Drown

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.

This is the second book I've read by Author: Junot Diaz, and it is excellent. Though shorter than the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, this book really delivers a very interesting look at Dominican life in the U.S. and in the D.R.

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!

Maybe it's because I had to read this book for class, but I was not a fan. I don't like short stories so it was going to have to be that much better to get me to like it. The subject matter also didn't really interest me. But, I will say that Diaz is famous for a reason. His writing is intelligent, graphic and honest. This book just didn't work for me personally.

Maybe it's because I had to read this book for class, but I was not a fan. I don't like short stories so it was going to have to be that much better to get me to like it. The subject matter also didn't really interest me. But, I will say that Diaz is famous for a reason. His writing is intelligent, graphic and honest. This book just didn't work for me personally.

this is the 3rd book I've read by Mr.Diaz. I've enjoyed all 3. Being hispanic I can relate with his writing. I laughed and also felt the sadness for what the family went through, But I kept saying how true.

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.

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 was very excited to get this book. It seemed like somehting i would be interested in as far as the characters and culture of the book.

I was greatly disappointed. After the 1st set of stories told by th 9 year old main character, which were good, it got stupid. It jumped around chronologically, and in other stories i was ok with that. But for osme reason, the time in this story didnt sit well with me.

Overall the content of the story was ok. You kinda hafta identify with the culture somehwat to get into it, but there was nothing that made me keep reading. I actually iddnt finish it yet, and i'v e had it for almost a month. The main character and hte story is very confusing. Especially the parts about his father and where he grew up. First he says his faher lives in the US and he misses him, then he says he went to war and he didnt care about him. So which is it? I reread it many times to make sure it wasnt me who was making the mistake. ANd i just culdnt get it together.

DIsregard the time concept of this story for a second, the stories by themselves are ok. Some are better than others. My favorites are when the boy is yong and talking about livng in the Dominican Republic with his brother and the boy whose face got bitten off. Other than that they were lacklustre and just OK. It was just something to read to pass the time.

The characters are pretty 3D. I could see them as real people.

Overall, i dont get what the big deal is about this book. If you have to read it bc your on a plane and youre bored, go ahead! If you were thinking about buying it, no.

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.

I had to read this book for an English class. It deserved ZERO stars! I am a voracious reader and I can honestly say this book is a total waste of time, paper and ink. The book reads like it was written by a middle school teenager with raging hormones. The book is rambling and jumps from subject to subject until it's difficult to follow. The main character is a violent, woman abusing, drug dealer with no redeeming values. I would have stopped reading after the first chapter if not for having to read it for class. I don't know how I'm going to write a paper about it because as far as I'm concerned, it is garbage. Don't waste your money.

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.

I did not enjoy the chicken soup style of the book as it would jump from one story to another to another without giving us the ending. Like whatever happened to Aurora? Did no face ever get help? Who knows… Maybe the author doesn’t even know… I thought it was very relatable when it came to the father figure in Latin families and the immigrant struggle in America. Also gives you some insight in to how some latin American men think... The stories are sad, The truth is it really shows how one man can ruin so many lives around him .... just about every single character mentioned in the book was somehow negatively affected by his father. I enjoyed his writing it was descriptive and well written in an almost humorous way .... it kept me turning the page, I would recommend it.

This is a classic tale of a journey of self-discovery, which is ever more classic in that Powell makes it distinct and unique with his own style.

In this one, the narrator is a budding chemist with a safety net of a wealthy but cold family he could fall back on. Rather, he would prefer to unravel the molecular structure of life itself, and as a result joins up with the titular character on a journey to meet other strange and interesting characters. This is a classic travel book, not of landscapes butt of the oddities and permutations of the human animal. Powell's sense of expression and style are always pricking to the ear to keep almost every moment chugging forward. The final chapters slog a bit in trying to wrap everything up a little too neatly, but overall a worthy read.

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.

Drown appears to be well liked, but I had a very different experience. From the writing to the characters, the book was disjointed and lacked cohesion. The characters are not fully developed and seem to be drawn from misconceptions that the general public has about immigrants. Drown is not a book I would recommend, as it has missed the mark for me.

Having read Oscar Wao and This is How You Lose Her previously, the subject matter and narrative voice were familiar. Junot Diaz is a writer with a consistent voice, and I find myself happy to read repeated versions of similar stories.
The strongest stories in this collection are the family focused ones: Fiesta, 1980, Aguantando, and Negocios. The continuities between the stories deepens here, and there is a true understanding of the emotions within and between the family members outlined in Diaz's sparse prose. The other stories are more uneven, but as a story collection, this reads better than This is How You Lose Her, precisely because of that variation.

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.

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.

Drown appears to be well liked, but I had a very different experience. From the writing to the characters, the book was disjointed and lacked cohesion. The characters are not fully developed and seem to be drawn from misconceptions that the general public has about immigrants. Drown is not a book I would recommend, as it has missed the mark for me.

Having read Oscar Wao and This is How You Lose Her previously, the subject matter and narrative voice were familiar. Junot Diaz is a writer with a consistent voice, and I find myself happy to read repeated versions of similar stories.
The strongest stories in this collection are the family focused ones: Fiesta, 1980, Aguantando, and Negocios. The continuities between the stories deepens here, and there is a true understanding of the emotions within and between the family members outlined in Diaz's sparse prose. The other stories are more uneven, but as a story collection, this reads better than This is How You Lose Her, precisely because of that variation.

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.

There are several recurrent themes running through this collection (the lost father, the regained father, the lost love, brotherhood, betrayal--often sexual) but the one I found most striking was that of facelessness.

You would think that facelessness is synonymous with invisibility, but here it is not. There is something within that facelessness, which makes the person all the more visible--scorned, pitied, hated, feared, and by some, treated with great kindness. The faced want the faceless to be gone for good because they represent the worst fear: That you, too, might one day suffer this fate where all that defines you to the outside world is stripped away, where you are a stranger in a strange land--where you are unloved and unlovable.

"Ysrael" is the boy with no face, his face having been mostly chewed off by a pig when he was an infant. Because of this he wears a mask and awaits a humanitarian intervention in which doctors in Canada are meant to restore his face. But this day never seems to come and he is scorned and beaten, but he is also an object of intense interest. There is something about him that fascinates the other boys; if only they could just see behind his mask. But even when they do, it infuriates them, repulses them. There is nothing in seeing his face that makes them feel better about themselves. It only makes them feel worse, more powerless.

Then when the reader sees the world from his point of view in "No Face," we understand that though he is deformed and maligned there is still great hope and beauty in his world, though he might not realize it. There is something strong deep within that will keep him alive despite the obstacles. He is a survivor. He will run.

So Ysrael stands for the best hope of all of the faceless within these stories--and the message is to keep going, keep running, keep moving forward no matter how people will push you down and try to keep you from being seen.

In that, a book, which might otherwise be bleak, I found quite hopeful. And so, in the end, what you have is a collection of stories that are beautiful, necessary, and heartbreaking. Read it.

There is absolutely no disputing the fact that Junot Diaz is an insanely talented writer. Writing short stories is not an easy task, yet Diaz does it effortlessly.

5 Star Worthy
- The characters are tough- they've seen everything and are fazed by little. Yet at the same time they are vulnerable and humane.
- Diaz represents loss in each story, although each situation and experience is unique.
- The Boy Without a Face adds an interesting perspective to the collection, serving as a foil to other narrators.
- A certain level of ambiguity in the narration makes the reader realize that the characters' voices represent the many boys in the barrios.

Nit Picky
- I wanted to know more about the characters and their stories! Diaz obviously did his job, handing the reader tasty morsels, making them crave more!

I can't waste to see what else Junot Diaz brings us in the years to come.

The string of short stories in Drown is pretty cool. It throws together the Dominican and new American experience from the POV of youth . This book is not just Dominican book, but a book of youth. It is hard to look back in that place called youth and Diaz does so with what appears to the reader, with ease.
The stories range from Jersey project living to San Juan slum living. And the life from each facet explodes in a vibrance of pure phosphorescence. At times the stories are heartbreaking with their relentless truth, like in "Negocios". At other times stories are funny, like the government cheese bit in "How To Date A Browngirl...". But underlying everything is the sadness of the reality of poverty.
We are dealing with real people in these stories. They are so real they come off the page and talk to you. Diaz has created characters so real that we actually empathize and eventually care for them. Therein lies Diaz's strongest gift in the field of writing.
All of the stories are top notch, but the one that stands out the most is "Negocios".
If the narrative voice of Raymond Carver were the guy sitting on the bar stool next to you, the voice of Junot Diaz is that of illegitamite latino brother you are meeting for the first time, you and your brother both having had a life of poverty. Both authors write smooth as an oral storyteller. Each in a friendly, enticing, inviting voice.
Check this book out.

Whether or not anyone else has been described as thus, Junot Diaz holds the title of "King Of Hip Hop Flavored Literature." In his first, eagerly awaited collection of short fiction, Diaz' voice explodes onto the American literary scene.

Just like Hip Hop, Diaz weaves a darkly construed realism into each of his ten tales, many of which are loosely based on his experiences as a young Dominican immigrant in the New York area. More raging-into-manhood than coming-of-age, the stories in "Drown" each reflect different aspects of a young life: from hard-edged, yet tender humor ("Fiesta, 1980" and "How To Date A Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl Or A Halfie"), the heartbreaking ("Ysrael") to the bittersweet ("Negocios") and angst-riddedn anxiety ("Drown").

Diaz' prose does not contain one false note and his work will be greatly appreciated for years to come.

Junot Diaz is the man. He tackles gritty, heart-breaking, raw and painful themes with sheer lyricism. In short, his writing never fails to astound me.

This - DROWN - is his debut collection and Ysrael, the first of the 10 stories in this collection, makes no bones about declaring that Junot Diaz will be a writer to watch. Yunior (the narrator) and his brother Rafa become obsessed about viewing the terribly mutilated face of a boy who keeps it hidden behind a mask. The grotesque face can be interpreted as a symbol of life in the Dominican Republic; Diaz, like Yunior, is determined to reveal that life.

Yunior and Rafa along with their mother and absent father (who lives in America) reappear in other stories: Fiesta 1980, Aguantando, Negocios - the final story, which displays the father's perspective as his life in America fails. Other stories utilize unnamed characters who could be any young man who is searching for identity and meaning in a world that's stacked against them with poverty, drugs, violence, unfulfilled longing, and discrimination.

These stories are rife with alienation and dislocation -painstakingly so. In the eponymous title story, another of the parade of unnamed young men - a drug-dealer - must cope with ambiguous sexual feelings towards his best friend along with his own all-pervasive sense of failure. As his mother sits beside him, dreaming of the man who betrayed her, this young man also deals with his feelings of betrayal and entrapment by his dead-end life.

An overall bleakness is transfigured with jolts of incredible poetic insights. This collection is a precursor of sorts of an even more contemporary book, We The Animals by Justin Torres, but make no mistake: Junot Diaz is the master.

Junot Diaz is an especially talented craftsmen. In his collection of stories, "Drown," he has written a series of professional literary short stories that teem with detail about the Dominican experience and contain a plethora of ambiguous, life-like characters.
Somehow, though, Diaz' stories are too professional. They're sure to please any committee made of MFA graduates and writing school instructors, and it's no surprise that Diaz had landed in "The New Yorker." As such, the style and plotting are too familiar to be called original or even noteworthy, if it weren't for the detail about the Dominican Republic. And right now, that's the only difference between Diaz and hundreds of Iowa graduates.
I recently heard Diaz read in Berkeley from his novel in progress, and it sounds much better than the stories contained in "Drown." He's an intelligent writer with a fierce eye and ruthless character evaluation. And a distinct voice. "Drown" is a first book, rough in places, a bit cliché in composition, but written with a brilliant mind.

I read "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" prior to reading "Drown" so I was prepared for the bounce and beat of Diaz's literature. It was in way taking a rewind into the development of Diaz's artform even though "Drown" could easily have stood alongside his Pulitzer award winning later work of Oscar Wao in terms of the standard and quality of his work.

I too found this collection of short stories to be really autobiographical, I mean the man writes with such real and uncooked intensity that it is difficult to believe that these pieces are just imaginative fiction.

The stories trace the young boy's coming of age from his pre-teen days, growing up in the Dominican Republic, and then to his and his family's transplant from latin america and into the better days life of the USA el dorado, only to have his dream snuffed out by the unforgiving urban hell that is the hispanic ghetto of New Jersey.

I wouldn't say that the material is an upper by any means; nonetheless it was totally engaging and Diaz doesn't dwell on hopelessness but rather shows an acceptance by the young man of his circumstances and his honest dealing of and with his day to day reality in the ghetto. For me the subject/theme of the boy's relationship with his father really stood out, in that the boy never judged his old man but dealt with his father's infidelities in a brutal and honest way. His father did push the boundaries of his boy's silent acquiescence, for example by taking his young son for a ride in his truck and on the way stopping off brazenly at his mistress and making no qualms about it by even going so far as to introducing his young son to the "puta" and letting him wait downstairs while "papi" got his piece of spicy chorico on the first floor. The boy never pimps his old man out to his mom which for me showed his incredible loyal and forgiving character. This all had a profound effect on the boy and the later young man hurt really bad from the break up of his own relationship with his girlfriend and being unable to let go of this past love.

In total I would recommend the book as it has a broad appeal to anyone into and who has resonance with the latin american theme, the young boy finding his feet on foreign soil theme, the stoic madre who has no choice but to keep it all together theme, and the survival of the spirit no matter how chipped and broken the soul becomes. Worthy stuff which relects Diaz's huge and immense talent. The man is a class act.

This exceedingly strong debut collection of stories is set in the ghettos of the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, but most of all in the invisible psychic landscape of the immigrants who move from the first to the latter. Six of the ten stories here may be familiar to readers of The New Yorker, Story, or other well-regarded literary mags in whose pages they previously appeared. Díaz's stories offer grimly matter-of-fact accounts of harsh childhoods in harsh environments where fathers are either feared or absent and mothers are exhausted and resigned to their fate.
The stories set in the DR are from a youth's perspective, and have the unmistakable whiff of the autobiographical about them. In "Ysrael", the narrator and his brother are sent to the campo for the summer to live with relatives. There, they are casually cruel to a local boy whose face was disfigured by a pig. The boy later turns up as the subject of "No Face", which attempts to delve into his mind, with lesser effect than almost all the other stories. A third story, "Arguantando" follows the family from "Ysrael" as they wait to hear from their father, who has moved to the US. The final and longest story in the collection, "Negocios", explains the father's journey to the US and his many trials and tribulations before he can bring his family over.
The stories set in the US follow the young boy as he grows older in New Jersey-where shoplifting, drug dealing, and eventually work replace the poverty of the slums of Santa Domingo. "Fiesta, 1980" is the best car-sickness story you're likely to read and "How To Date" is a quick guide to interracial dating, perhaps overly flip when compared to the other stories. In "Aurora", a teenage drug dealer (the young boy grown older?) daydreams about a normal life with a crack-addicted girl. The same character reappears in "Drown", describing a former close friend's homosexual advances and his own ambivalence.
My favorite two stories were "Boyfriend" and "Edison, New Jersey". The first is a very brief story about a young man overhearing his downstairs neighbor's breakup, and working up the courage to eventually speak to her. The second is about a young man who helps deliver and assemble pool tables for a living and his well-meaning attempt to help a Dominican girl escape a life of sexual service. Both stories contain a wistful nostalgic air that's both dead on and haunting. All of Díaz's stories are immensely satisfying, and taken as a whole, they form an excellent picture of the Dominican immigrant experience. It's been six years now since this collection came out, and hopefully we'll be seeing something new soon from him.

Junot Diaz's extraordinary wit is easily introduced by making it past the first of stories in his book, Drown. You are immediately taken aback by his unconventional, laidback yet intricate string of thoughts. He is able to capture the crude reality as well as the raw awkwardness of adolescence in an engaging series of stories. Having a number of family members who were born and raised in Puerto Rico, I easily can relate Junot's transition from there to America to the stories I've been told growing up. The familiarity and uniqueness of each small detail from his early days in the "campo" to urban living were significant and outstanding to me. Yet Junot manages to keep the person most unfamiliar with any urban or foreign experience, or with Dominican slang for that matter, engaged and wanting more. I truly did not expect to find such whimsical and yet truthful documentation. Proving to be somewhat of a classic manchild's unconventional memoir, Mr.Diaz has the power to make you chew the truth and savour it. This is a subtle celebration of manhood disguised as a collection of entertaining snippets in the life of a true hero for the multicultural fascination in America today; a celebration which is not frilly, nor pretty, but entertaining and fascinating. Who knew emotion could be expressed in poetic discretion ? You'll be reading this one over and over. Trust me I've drowned on it several times already and am looking forward to my next dive.

Drown by Junot Diaz is a collection of ten short stories intended to uncover the experience of Dominicans who immigrate to America. He attempts to explore how young male Dominican immigrants cope with living in America - the rules they have to learn, the rules they have to forget, in order to succeed or even survive. Although the characters are Hispanic, the situations - usually due to poverty - that they find themselves in are relatable to almost any immigrant group. His writing is spiced with flavor and a very direct attitude that some may find crude but others might find refreshing. Time and writing space is not wasted on pretty, flowing words. Rather, his honest style, which has a lyrical quality to it, fits the harsh, almost unforgiving, surroundings and experiences he writes about.

