Drown by Junot Diaz (6-Nov-2008) Paperback

This was a very moving book. It helped me understand another culture and really feel
what the author was sharing. Diaz is an excellent writer. Reading Drown made me
want to read another book of his.

I thought that Diaz wrote such a wonderful book. I am looking forward to
reading his other work. Diaz makes you feel as though you are living in
Dominican Republic and feel the heart ache of these men.

The stories of the immigrant experience seem so raw and honest. The beauty of the writing against the backdrop of the pain of the experiences themselves make for a book that left me both troubled and amazed and wanting to read more by Diaz.

This is an amazing collection of short stories that I would definitely recommend to everyone. I appreciate what Junot Diaz is doing with his stories - presenting the unique Dominican-American experience in New Jersey that is usually not represented enough in the English speaking literary world. Love it!

His writing is different than your traditional storyteller. He jumps around a lot, and the stories are not always connected. Junot Diaz is a great writer though, and worth reading. One of the few authors that I have read all their books .

I found the book boring and uninteresting. I bought it because I had heard Junot Diaz being interviewed on public radio, and I thought his writing would be as interesting as the interview. I only finished reading the book because I never start reading a book without finishing it. I was so glad when it was over.

While Junot Diaz may be a fairly talented writer, this book made me not care at all, because they are memoirs of a total dick... homophobic... racist.... I just needed something more, some reason to like, or understand him, but nope...

I am Hispanic (though not Dominican), have lived and worked with and among Dominicans in New York City's Washington Heights but I can't find anything praiseworthy in this book. I fail to understand what all the hoopla is all about.

While Junot Diaz may be a fairly talented writer, this book made me not care at all, because they are memoirs of a total dick... homophobic... racist.... I just needed something more, some reason to like, or understand him, but nope...

I am Hispanic (though not Dominican), have lived and worked with and among Dominicans in New York City's Washington Heights but I can't find anything praiseworthy in this book. I fail to understand what all the hoopla is all about.

The stories are interesting and one story is returned to throughout the book. However, it's resolution is a real let down leaves one wondering what the point of including the other vignettes was. Very disjointed, it feels like a collection of writing exercises done in preparation for writing a novel.

His collection of short stories is a good read. While I personally am not a fan of this book, that in no way means others won't be. I enjoyed reading the Spanish in the writing (mostly because I understand Spanish and enjoy the change)and admired his writing skill in general. He definitely has a talent for writing. The stories in this collection are great short story models and it demonstrates how short stories can all come together to tell a larger story. His other work may be more interesting for me but this I wouldn't read again.

One of my favorite books. I devoured this book in one sitting. Diaz's writing is complex, emotional, and engaging. After reading Drown, i promptly bought the rest of his books, you wont be disappointed. It is frank and the use of both english and spanish shows the brilliance is knowing how to use language.

I heard some wonderful things about this collection but didn't quite feel them. Diaz's writing is good, but the stories don't really seem to have a point other than being a snapshot into the Dominican immigrant experience. Nothing really memorable or thought-provoking here in my opinion.

I could not finish this book. Narration is good but there are too many undesirable words which made me uncomfortable so I had to stop reading at about one quarter of the way. The context did not give me usual reading pleasure. Another book Sympathizer, also written by an immigrant, was much more appealing for me.

Perhaps the overwhelmingly positive reviews about his writing set me up for failure. I really wanted to love this but I found myself struggling with several things.
1. I was left hanging with several stories. I did not know this was a series of short stories so once I started to read a story, I struggled to see the point in it.
2. Perhaps its due to his artistic license but I could not deal with the lack of commas and quotations; I had to reread several passages because I couldn't tell who was saying what. It felt like a paper written by a student in JHS.
3. Repeating stories of characters in other books. I am reading another one of his books and it feels like de ja vu.

Having just finished grad school, I was looking for something fun to read. While I did enjoy some of the writing and some of the stories, I crave an entire story compelling enough for me to love or hate characters. I didnt feel a connection with this book or its characters and I really wanted to. This gave me some nostalgia for novels like When I was Puerto Rican and Down These Mean Streets. If you are seeking a full novel with a similar latinx storyline, those recommendations should suffice.

For the most part this is a light ,breezy, fairly funny novel.What elevates it above most similar novels is Powell's prose.He is a real writer.This is not workman like prose which a writer uses to tell a story because he can do no more.The prose soars.Yet at a certain point , the novel veers into slightly creepy territory.The narrator protagonist visits his parents in Louisiana and it's uncomfortable .The parents both seem to be alcoholics and the mother obviously suffers from Alzheimer's .It's at this point that it hit me ,our "hero" who had struck as a genial picaresque character is really something of a jerk and the novel develops a sour edge.Still ,it's an enjoyable work by a good writer.

Although each story is capable of standing alone, they are woven together so perfectly that one flows into the next like it’s an added chapter. Diaz pulls you in so deeply that you willingly remain submerged in his eloquent phrasing, outsized characterizations, and cinematic views of disparate neighborhoods. When the young narrator describes his visits to Tia Miranda, his doting madrina, it reminded me of my own beloved godmother. And, every boy whose older brother has protected, loved and punched him will recognize Rafa. With boyish bravado, Rafa describes outrageous prepubescent exploits that surely spring from his imagination. That too adds a realistic touch. The most important character in this collection is the father, Ramon. Although Papi does not appear in each story, even in his absence he is a continual presence. So, the best story is saved for last.

