: 217 pages
Year Written: 2012
Why I chose this book: This was a birthday gift from another of my book club ladies, Bess (this actually rounds out the birthday-given book collection)!
This was the perfect book to make up for the sluggish pace with which I read the last one. I finished this one in two to three sittings, max. The language is so engaging, so easy to ingest. I'm also glad to have read a second book by Junot Diaz—it's always great to read multiple books by the same author. There tend to be themes that reappear throughout an author's collection of works. Diaz is certainly no exception.
Much like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the main characters are Dominican. There is again a Yunior (who some say is a novelized representation of the author himself that he uses in more than one book). There is again a weaving of narratives that portray doomed relationships, family strain, and sexual escapades. This book, written five years after Wao, is more bare-bones, more focused on smaller-scale stories that still mightily represent the human experience. The book's central theme is infidelity, and we see both how a string of relationship fuck-ups dented the main character's life, and how it seems like it was in his blood for him to fuck up as horribly and frequently as he did.
There is something we can all relate to in this book, whether it is trudging through difficult post-infidelity reconciliations, or reminiscing on the struggles of a trying childhood. Lots of people told me I'd love this book, and I'm glad to say that's absolutely the truth.
Rating: 9.5/10
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