Diaz's characters are very interesting, created in order to challenge but at the same time, assert the stereotype. The characters' descriptions could cause one to easily label them, but like with reality, one only needs to read further to see the depth and complexities of the males. His character growth and development is very precise and deliberate, making them come alive. One would almost expect his characters to materialize right there. This strong connection that he creates allow the readers to truly delve into the mindset, thus better understanding not only the character but also the general struggle Dominican immigrants face. His stories are also filled with understated information about the environment the character lives in, not only challenging but also educating one about Latino culture and history.

Notably, most of the Spanish used in the book are curse words, which makes one wonder what kind of message Diaz really wants to send if - and I believe it was - this was deliberate. The use of Spanish to ascribe derogatory terms seems to be a weak attempt at connecting the languages and I personally would have preferred if he had either put more Spanish in other areas or used none at all. However, it could also represent the idea that, in America, words in English always appear good and clean, while when in Spanish, there is a "dirty" connotation. I was also slightly aggravated by how Diaz characters would jump from story to story. Some characters were in more than one story, with no direct, flowing connection between the stories. This made the piece seem choppy. He could have done a better job of connecting the stories, if that was his intention in including some characters in multiple stories. Nevertheless, this book was a quick and enjoyable read, and apart from the lack of cohesiveness around the stories all together, I would recommend it for anyone, especially teenage and adolescents who will probably be more able to relate to the characters and their wordplay better.

Junot Diaz writes fiction without flourish. His words are stark, edgy, direct - and his stories cut through stereotype right to the quick of the truth. DROWN pulses with the rhythms of Spanish and New Jersey accents as it explores lives in both The Dominican Republic and Jersey City. Mostly adolescents and young adults, the characters struggle against a dimming or obscured future, and tend to live for the moment, even as they hope for something better. The most compelling stories are "Ysrael," "Aurora," "Edison, New Jersey," and "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie." This is a brief book, only ten stories and only a few over 20 pages long, but it packs power with its brevity.

I highly recommend this book for those with an interest in Latino and/or multicultural fiction, and for those who enjoy short story collections.

When this book first came out I approached it with apprehension because it had been received with such fanfare by the literati and laymen alike. Indeed, so great was the hype that I honestly believed that regardless of the quality of the book, It would fail to live up to the praise bestowed upon it. Thus, you may imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I realized that, in fact, Junot Diaz is an incredibly talented writer. I've read collections of short stories that showcase the skills of some of the most gifted writers of the 20th century, and, honestly, Diaz has written some stories that surpass anything I had read before. True, some of Diaz's stories are not as effective as the majority, yet that is because most of the stories in Drown are bona fide gems. I know I'm getting too effusive here, so I'll stop. Still, If you like to read good literature, this is a book that you definitely should consider. I look forward to reading Diaz's first novel.

Junot Díaz's Drown is a wonderfully written collection of short stories. One of the great contemporary writers, Díaz is able to interweave city slang and standard English in his unique and vibrant writing voice.

His stories are of the Dominican Republic and of the Hispanic inner city life. He recounts a story of a child in the Dominican Republic who used to be teased incessantly because his face was had a massive scar and he spent most of his time waiting for his father to send money from the States so that he could get plastic surgery. Peppered with some Spanish in the text, Díaz does a brilliant job of capturing the way youths tease each other and put each other down.

Díaz also has a story that concerns a Dominican family, and essentially captures the story of many Dominican families who migrate to the United States. In this story, the mother faithfully waits for her husband, who had left for the United States a long time ago, to send money so that the rest of his family can immigrate to the United States. He finally sends the money, and when the family arrives, their lives aren't the way they expected it to be. The mother wished that her husband had been faithful, but that wasn't the case. The family stayed together, but it was internally broken due to the fact that the father had a mistress.

In another short story, Díaz humorously gives tips on how to date girls of all different types of races. He describes how a girl from a specific race would act, or how a girl from a particular part of town would act.

Díaz's stories shine with creativity, and there is never a dull moment or boring story.

Junot Diaz is one of those writers whose voice speaks with the passion and insight of a generation. DROWN is a perfect example. A collection of short stories that literally takes the reader through the sights, sounds and smells of growing up in the Dominican Republic, to the nightmare and the joy of living the American Dream, as a Dominican American.
The book brings to life experiences that stretch the imagination but clearly cling to a thread of crepuscular-like realism. Written with the grace and fluidity of a raconteur who knows his craft, the reader is taken into a world where values reflect a compelling desire to escape unbelievable poverty while trying to survive in a world that offers hope, but with a price.
Presenting a contemporary spin on the Hispanic immigrant experince, DROWN is entertaining, enjoyable, and educational. This is a book not easily forgotten.

Let me first start off by saying that Diaz does a wonderful job with capturing an authentic Hispanic voice throughout this entire text. Not once, while reading, did I feel as though the narrator was an unbelievable source for the context of the novel. I found that for this reason it was far easier to get lost in the texts and truly submit yourself to the stories pages. With that being said I will say that there were points while reading when I felt a little annoyance towards some of the characters stone faced emotions, though considering the subject matter his behavior does make sense in that setting.
I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a convincing story relating to poor lifestyle on the streets of both America and the Islands.

...quite the opposite of uplifting (downlifting?). Junot Diaz is a masterful writer. This set of stories etches spare but potent images into the mind, and I will remember several passages for years to come. Yet, it would be difficult for me to fully recommend this book, as in, "I loved it and you must read it." I had chosen it for our book club to read, and we all came away feeling similarly--well-written and transformative, but don't read it when you're depressed. One fellow book club member did remark that you could read it when you're feeling down about yourself and realize that you actually have it okay compared to the protagonist. I'm glad I read it, and now want to read more by Diaz, such as the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

As someone whose stance has always been to be skeptical about new, latino "young guns" and their hype, I advanced cautiously towards Mr. Junot's debut. This time I was gladly proven wrong. I was so immensely rewarded by this outstanding work that I actually read the spanish-language version as well. A strong collection whose centerpiece, "Negocios" (also the title of the spanish version), is quite possibly the great modern, urban, Latino immigration film saga waiting to happen. As a fellow Dominican I am proud to recommend this book, not only to our fellow compatriots, but to fans of great fiction and narration. A solid debut that leaves you wanting more.

Junot Díaz definitely has a style of his own. His stories are like pulsing beats that not everyone can become in sync with, yet everyone has a desire to. He speaks of unique experiences that a multitude of people can relate to. He captures a voice the inner city has been trying so long to vocalize. He speaks of love, basking in its glories and wallowing in its dread. He sketches a portrait of poverty and leaves us to color it in. He does this all in one compilation of ten short stories, Drown.

Díaz depicts the structure of an immigrant Dominican family through which his own voice and experiences come through. While he uses many of the same characters throughout his stories, there is no direct connection between the characters in the stories. I believe this effect adds to the universality of the characters. While reading the short stories, one feels connected to the main character via any emotion, whether it be compassion or pity. Many people have had that older sibling who was nice to them in private and evil in public. Many people have had to conform to new situations and possibly a new cultural setting. His characters can be anyone.

The sporadic use of his native language seemed appropriate in the stories. While the majority of the Spanish words used were curse words, they may have lost their meaning if expressed in English. Díaz may have left them in their original form for some other reason. Respectfully, it is possible that much of the meaning and sentiment is lost in the English version of this compilation, so I would recommend that anyone who is proficient in Spanish read the Spanish version.

Drown is an easy and enjoyable read. With much emotion, Díaz takes us on a roller coaster ride through the lives of many through the eyes of few. Díaz has a huge audience, but I feel adolescents and younger adults would enjoy and relate to the stories more, while older adults would more appreciate the writing style. Díaz has emerged as a strong Dominican American writer and has vast insight and knowledge to offer the present generation.

Before I purchased the book I read an on-line interview of Diaz by Edwidge Danticat. In this interview Diaz said that he didn't like it too much when readers thought that the book was autobiographical in nature. In the sense that it meant he wasn't creative enough to write pure fiction. I have to admit that half way through the book I thought that it must be part autobiography because the stories were so personal and the emotions bare and exposed. My favorite is "Aurora". Readers who expected romanticized Latina writing might be disappointed, but that is really just too bad. Diaz' style is authentic, modern, and edgy. On a personal level, it gave me a glimpse of daily life on the other side of my island. I absolutely loved this book and I recommend it whole-heartedly.
Enjoy!

This is a great collection of short stories by an innovative writer. The book grew on me. I was several stories in when I realized I was hooked. We get some stories that deal with Yunior's father, but they're sort of around the edges until the last story, which is long and in depth and beautifully written. I would highly recommend this book. I'm now almost done with Diaz's second story collection, This is How You Lose Her, and I'm enjoying that as well.

One of your other customers commented on the hype that accompanied publication of DROWN - I felt similarly, that no writer could match that kind of praise. Everywhere I went I seemed to read someone saying something good about this collection. Having read it I now know that there is nothing but good to say about Drown. I found it heartbreaking, funny as hell and beautifully written. After reading the paperback I went and ordered a copy in hardback. This is one of those books to keep, always. I'm sure I'll want to re-read these stories again soon. Wonderful.

Well written stories that get you interested in the characters. Unfortunately, just when I was really invested in the characters in the stories, they would abruptly end leaving me terribly unsatisfied and wanting to know what happened next. Although well written, the stories needed further development with some kind of conclusion so the reader isn't left hanging. It was like reading the first two chapters in an interesting book and then you loose the book.

I had read Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao prior to even learning about this book, and the novel only whetted my appetite for the writing style that is so deftly employed in this collection of short stories. Though I can't say I even remotely understand where these characters are coming from in a message of plight and struggle, the emotions portrayed in each of the stories is easy to understand and empathize with. My two favorite stories were "Aurora" and "Boyfriend," both of which deal with dysfunctional relationships and address the struggles that one can have moving on from the past. Each story flowed extremely well and I loved seeing the connections that each had from one another, despite the time and locational differences that existed from tale to tale.

The stories in this book are incredible. I re-read many of them for the sheer joy of being surprised, delighted, and angered again. Mr. Diaz is an artist with an unmatched eye for the telling detail, the telling moment. I felt, too, that the arrangement of the stories delineated a pattern that may or may not have been intended. In other words, with a few name changes (and the elimination of perhaps two stories), this collection of stories could have been a novel. I enjoyed it, nevertheless, and look forward to more of his work.

