Junot Diaz has always been a favorite author of mine, ever since college when he came to the Latin-American lit class I was taking in '98. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published And this is how you lose her. This is by far one of my favorite books of all time. J unot Diaz’s latest collection of short stories, This is How You Lose Her, continues to mine the author’s experiences as a Dominican immigrant in New Jersey. The debilitating cancer of Rafa, … Raw and honest, these stories pulsate with raspy ghetto hip-hop and the subtler yet more vital echo of the human heart.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Díaz’s standout fiction remains pinpoint, sinuous, gutsy, and imaginative… Each taut tale of unrequited and betrayed love and family crises is electric with passionate observations and off-the-charts emotional and social intelligence… Fast–paced, unflinching, complexly funny, street-talking tough, perfectly made, and deeply sensitive, Díaz’s gripping stories unveil lives shadowed by prejudice and poverty and bereft of reliable love and trust. There's no such thing as a loyal husband or boyfriend. By clicking Sign Up, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. In the case of these individuals, the answer is a resounding yes when it comes to loving... On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. It is one of those amazingly inclusive books that seems to embrace everything the author knows, while his new collection of short stories, “This Is How You Lose Her,” is a … Yet Diaz inflects this struggle with the complicated particulars of cultural exile, of want and of the bravado that is born of fear. An irritating infatuation or overconsciousness of the skin tone and overbearing macho complexes also describes lost loves, doomed relationships, & how perfect they were before they were shattered beyond repair. He screws around on women, and when he is caught and discarded there is great chest thumping and hair tearing and he learns...nothing. This is a collection of short stories about Yunior. Just the way it is. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. Stream This is How You Lose Her, written and read by Junot Diaz by PRH Audio from desktop or your mobile device. Yes, there is a pitch that this is part of the Dominican Culture -- but frankly I can speak with women friends of mine from France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany and England and every single one of them knows this guy or has dated this clown. And in the case of this collection of nine short stories (seven of which were published previously in periodicals) that it took the author ten-plus years to complete, the subjects of which are men who keep cheating on their girlfriends and feeling sorry for themselves when those girlfriends get mad about it, one is acutely underwhelmed. “This Is How You Lose Her” is a collection of short stories about lost love, many of which have autobiographical tendencies. | ISBN 9781594487361 I was sitting in a cafe reading the searing conclusion to A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and upon closing it, looked up and saw the author himself 10 feet away, watching me read his work. What a treasure. There is a lot of Spanish in this book as well. Why did this jump to the top of the NY Bestseller List? Famous people! You’ve got a fun, energetic style, and we don’t know any other Dominican writers, so you can keep writing about sucios and morenos and we’ll keep applauding because it’ll seem culturally insensitive to say that, after three books largely focused on your thinly-veiled alter ego, Yunior, it’s time you tried something new. The latest work since the author's 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao contains nine short stories linked by a common narrator whose tales of love won but mostly lost are recounted with macho bravado. Several of the stories feature Yunior, a young Dominican man--sometimes boy--struggling to live up to male culture while at the same time trying to find what's true to himself--while his brother Rafa is a pure heat-seeking missile of sex. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s, Editor's Picks: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Stories Read By Your Favorite Celebrities, Contact us about speaking engagements with Junot Diaz, Discover Book Picks from the CEO of Penguin Random House US. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud. Several of the stories feature Yunior, a young Dominican man--sometimes boy--struggling to live up to male culture while at the same time trying to find what's true to himself--while his brother Rafa is a pure heat-seeking missile of sex. I was honestly struck by how emphatically he read his own stories, even more impressed that I remembered his cadences. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. I didn't like Oscar Wao any better. Sep 03, 2013 I understood some of it but not a lot. Is it because I've never been an immigrant? The intimacy and immediacy… is not just seductive but downright conspiratorial… A heartbreaker.” –The Daily Beast “Díaz manages a seamless blend of high diction and low, of poetry and vulgarity… Look no further for home truths on sex and heartbreak.” –The Economist “This collection of stories, like everything else [Díaz has] written, feels vital in the literal sense of the word. The book is comprised of ninestories,eight of which feature the same narrator, Yunior, and core characters that include his mother, his father, and his brother, Rafa.Each story is discussed below, and in chronological order, as opposed to the order they are presented in the collection. Voice, voice, voice. He screws around on women, and when he is caught and discarded there is great chest thumpin. All the men in his life are serial cheaters from his father to his brother to his best friend. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing fo. Yunior is a louse. The unflinching view of the male experience, the immigrant experience, the Latino experience, opinions--correct or not--the less correct usually delivered in Dominican scented Spanish - fly like fur and as with all great writing, Junot Diaz wins it on the sentences, one surprising, perfect laugh out loud brilliant choice after another. This section contains 362 words (approx. The rapture of youth, of stamina, is balanced by an overabundance of sick relatives and low expectations. professor, Mr. Eduardo Lago (even the colloquialisms and the, My friends sometimes ask me why I don’t read more contemporary fiction, and my reaction to this book is a good illustration of the reason. He is a gifted orator, as well as a storyteller. There's cheating. Most washed over me like a muggy drizzle when you expected cleansing rain, and a few I outright disliked. I hate to filter my response to book based upon others' responses to a book, but after a National Book Award nomination, a Guggenheim, and the almost unseemly vocal adoration of seemingly every major reviewer, one comes to a book with certain expectations. This is how you lose her: you never acknowledge that you’re dating; you have sex with a coworker; you have sex with someone else, detailing the event in your easily discovered journal; you never contact her again; you photograph her sleeping naked; you have sex with dozens of someone elses, their emails festering in your trash bin; you turn her friends and relatives against you; you finally leave the city but sing out your remorse on her machine nightly… Please try again later. He lives with his brother Rafa and his mother in a small house. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz This book is composed of several short stories with Yunior, a Dominican, as the main character. It is a wild rhythm that makes more vivid the collection’s heart-busted steadiness.” –Dallas Morning News, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction September 11th 2012 Is it the Star Trek metaphors that the characters use to give shape to their emotions? Women are just fucktoys. This is a collection of short stories about Yunior. Buy, Sep 11, 2012 This Is How You Lose Her is a new collection from Junot Diaz ... From the title, it's clear that each of the short stories will end in heartbreak. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. I listened to the audio book of this as read by the author, so I don't have page numbers. Men will cheat and fuck anything that moves until they die. Junot Díaz. I'm a big fan of Junot. In a New Jersey laundry room, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. I sometimes wish there were half stars because I want to give this book a 3.5. I feel exactly the same, Diaz gives the reader an unfortunate and interesting character to follow but by the end of the novel I was left empty of any real feeling, unsure what the final takeaway was. A true work of art, inside and out, this is a keepsake that fans will treasure and new readers will delight in discovering. –Maureen Corrigan, NPR By that time, I had already read Drown and was on my way to reading Negocios, the Spanish translation of Drown, expertly done by my lit. A heartbreak and depression so profound it “feels like you’re being slowly pincered apart, atom by atom.” “The begging, the crawling over glass, the crying” of trying to restore a relationship that you yourself are to blame for destroying. Rafa's death hangs over several of the stories. But the collection is also a major contribution to the short story form… It is an engrossing, ambitious book for readers who demand of their fiction both emotional precision and linguistic daring.” –NPR “The centripetal force of Díaz’s sensibility and the slangy bar-stool confidentiality of his voice that he makes this hybridization feel not only natural and irresistible, but inevitable, the voice of the future… [This is How You Lose Her] manages to be achingly sad and joyful at the same time. I didn't like Oscar Wao any better. As soon as you start thinking about the beginning, it's the end.”, NAIBA Book of the Year for Fiction (2013), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (Shortlist) (2013), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (2012), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2012), The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for 'Miss Lora' (2013). This is how you lost me. We are experiencing technical difficulties. What exactly is brave, fresh, or exciting about this? This slim volume of nine short stories, about the battlefield of love. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. Are they really just like us? Henry Award. Buy, Oct 31, 2013 Is it just that Diaz (who, yes, is a fantastic writer of sentences, however slight their freight) has a corner on this particular slice of the market? My friends sometimes ask me why I don’t read more contemporary fiction, and my reaction to this book is a good illustration of the reason. I feel exactly the same, Diaz gives the reader an unfortunate and interesting character to follow but by the end of the novel I was left empty of any. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. Unfair to ask, but still: Is this the work of "genius"? I felt as though he was constantly trying to maintain my attention, with a punchline, a striking image, a vulgarity, rather than trusting in the patience of the reader. Díaz’s prose is punchy and energetic; but its energy reminds me of how CGI is abused in contemporary films—an added dose of color and dazzle that attempts to make up for a lack of substance. Did anyone else find this book to be boring? Overview. Does anyone know who she is in relation to Yunior? His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her, charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed." Tough, smart, unflinching, and exposed, This is How You Lose Her is the perfect reminder of why Junot Díaz won the Pulitzer Prize… [He] writes better about the rapid heartbeat of urban life than pretty much anyone else.” –The Christian Science Monitor “Filled with Díaz’s signature searing voice, loveable/despicable characters and so-true-it-hurts goodness.” –Flavorwire “Díaz writes with subtle and sharp brilliance… He dazzles us with his language skills and his story-making talents, bringing us a narrative that is starkly vernacular and sophisticated, stylistically complex and direct… A spectacular read.” –Minneapolis Star-Tribune “[This is How You Lose Her] has maturity in content, if not in ethical behavior… Díaz’s ability to be both conversational and formal, eloquent and plainspoken, to say brilliant things Trojan-horsed in slang and self-deprecation, has a way of making you put your guard completely down and be effected in surprising and powerful ways.” –The Rumpus “As tales of relationship redemption go, each of the nine relatable short stories in Junot Díaz’s consummate collection This Is How You Lose Her triumphs… Through interrogative second-person narration and colloquial language peppered with Spanish, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author authentically captures Junior’s cultural and emotional dualities.” –Metro “Searing, sometimes hilarious, and always disarming… Readers will remember why everyone wants to write like Díaz, bring him home, or both. On a purely superficial level, I don’t like the style. Twelve pages in and this amazing line, "She's sensitive, too. Unlike other families, Papi tries to place his family trapped inside, making sure they were apprehensive around their environment. I'm so excited about how much I'm going to love this book. It’s Díaz’s voice that’s such a delight, and it is every bit his own, a melting-pot pastiche of Spanglish and street slang, pop culture and Dominican culture, and just devastating descriptive power, sometimes all in the same sentence.” –USA Today “Impressive… comic in its mopiness, charming in its madness and irresistible in its heartfelt yearning.” –The Washington Post “The dark ferocity of each of these stories and the types of love it portrays is reason enough to celebrate this book. Refresh and try again. In the short story “This Is How You Lose Her” by Junot Diaz Papi plays a dominant role in aims to separate his family from the supposedly “unknown lifestyle of an American”. His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her, charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed." Released September 11, I heard a a lot of hype for this book by Junot Diaz. Is it the Spanglish and slang? Following Drown (1998) and his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), This Is How You Lose Her is Díaz’s third book. This Is How You Lose Her is the third book by Junot Diaz, and his second story collection. Voice, voice, voice. In This is How You Lose Her, the humor and fun is always tempered by the awareness that there is always something more dangerous lurking. You gave me flat characters powered by preoccupations with sex and body parts, especially bushy hair, peppered the prose with Spanish words that were often slangy or derogatory, and allowed superficial, albeit energetic, descriptions of shallow thoughtlessness to masquerade as gritty literary style. Men are not loyal, never will be loyal, and women shouldn't expect them to be. The book is comprised of ninestories,eight of which feature the same narrator, Yunior, and core characters that include his mother, his father, and his brother, Rafa.Each story is discussed below, and in chronological order, as opposed to the order they are presented in the collection. I think most of the time I was lost somewhere in translation. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. All the men in his life are serial cheaters from his father to his brother to his best friend. For this gorgeous new edition, Jaime Hernandez—deemed “one of the twentieth century’s most significant comic creators”—has crafted stunning full-page illustrations, one for each story, that brilliantly capture the love-haunted spirit of the book and of the gutsy women whom irrepressible, irresistible Yunior loves and loses. It is, like the other two, excellent. | ISBN 9781594631771 There's cheating. "This Is How you Lose Her" (SP): The newest one by darling Junot Diaz is so theme-heavy, so break-up-centric, that you soon realize that the writer is a wee less dynamic than we'd originally thought. Book Review: 'This is How You Lose Her' by Junot Diaz Junot Diaz's electric new collection of short stories centers around Yunior, a macho yet mournful Dominican-American man. Great review. And searching. Díaz’s prose is punchy and energetic; but its energy reminds me of how CGI is abused in contemporary films—an added dose of color and dazzle that attempts to make up for a lack of substance. Yet he weds form so ideally to content that instead of blinding us, it becomes the very lens through which we can see the joy and suffering of the signature Díaz subject: what it means to belong to a diaspora, to live out the possibilities and ambiguities of perpetual insider/outsider status.” –The New York Times Book Review “Nobody does scrappy, sassy, twice-the-speed of sound dialogue better than Junot Díaz. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Yunior grew up in the Dominican Republic, but moved to America at a young age. This Study Guide consists of approximately 33 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of This Is How You Lose Her. Its heart is true, even if Yunior’s isn’t.” –Salon “[A] propulsive new collection… [that] succeeds not only because of the author’s gift for exploring the nuances of the male… but because of a writing style that moves with the rhythm and grace of a well-danced merengue.” –Seattle Times “In Díaz’s magisterial voice, the trials and tribulations of sex-obsessed objectifiers become a revelation.” –The Boston Globe “Scooch over, Nathan Zuckerman. (Not really, at least). Upon signing my book, he added "thanks for allowing me to help you live the fantasy. This Is How You Lose Her is the third book by Junot Diaz, and his second story collection. More elsewhere. Being with one you don't want. Editions: Paperback | Hardcover Deluxe Edition | Spanish Edition. by Riverhead Books. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. Read "This Is How You Lose Her" by Junot Díaz available from Rakuten Kobo. His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her, charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed.” … These stories are hard and sad, but in Díaz’s hands they also crackle.” –Library Journal (starred review) “Magnificent… an exuberant rendering of the driving rhythms and juicy Spanglish vocabulary of immigrant speech… sharply observed and morally challenging.” –Kirkus “A beautifully stirring look at ruined relationships and lost love—and a more than worthy follow-up to [Díaz’s] 2007 Pulitzer winner, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” –Bookpage “In This Is How You Lose Her, Díaz writes with subtlety and grace, once again demonstrating his remarkable facility for developing fully-realized and authentic characters with an economical rawness… Díaz skillfully portrays his protagonist so vividly, and with so much apparent honesty, that Yunior’s voice comes across with an immediacy that never once feels inauthentic.” –California Literary Review “Díaz continues to dazzle with his dynamite, street-bruised wit. The bass line of this collection is a thumpingly raw and sexual foray into lives that claw against poverty and racism. Print Word PDF. Every reader, reviewer, Tweeter, and MacArthur genius granter was wowed and moved by this book - but me? Buy, Finalist for the 2012 National Book Award, A Time and People Top 10 Book of 2012Finalist for the 2012 Story PrizeChosen as a notable or best book of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The LA Times, Newsday, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, the iTunes bookstore, and many more… “Electrifying.” –The New York Times Book Review “Exhibits the potent blend of literary eloquence and street cred that earned him a Pulitzer Prize… Díaz’s prose is vulgar, brave, and poetic.” –O MagazineFrom the award-winning author, a stunning collection that celebrates the haunting, impossible power of love.On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders.