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gadicohen93's review against another edition
5.0
Disclaimer: Did not read stories in order. Did not read stories in one go. Did not read the one story from the female perspective cause I couldn't get into it. I read them gradually--some in the New Yorker when they were originally published, some on the net after looking 'em up, some in the Brown bookstore afte stopping by to pick up the book and catch up on the stories I hadn't gotten around to yet.
I love Junot. I'm so glad he exists in the world. Motherfucker has talent like no other. True Genius. I'm writing some stories now and I have to say I'm grateful, so fucking grateful, to his fiction. I didn't really understand why I was so grateful until last night, when I saw Junot at RISD and he was so fucking great. The Best. He unpacked everything about his fiction that I emulate in my own with an authenticity that was so appropriate it was ridiculous:
What I love about Junot is that he's real. His fiction burns with the truth. His Spanglish? This code-switching may throw some people off, but it hooked into me, made me really feel--in ways not many other writers can do--the density of the real, the way reality unravels not in linear English but in the forever-confusion that is consciousness, his consciousness. We get to truly see the inside of Yunior, the way his mind functions, the paradoxes and wandering madness that his inward stream of thoughts creates from the outside world.
More than anything, Junot last night proved to me why some things I write are better than others: I need to write for me, not for anyone else. I don't need to pander to anyone. Shit, I don't even need to pander to myself--I just need to write what I know, because only then can readers see themselves in my reality, or at least feel like they see themselves in my reality. He used the specific term "economies of signification"--that he doesn't need to define everything he talks about, that his Jersey might not evoke my Jersey, but my signification of Jersey will be hit hard by his, will transform, and that is what fiction needs to do: It needs to transform. It needs to hit hard.
Favorites:
Cause I read all of them in a weird order and over the period of a few months, some of these stories--the ones I read most recently--I remember more than others. The winter one, when they're children, just moved to the U.S., touched me so much, reminded me of the one house I stayed in for a month when I first moved to the U.S. when I was 10, tears in my eyes.
As usual, Junot's dad pisses me off, and I feel so much for his mom.
I love Junot. I'm so glad he exists in the world. Motherfucker has talent like no other. True Genius. I'm writing some stories now and I have to say I'm grateful, so fucking grateful, to his fiction. I didn't really understand why I was so grateful until last night, when I saw Junot at RISD and he was so fucking great. The Best. He unpacked everything about his fiction that I emulate in my own with an authenticity that was so appropriate it was ridiculous:
What I love about Junot is that he's real. His fiction burns with the truth. His Spanglish? This code-switching may throw some people off, but it hooked into me, made me really feel--in ways not many other writers can do--the density of the real, the way reality unravels not in linear English but in the forever-confusion that is consciousness, his consciousness. We get to truly see the inside of Yunior, the way his mind functions, the paradoxes and wandering madness that his inward stream of thoughts creates from the outside world.
More than anything, Junot last night proved to me why some things I write are better than others: I need to write for me, not for anyone else. I don't need to pander to anyone. Shit, I don't even need to pander to myself--I just need to write what I know, because only then can readers see themselves in my reality, or at least feel like they see themselves in my reality. He used the specific term "economies of signification"--that he doesn't need to define everything he talks about, that his Jersey might not evoke my Jersey, but my signification of Jersey will be hit hard by his, will transform, and that is what fiction needs to do: It needs to transform. It needs to hit hard.
Favorites:
Cause I read all of them in a weird order and over the period of a few months, some of these stories--the ones I read most recently--I remember more than others. The winter one, when they're children, just moved to the U.S., touched me so much, reminded me of the one house I stayed in for a month when I first moved to the U.S. when I was 10, tears in my eyes.
As usual, Junot's dad pisses me off, and I feel so much for his mom.
biolexicon's review against another edition
Conflicted about how I feel about this one, conflicted about the story, conflicted about the author. Going to abstain from a rating.
tildahlia's review against another edition
4.0
Probably like a lot of people, I started reading this book after Diaz's vulnerable New Yorker piece about his childhood abuse and how it may (or may not) have affected his adult decisions. And then, well, we all know what happened next. It became an awkward time to be reading Diaz. However, I pushed on and have to say, this book is incredible. While you'll need a hazmat suit to wade through the toxic masculinity, I still sensed a degree of self-awareness and introspection that made it bearable. His style and cadence is so unique and reminds me of how valuable it is to read a diversity of voices. Beautiful and crushing.
deja_anae's review against another edition
5.0
Diaz is a phenomenal writer. The authenticity laced in every paragraph leaves the reader with a sense of content, wonder, and curiosity for more. Easily one of the fastest books to get through, read smooth, clear, and full of metaphors for days. The dialect spoken by Junior makes you appreciate coming from a place like the Bronx where you can identify with the slang, the spanish rherotic, because its close to you almost intimate in a way. Each character in the novel has a part of them that you've seen somewhere before maybe you wish you've never seen it but you have and for that it makes this account real. It makes the circumstances believable and some will make your heart jump, swoon, and hurt. It's not the kind of love story you could ever imagine, its an honest account of the aftermaths of dealing with love and what it means to the physical and mental state of a being. I loved it!
nickscoby's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite work by Diaz but DAMN is it beautifully written. Conundrum.
burruss's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
aligrint's review against another edition
4.0
The experience is 4/5, but I can't really judge the lasting merit. It's unlike most of my other reads, and full of extremes: punchy but distant, matter-of-fact but kind of an extended bildungsroman, full of Diaz's deference to the task of writing 'women' but somewhat constructing that by plot and character, and only occasionally explicitly talking role.