In Junot Diaz's Drown we are given ten different stories from ten different male perspectives. Coming from either a barrio in New Jersey, or the barrios of Santo Domingo, we see their daily life struggles. Each story is like an excerpt from their journals where we are given a little piece of their life.
In 'Yasrael' the story is told by a little boy, Yunior, living with his family in a barrio in Santo Domingo. Him and his brother go out in search for Ysrael, the boy ywith the demented face who is talked about and ridiculed by everyone in town.
In 'No Face', the tables turn and the story comes from Ysrael's point of view. We hear his dreams of going to America, where there are doctors who can fix his face. We see his daily struggles and how it feels to be the town freak.
In 'Aurora', a small-time drug dealer in New Jersey tells the story. We see how he works his "business" around the barrio. We see how he struggles with his hopeless, crack-head girlfriend, who just can't seem to get her life together and keeps bringing him down with her.
In 'Aguantado', we re-visit Yunior at a different time in his life. In this story he explains to us the long wait in Santo Domingo for his father, who has gone to the United States to make a better living for them. While his father is looking for work in the States, him and his brother and mother struggle from day to day to get enough food on the table.
In 'Drown', we are given the story of a young man living with his mother in a barrio in New Jersey. His story is a refelction of growing up as a mischievous boy, and never growing out of his boyhood. Though all his childhood friends have grown-up and moved away, he can't seem to do the same.
In 'Edison, New Jersey', we are given the story of a young Dominican guy making a living as a pool table deliveryman. He talks about the different wealthy costomers he delivers to in the suburbs. He talks about his x-girlfriend and her new "gringo" boyfriend. We see a typical day in his life.
In 'How to Date a Brown Girl, Black Girl, White Girl, of Halfie', we are given the standpoint of a young Dominican guy living in a New Jersey barrio. He advises about all the different types of girls he has dated and how they react differently to the way he lives, and how he acts differently around them.
In all these stories there is a pattern. Everyone is searching for something to fulfill his or her lives. They feel empty with their current situation, but they do not know how or what to fill that void with. So they continue to search, dissatisfied with everything.
I would recommend this book to everyone because it gives a good in sight to the lives of many different people, yet in lots of ways they are all the same. Their stories are so personal that it is hard not to sympathize with each of the characters. They all seem to have some sort of connection because they are all looking for something more in their lives, but they seem to be looking in all the wrong places. This book is very interesting, humorous,and touching, and it painted a good picture of the barrio lifestyles of Santo Domingo and the barrios in New Jersey.

I read this entire book and could not see what the critics were raving about. Diaz is a decent writer, but by no means excellent. Many of his stories stop instead of ending. The story "drown" is particularly disappointing. I also noticed that he only uses spanish to say vulgar words. This seemed to me that he was just throwing spanish in to seem more cultural, and that the words were not a natural result of him being bilingual.
He does get some things right, though. He has the beginnings of interesting characters and situations, but they are never fully developed, and seem to be lost in the larger waste. I do not agree ... that Diaz characters were all stereotypes. I found his characters to be diverse, distinct characters, and therefore reject the idea that his characters were cookie-cut outs.
In the end, though, I would say this book is not worth reading, ... you would be much better off reading "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros.

I realize much has been said about "Drown" by Junot Diaz. Suffice it to say that these ten stories come at you with a brilliant, gritty, urban language that takes you by your neck and tells you, Listen to me, this is my reality; you don't have to like it, but listen. And listen we must. The tightness of his sentences reminds me of Raymond Carver's style, but Diaz has created something new, not derivative. For lovers of the short story, "Drown" must be on your list. Breathtaking!

Only the second Dominican writer to be published in English in the US, Junot Diaz writes with such an authentic voice, such a clear cadence and rhythm, that your response to these perfect short storeis is a visceral as the writing itself. Often on the top of many people's favorite collections, these stories are exquisitely rough gems, bulletins from the abyss that simultaneously make you laugh out loud and wish you could hang with these sweet tigres. A must for anyone interested in learning how to develop voice, also essential for adolescents interested in global perspectives right in their own backyards.

. . . but I hate Junot Diaz. I have been waiting like six years now for his novel to come out. When you read Drown, you will have to agree that he is one of the best of the young writers. You LIVE the Dominican epxerience through his words. The best story in the collection would have to be DROWN, which is a bit longer than the rest, but the humanity and honesty in that piece leaves you feeling as though you had just read an entire novel. We move from innocence to understanding to anger, regret, and longing all in one breathy, sexually risky passage in the middle of the piece that allows us to encapsule the whole work. The word "drown" takes on new meaning after that. I read both the English and Spanish versions, and the Spanish makes more sense because of the word play potential, but in the abstract the Engish is good, too. Come on, Junot Diaz, gives us a novel, man. You are the greatest!

I love that the short stories can be read so quickly. I have to say that I expected humor rather than heart-breaking stories. These stories saddened me, but what brought me down is that they all ring so true. Junot writes about reality and sometimes reality is sad. It is truly genius and worth studying. There were sentences and passages that I read and re-read in order to revel in the beauty of the words.

Drown preceded Junot Diaz's best seller The Brief Wondrous Times of Oscar Wao. It is a collection of short stories that, like Oscar, take place in both in the States (new jersey, primarily) and The Dominican Republic. Taken together the stories form a novel about coming of age and coming to terms with family and cultural identity.

Diaz's writing and story telling skills make him one of the most accomplished writers of his generation. You will laugh and you will cry and you will find yourself seduced by this writer's imaginative, powerful language.

If you loved Oscar, read Drown: it's a gem.

I first heard of Mr. Junot Diaz from an article in Latina Magazine. I picked up his first book and wished I had read it sooner. A great and wonderful book. The reviewer who criticized it seems to want to down grade a popular book. This is no fade. Mr Diaz writes of humans in their greatest potential and cruelest reality, but give us a sense of self and humanism. The people, the places, the stories, he knows how to capture. He is a great writer. It may be cliche, but I could not put this book down; no matter how busy I was. I looked forward to his new release and his new novel too, does not disappoint. It is yet another reminder of why Mr. Junot Diaz is one of our great writers of our present time.

I thought that it was a pretty good. Although very graphic in some parts it does a very good job of portraying a poor family adapting to a new culture and all fo the hardships they go through. At the beginning of the book there are Spanish words being used all over the place which makes it difficult understand. As the book goes on they get fewer and far between. in the beginning of the book though it is frustrating because you are not sure what she means. I loved the book because it didnt hold anything back...The author wasnt afraid to use strong language and grave details. It was sad that the boy was waiting for the rest of his family to make it to america...it must have been tough never knowing if he would see them again. Although the compilation of 10 stories was good it was hard to follow the stories at times when they went back and forth in time. all in all it was an all around great read.

