Scan barcode
jking1118's review against another edition
5.0
Superb. I wonder how much of it is autobiographical. I look forward to reading his other books.
samantharae923's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book so much. It was written so beautifully, so honestly. Read it in one day on a plane and at a resort in Costa Rica. Dying to read more.
ellaalonso's review against another edition
1.0
I had just finished "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" when a close friend of mine suggested this book. Despite my distaste for the author, I decided to go ahead and read this book, as I value her literary tastes.
Surprise! I liked this book even less.
"This Is How You Lose Her" had everything I disliked about "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" but without the plot: an aimless lustful male main character, a constant and unclear shifting perspective narrative (there's a female speaker at some point), unnecessarily vulgar Dominican slang, and an interest due to someone being diagnosed with cancer. The book read like rejected chapters from "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", especially considering that the speakers are generally the same characters.
Surprise! I liked this book even less.
"This Is How You Lose Her" had everything I disliked about "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" but without the plot: an aimless lustful male main character, a constant and unclear shifting perspective narrative (there's a female speaker at some point), unnecessarily vulgar Dominican slang, and an interest due to someone being diagnosed with cancer. The book read like rejected chapters from "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", especially considering that the speakers are generally the same characters.
starringmaureen's review against another edition
4.0
Another year, another book I forgot I'd read before.
amymarietruax's review against another edition
5.0
i wish i could give this book 6 stars. or 10. or a million. there aren't enough stars in the world, actually.
taylorklong's review against another edition
5.0
Junot Diaz came to read at the college where I work a few months back, and though I hadn't yet read anything of his, I went. I wanted to see what he was all about, and it seemed like a good opportunity. I bought this book, got in line early, and started reading. I started reading and I cried and cried and cried. I didn't get far before his reading, but with even just part of one story, he kind of destroyed me. I heard him read, and he was honest, hysterical, well-spoken, and full of swear words, so needless to say he charmed the fuck out of me. I met him and told him that I cried while reading and that I'd dated dudes like this, and he thanked me and hugged me and signed my copy and it was one of those moments where I felt connected to someone through their work in an incredible way. I think this is partly why I put off reading this for awhile after then. I knew it would hit all those notes, and I wanted to be in a place where I felt ready.
At the risk of sounding like a jerk, I do think certain people are inclined to cheat - and I also think there are certain people who are inclined to date those people. This isn't to say that neither type of person can't change. I only say this because I was once the kind of person who had a penchant for dating cheaters. I'm well grown-up past that now, thank the lords, but there was certainly a time where I just ended up with a certain kind of guy. (I'm also not saying it's a gender-based thing, to be clear.)
A good deal of This Is How You Lose Her is centered around infidelity, and having the life experiences that I have, that's partially why these stories gutted me so much. I'd been there, or if not exactly there, somewhere in the same neighborhood. Diaz has a remarkable talent for hitting the emotional center head on and making the reader feel exactly what we need to - the universality of unrequited love, of having trust broken, of fighting to make something work when it's well past dead.
That said, This Is How You Lose Her hits on much more than infidelity, while dealing with similar themes of isolation, loneliness, otherness... cancer, immigration, loss of family, loss of culture, loss of identity, loss of direction.
One of the incredible things about this book, though, is that it doesn't feel like a particularly sad or depressing read, even though it deals with such heavy topics. It's actually strangely comforting because it touches on these difficult truths in such a way that exposes the frequency of our experiences with loneliness, and thus makes us feel less alone through this commonality.
Diaz has a wonderful, unique voice - a distinct rhythm, flow, dialect. As someone who doesn't know a lick of Spanish, I was sometimes consulting Google to translate some of the slang he uses, and generally found that I was actually understanding it somehow - usually the words were slang for exactly what I thought they were, and that's definitely not for any other reason than Diaz's incredible writing.
This definitely feels like a work that will stay with me. I'm not entirely sure what's driving me to rate this at four instead of five, except for possibly the fact that it felt like it went so quickly and I wanted more... But, you know how that old cliche about that goes....
Edit, September 8th, 2014: It's official. It's getting the fifth star.
At the risk of sounding like a jerk, I do think certain people are inclined to cheat - and I also think there are certain people who are inclined to date those people. This isn't to say that neither type of person can't change. I only say this because I was once the kind of person who had a penchant for dating cheaters. I'm well grown-up past that now, thank the lords, but there was certainly a time where I just ended up with a certain kind of guy. (I'm also not saying it's a gender-based thing, to be clear.)
A good deal of This Is How You Lose Her is centered around infidelity, and having the life experiences that I have, that's partially why these stories gutted me so much. I'd been there, or if not exactly there, somewhere in the same neighborhood. Diaz has a remarkable talent for hitting the emotional center head on and making the reader feel exactly what we need to - the universality of unrequited love, of having trust broken, of fighting to make something work when it's well past dead.
That said, This Is How You Lose Her hits on much more than infidelity, while dealing with similar themes of isolation, loneliness, otherness... cancer, immigration, loss of family, loss of culture, loss of identity, loss of direction.
One of the incredible things about this book, though, is that it doesn't feel like a particularly sad or depressing read, even though it deals with such heavy topics. It's actually strangely comforting because it touches on these difficult truths in such a way that exposes the frequency of our experiences with loneliness, and thus makes us feel less alone through this commonality.
Diaz has a wonderful, unique voice - a distinct rhythm, flow, dialect. As someone who doesn't know a lick of Spanish, I was sometimes consulting Google to translate some of the slang he uses, and generally found that I was actually understanding it somehow - usually the words were slang for exactly what I thought they were, and that's definitely not for any other reason than Diaz's incredible writing.
This definitely feels like a work that will stay with me. I'm not entirely sure what's driving me to rate this at four instead of five, except for possibly the fact that it felt like it went so quickly and I wanted more... But, you know how that old cliche about that goes....
Edit, September 8th, 2014: It's official. It's getting the fifth star.
amysteele's review against another edition
5.0
It’s impressive when an author writes gritty, contemporary stories that immediately immerse you in another culture. Ones that burst from the page, splattered with Spanish phrases, nasty language and colorful descriptions. In his new collection of stories, This is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz writes about the Latino, mostly Dominican, culture in an honest poetic way. Often I don’t want to read short stories without a reflective break but in this case I couldn’t stop once I started. Most of the stories center on young Yunior and develop a smooth cohesiveness about his past loves. I adore the way that the narrative feels like Yunior’s talking directly to the reader. Just baring his true feelings. Bursting with confidence and worries and bravado and doubt. You have to be quite brilliant to write in this manner. The prose is simultaneously simple and complex. Yet remain raw, visceral. The stories brim with daring construction, choice vocabulary and vibrant characters. The best stories are “The Pura Principle,” “Miss Lora” and the one Yunior-free one “Otravida, Otravez.”
alternatina's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, and Infidelity
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Abandonment
jessemillerjtm's review against another edition
4.0
3.75/5
“From the top of Westminster, our main strip, you could see the thinnest sliver of ocean creating the horizon to the east. My father has been shown that sight - the management showed everyone- but as he drove us from JFK he didn’t stop to point it out. The ocean might have made us feel better, considering what else there was to see. London Terrace itself was a mess; half the buildings needed their wiring and in the evening light these structures sprawled about like ships of brick that had run aground. Mid followed gravel everywhere and the grass, planted later in Fall, poked out of the snow in dead tufts.”
“Nilda is watching the ground as though she’s afraid it might fall.” My heart is beating and I think, we could do anything, we could marry, we could drive off to the west coast, we could start over. It’s all possible but neither of us speaks for a long time and the moment closes and we’re back in the world we’ve always known.”
“You, Yunior, have a girlfriend named Alma, who has a long tender horse neck and a big Dominican ass that seems to exist in the fourth dimension beyond jeans.”
I really like the way Junot Díaz writes. I enjoyed reading “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” a few years ago and also enjoyed this collection of short stories. It essentially follows Yunior (a character in that novel) and is a series of short stories about his failed/past relationships and family life growing up in NJ.
Once again, I found myself drawn to the characters and the setting, most. They vividly pop off the page and their locale becomes so real in my mind I forget where I am while reading. Reading his words feels like looking at art, IMO.
My only criticism is the same as his other books I’ve read - I wish there was more of a plot! I wish it was more concrete and longer. But alas… it’s an interesting glimpse into a life that’s far from perfect (and very unlike my own), but has an impact nonetheless.
I hope he writes another novel - I’d devour it!
“From the top of Westminster, our main strip, you could see the thinnest sliver of ocean creating the horizon to the east. My father has been shown that sight - the management showed everyone- but as he drove us from JFK he didn’t stop to point it out. The ocean might have made us feel better, considering what else there was to see. London Terrace itself was a mess; half the buildings needed their wiring and in the evening light these structures sprawled about like ships of brick that had run aground. Mid followed gravel everywhere and the grass, planted later in Fall, poked out of the snow in dead tufts.”
“Nilda is watching the ground as though she’s afraid it might fall.” My heart is beating and I think, we could do anything, we could marry, we could drive off to the west coast, we could start over. It’s all possible but neither of us speaks for a long time and the moment closes and we’re back in the world we’ve always known.”
“You, Yunior, have a girlfriend named Alma, who has a long tender horse neck and a big Dominican ass that seems to exist in the fourth dimension beyond jeans.”
I really like the way Junot Díaz writes. I enjoyed reading “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” a few years ago and also enjoyed this collection of short stories. It essentially follows Yunior (a character in that novel) and is a series of short stories about his failed/past relationships and family life growing up in NJ.
Once again, I found myself drawn to the characters and the setting, most. They vividly pop off the page and their locale becomes so real in my mind I forget where I am while reading. Reading his words feels like looking at art, IMO.
My only criticism is the same as his other books I’ve read - I wish there was more of a plot! I wish it was more concrete and longer. But alas… it’s an interesting glimpse into a life that’s far from perfect (and very unlike my own), but has an impact nonetheless.
I hope he writes another novel - I’d devour it!