Short and deceptively simple stories, following the members of a Dominican republic family, and set both there and in their new home in New Jersey. Adulterous, bullying father, resentful mother and the principal narrator, younger son Yunior; the stories are glimpses into their lives, and the fact that they are not in chronological order adds massively to the impact. So as we see the unhappy household in the USA ("I'd written an essay in school called MY FATHER THE TORTURER, but the teacher made me write a new one. She thought I was kidding"), the final chapter that tells of Father's decision to bring his family over, after many years abandonment has a bitterness rather than the heart-warming feeling it might otherwise have conveyed.
Great writing.

Drown was Junot Diaz's breakout bestseller. It is a grouping of ten short stories that read like a cumulative story of his turbulent, impoverished and adventurous life. He takes us from childhood to adulthood and from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey. Always surrounded by poverty, drugs, sex and the seedier side of life, the book brings a heartfelt, poignant and powerful look at growing up in "the hood" without stability, parental supervision and money. But there is a great spirit for life and a resilience that makes this book sentimental yet macho.

This story is similar to The Adventures of Augie March in that it is very American. Drown's characters are immigrants who come to the United States hoping for a better lie and they get much of the same as in the Dominican Republic. They never wallow in self-pity but embrace life as an adventure (for better or for worse).
The narrative is smart, bold and honest. The strongest aspect of the stories is their raw and compelling snapshots of poverty in the American suburbs. The voice of Diaz allows us to see the plight of the individual as well as the world and society unfolding around him.

The protagonist in the story finds himself in all kinds of predicaments and yearns for something more without feeling sorry for himself. The tone and honesty is funny, poignant and engaging. Below is one of my favorite passages from the book.

Each payday I take out the old calculator and figure how long it's take
me to buy a pool table honestly. A top-of-the-line, three piece slate affair
doesn't come cheap. You have to buy stacks and balls and chalk and a
score keeper and triangles and French tips if you're a fancy shooter. Two and
a half years if I give up buying underwear and eat only pasta but even this
figure's bogus. Money's never stuck to me."

I enjoy how Diaz approaches life (and his writing) with a powerful and undiluted honesty; irreverence and humor. It makes his situation more palpable and more poignant than tragic. Parts of the book are brilliant and it is the kind of book you can read and read again.

Boring selection of stories. I can't understand how this brought light to a new writer although I must say that Junot's debut novel was truely a show of his talent. Read The Brief and wonderous life of oscar wao.

It is hard not to compare my reading experience of Drown with that of Junot's more critically acclaimed The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The latter is more matured, passion being more controlled and style more creative (deviated from conventional novel in plot and exposition). Yet, we can see the budding of a star in Drown, a collection of short stories written in more conventional form, in a more youthful, raw, and passionate style; and raw in the sense that it shows youthful passion but at the same time its lack of compassion (taught by culture, like love thy neighbor as thyself) to fellow human beings , and yet, unlike more cultured adults (like readers of Drown) who might do more harmful acts to fellow human beings using arguments learned from "culture" (as evidenced in many wars and invasions).

It is a series of related stories about immigrants, and poor immigrants to be exact. And about the liveliness of youths despite being economically/culturally deprived. And it is not only about immigrants (and certainly not even close to a historical account of DR immigrants of the States), but humanity in general, of the life and struggle of youthful human beings making the best out of the situation and opportunities available. A true portrait of human drama presented in excellent prose and plots of simple settings.

Highly recommended, together with The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

As my only prior experience reading Diaz is his delightful novel, "The Brief Wonderous life of Oscar Wao" I was surprised to discover just how strong of a short story writer he is. The interconnected short stories here have a quiet, reflective quality to them, each on it's own is extremely well done, but together they show a clever, sassy and often sad view of the lives of recent immigrants. Dirt poor where they come from, dirt poor where they are going, these are people who just barely cling on in the wastelands of outer suburbs and grimy strip malls, they move from one dead end job and from one marginally tolerable apartment to another. A few of them escape. Most stay there for life. Diaz beautifully evokes the difficulty of this situation, and he does it through the single figure of Yunior and his immediate family and friends, their occasional victories, their far more common screw ups. It's a sober, smart alecky look at the American immigrant experience.

An excellent collection of short stories. Diaz writes with so much passion and does a great job of giving voices to characters who don’t usually get written about. You can feel the heat and sweat and poverty in the neighborhood he writes about, and the stories are both dramatic and humorous.

unusually beautiful writing...it really surprised me. it's a great thing when a writer from a world not often intimately explored shares it with the reader in a tasteful and hearty mix of that world and the world of high literature. i marveled at so many of his passages - so true to life, so succinct, so colorful.
yet my basic criticisms of this book:
1) although the stories - each of them - were brilliant and cohesive unto themselves, as a whole they didn't add up as well as they might have. they left me wanting more, and feeling a little used. it felt like diaz didn't make up his mind whether he wanted to write a collection of disparate, disconnected stories or a book with characters who grew and developed throughout. for instance, he opened up the marvelous character of rafa, his older brother, and then simply never mentions him again. what happened to rafa? diaz left me hanging...
2) i think the book would have worked better had diaz organized it more strictly - say, chronologically. he jumped and bounced around, like he was striving to fit a gut-true autobiography or pseudo-autobiography into a post-modern mold.
3) to sum this all up, i felt like i just read a fantastic book which had a few of its very important chapters torn out.