I have just discovered Padgett Powell's books and am glad I did. Great writer and great intertainment. Mr. Powell kept me laughing and crying through out the book.
Can't wait to read his other work.

I loved this book and actually re-purchased it in the spanish translation as a gift for a co-worker. It is poignant and thoughtful and sincere and just a great read. It can be read from first to last page, but nothing is lost jumping around from one short to another.

DROWN by Junot Diaz spoke to me like no other work of fiction that I've read in many years. It was the first time where I saw myself in the characters and felt that I knew them intimately. They were like my own family, brothers, cousins, mother and father that I could almost feel that the stories were right out of my own childhood.

Diaz's stories about Domincans in the Dominican Republic and the U.S. The stories perfectly capture the struggle with poverty in the characters' native country as well as the United States. But these stories are not didactic pieces but rather human stories about family, love, and loss. With characters so real, that the reader will wonder when they will see them again.

There is magic in the way this man can pull his readers into different lives and exotic places and make us feel completely at home. He flavors the universally human with sharp new flavors. Both are wonderful.

Although I greatly enjoyed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I was never able to get excited about Drown. It may be due to the fact that the main characters were so unsympathetic - in several instances their actions made we want to shout at them in anger and frustration. The book is well written, but somehow failed to draw me in as a reader.

Drown by Junot Diaz gives a real glimpse of what the "American Dream" is for many. It shows the break up of a family to the dependance of selling drugs just to get by each day. It tells the story of those who cant tell it, shows the real side of America that no onw wants to hear. The words in the book let your made make you step into each of the characters shoes. So this book make you really think and be happy with what you got. If i could give this book a rating from 1-10 i would give it an 11

This book has been described as a collection of stories, but it's more like a fragmented novel, all recounting the experiences of the narrator in the Dominican Republic and then New Jersey. It's extremely easy to read -- by easy I mean the prose flows effortlessly and lyrically and naturally. This beautiful quality diminishes somewhat towards the end, however. The stories are sad and harsh as stories of poor immigrants often are. But I read it for the prose which has the spareness and the originality of detail of poetry.

Junot Diaz has accomplished something rare in this collection of short stories: he's created an authentic voice for a cast of characters we desperately need to hear from but have previously been silent. More impressive, he does so without the cheap cynicism or affected posturing which characterizes so much "cutting edge" writing. He writes with sincerity, even pathos, while his unforgettable stories cut straight to the bone.

Junot Diaz's work in Drown was a refreshing change from the often stale world of modern literature. I recently heard Diaz speak and read excerpts from both Nilda and his novel-in-progress at the University of Vermont. Diaz in person was the same as Diaz on paper; a clear voice unafraid to confront the difficult and cruelly humorous world in which we live. It was a moving experience to hear and meet him in person, and I consider him one of the most promising of today's young writers.

I heard "How to date a Black girl..." on This American Life and then saw Junot Diaz' selection in the Best American Short Stories 1999. That led me to Drown which I adored. I was upset when it ended. Please hurry with that novel you are working on...at least one copy is already sold!

This book is very deep, yet very understandable and easy to follow. Growing up as a Hispanic in New York seems common enough. However, this book singles out many of the issues that are faced by any minority group and attacks them with the plain truth. In his slang simplicity, Junot Diaz gives somewhat of an identity to thousands of people who can directly relate to the triumphs and pitfalls of the main character. I hope to see more by Junot Diaz soon.

I read this book as part of my Latino Literature course at the University of Arizona. It's an amazing read that offers multicultural insight. The author 's writing style feels somewhat like Toni Morrisson's stream of consciousness effect. The book is not a linear straight-forward read, but rather separate pieces of writing that together act as a literary mosaic. It's a beautiful, at times surreal and other times gritty, read. I highly recommend; you will not regret the time spent invested in this book and will walk away with much.

After reading Junot Diaz' "Oscar Wao" one would think that no other book would live up to it! but I was wrong! I read "Drown" right after "Oscar Wao" and YES! he did it again! If you saw me on the train, I'm the one laughing and crying while reading this book, yup, words can't describe Junot Diaz' writing! - I can hardly wait for other books!

It's been a while since I read this book, but it is one that stays in my library to read over every once in a while, and to lend out to my friends. So far everyone who has ever read it has enjoyed it.

This book is a most honest and basic portrayal of humanity. Diaz's language is simple yet beautiful, and his themes are universal yet deeply challenging. The book follows the lives of different people, mostly Dominican, but it's characters relate to the reader's most basic human soul in the same way that Holden Caulfield does. A Brilliant Work

If you like reading disturbing stuff, you should read this. I'm not a huge fan of short stories, but after reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I had to get everything Junot Diáz ever wrote... which so far, is just this small collection of short stories. They all pack a punch though. Does not disappoint, just don't be expecting anything as epic as Wao.

This book offers a captivating glimpse into the transitional life of a Dominican family's experiences as it struggles to adapt to social, cultural, economic, and domestic mishaps. The author does a great job in capturing the reader's interest page after page. A must read.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered this book and was pleasantly surprised by it. Being a "Dominicanphile" I felt it brought much insight from a Dominican's perspective. A very easy and enjoyable read. I finished hoping for more.

This book will either open your eyes to the reality of the latin culture or make you feel like your reading your own story. I absolutely love Diaz's writing and the way he can make you see the characters. Definitely a must read and many of us can't wait for his next book......

I loved this collection. It's from the heart. I read this eight years ago. Mr. Diaz hasn't written much since. A novel would be great. Junot if you read this, please don't live of this book any longer, write, write something new. Please.

In my opinion Junot Diaz is a good writer. I found the book to be a good read, but NOT a great read. I was expecting so much more. I feel that so many main parts were left out, like how did they finally get to the states? It jumped back and forth too much. However, there were a lot of funny and interesting parts in the book. My favorite chapter was Drown.

A book group choice that I really struggled to read. I just found it completely strange and pointless. Although, I think I just missed the point of it. It was written as a number of, supposed, short stories that you realised were all interlinked in some way.

I don't like short stories and even with the links between them, I just could not relax and enjoy this book.

At first I thought it was cute and relevant that the author had left in a number of Spanish phrases throughout each chapter and I enjoyed looking them up on my translator application on my phone. This became tiresome after a while as the Spanish kept on coming and some of the translations came back making no sense. I gave up trying to translate in the end and just made up in my mind what the Spanish was supposed to mean and , to be honest, I didn't really care st this point whether I was right or not.

I am looking forward to having a discussion at book group to see ow much I have missed the point of this book. I can almost guess which of the members will rave about it and which will probably have the same opinion as me.

1 out of 5 as I got no enjoyment whatsoever from reading this book.

I do not understand why "Drown" would be assigned in a first year College English class, as it was in mine. While I do understand that this is most likely an accurate depiction of inner city life, I found the vile language/phrases utilized by Diaz to be a complete turn-off, and inappropriate for younger readers like myself. Additionally, the book did not seem cohesive from one short story to the next, and I was always trying to figure out who each narrator was. Also, it was difficult to determine which of the characters was speaking to one another because the book lacked quotation marks. However, a couple of the stories were quite attention-grabbing and intriguing, but I never felt very fond of any of the characters, and it was difficult to decipher their redeeming qualities. If you want a "classic writer" feel in the setting of the difficulties and desires that come with immigrant life, this is NOT your book. If you desire edgy, provocative, mature stories, you will probably enjoy.

For a first published work this is a wonderful collection of short fiction. It sometimes feels as though multiculturism is a literary fad as there are so many popular books released with collections of American fiction from the new arrival perspective. Much of it is good, Diaz is very good. These stories describing youthful experiences in both the Dominican Republic and urban New Jersey resonate with atmosphere and character.
They are not uniformly of the best quality. There are times when the stories feel less than fully developed but overall Diaz displays a great feel for setting and writes about people that draws the reader into their world , just possibly wishing there was more.
Look forward to reading his novel.

In this collection of ten stories, the narrator is a young Dominican Republic boy who grows up with his father in America and is waiting for him to send for the rest of the family. The stories explore everything from his parents' marriage falling apart to interracial dating. However, I disliked the style of stories going back and forth in time, it was confusing, and sometimes it took it a while to tell if we were in America or the Dominican Republic still, or how old the narrator was, I liked how the author used Spanish words thrown in to the story; it helped it sound more realistic. However, his spare style bugged me. I got to meet the author, and he read us a story from another collection, which I liked a lot better.

I would say that "Drown" is the best short story collection I have ever read. I would say "Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings" is the best anthology I have ever read. I would say that "When I Was Puerto Rican" was the best memoir I ever read. And I would say "Song of Simple Truth: The Collected Poems of Julia De Burgos" edited by Jack Agueros is the best poetry collection I have ever read. Thanks for this amazing art!

Lets start with the gigantic fact that the so called writer is a REAL monster in real life.
He was never a good writer. Liberals love books about FALSEHOODS and myths. Nothing in the book is about real people. It is all fiction! Everything in the book is dumb and FAKE! Why would people pay to read LIES?

This critically acclaimed set of short stories from Junot Diaz is at best a childish diary that was put together by incompetent editors desperate to publish anything that sounds remotely different from the monumental garbage that they continously publish every year.

The writer's main preoccupation seems to be channeling his anger about his absentee, unfaithful father and the effects on his mother in the Dominican Republic. This would be fine if it didn't read like some troubled child's diary. The writer repeatedly throws in spanish slang and sayings which I felt were used just to prove to his readers that he's bilingual as they add absolutely nothing to the plot or story, not there's any in any of the stories anyway.

The stories end abruptly, they're worst than mediocre, and he doesn't use quotations to separate his terrible dialouge. The reviews for the book were excellent but that should be expected from unqualified writers such as Junot Diaz. Critics only praise books that deal with tormented souls who use their depravity to channel it into elementary and generic prose. One must be aware that the writer is an MFA in literature, which just proves how lackluster American Higher Education has become. A terrible read.

I had to read "Drown" for my ENC1101, Written Communications I class. I was sorely disappointed in the school for making us read something that was offensive, poorly written, grammatically embarassing and just downright boring. The stories were disjointed, and read like a diary...which I didn't find a plus.

I then was assigned to write a number of essays on the book, which was SO hard because there isn't much to write about. The best way to approach this collection of short (very short) stories is to imagine yourself in the writer's shoes. Otherwise, you're not going to care about his crappy childhood or the women he abuses.

I have an opportunity to meet Junot Diaz this Thursday at my school. I will not attend because I'm sure that, although he is apparently an English professor, I could convince even him that his book requires some serious rewriting.

As a middle-class white female, I don't connect with the author or with his opinions, which makes the book hard to digest. Unless you are a poor Dominican male with an absentee father, it is difficult to understand the point Diaz is attempting to make, if he is attempting it at all. I would suggest that this book be removed from college curriculums. Please, stop making us read this garbage.

By now, we all know Junot Diaz is an amazing writer. He captures the NY/NJ area very well. His stories have his trademark humor and tragedy - and the womanizing/insensitive characters we have all come to know. This collection is what started it all.

I had to buy this book for a class, but i actually enjoyed it. It was weird reading it because i felt like i already knew the story. The entire book is a Dominican family trying to live life in America. Thats a horrible summery lol, but the reason i say i feel like i know this story is because my family and me, were Dominicans and we went though a lot of the same crap. But this story can sound familiar to any immigrant family, Dominican or not, Latino or European, or any where else.