He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. "This Is How You Lose Her" is a collection of short stories by Junot Diaz, centrally revolving around the main character, Yunior. It is a wild rhythm that makes more vivid the collection’s heart-busted steadiness.” –Dallas Morning News, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction The wife who sends letters to Ramon is Yunior's mother. Drown (Short Story) This Is How You Lose Her - Chapter 3: "Alma" Summary & Analysis . Editions: Paperback | Hardcover Deluxe Edition | Spanish Edition. The bass line of this collection is a thumpingly raw and sexual foray into lives that claw against poverty and racism. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness—and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. The book is made of nine chapters, each telling a different story, not in chronological orderer. I was sitting in a cafe reading the searing conclusion to A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and upon closing it, looked up and saw the author himself 10 feet away, watching me read his work. | ISBN 9781101596951 I'm a big fan of Junot. Being with one you don't want. Yunior is a louse. And in the case of this collection of nine short stories (seven of which were published previously in periodicals) that it took the author ten-plus years to complete, the subjects of which are men who keep cheating on their girlfriends and fee. There's cheating. Díaz’s prose is punchy and energetic; but its energy reminds me of how CGI is abused in contemporary films—an added dose of color and dazzle that attempts to make up for a lack of substance. I didn't like Oscar Wao any better. Misogyny. This slim volume of nine short stories, about the battlefield of love. Both were flat and predictable, and misogyny doesn't count as color. Takes to hurt the way water takes to paper." He screws around on women, and when he is caught and discarded there is great chest thumpin. Never been in love? All the men in his life are serial cheaters from his father to his brother to his best friend. Does anyone know who she is in relation to Yunior? Diaz clearly knows that by polishing all sad descriptions to their utmost pathos-potential he's got in his crafty hands a winner, and he's correct. His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her, charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed." My friends sometimes ask me why I don’t read more contemporary fiction, and my reaction to this book is a good illustration of the reason. I think it's because one of the books I was reading at the same time (, Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. From acclaimed short stories to the dynamite novel that bestowed upon him the nifty Pulitzer--what could the young writer come up with next? Yet he weds form so ideally to content that instead of blinding us, it becomes the very lens through which we can see the joy and suffering of the signature Díaz subject: what it means to belong to a diaspora, to live out the possibilities and ambiguities of perpetual insider/outsider status.” –The New York Times Book Review “Nobody does scrappy, sassy, twice-the-speed of sound dialogue better than Junot Díaz. There's cheating. Yunior is a louse. Buy, Sep 11, 2012 On a purely superficial level, I don’t like the style. Great review. I picked it up because of the flashy cover, and NOT by the title but was immediately drawn to throw the book into a fire. His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her, charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed.” –Maureen Corrigan, NPR “Exhibits the potent blend of literary eloquence and street cred that earned him a Pulitzer Prize… Díaz’s prose is vulgar, brave, and poetic.” –O Magazine “Searing, irresistible new stories… It’s a harsh world Díaz conjures but one filled also with beauty and humor and buoyed by the stubborn resilience of the human spirit.” –People “Junot Díaz has one of the most distinctive and magnetic voices in contemporary fiction: limber, streetwise, caffeinated and wonderfully eclectic… The strongest tales are those fueled by the verbal energy and magpie language that made Brief Wondrous Life so memorable and that capture Yunior’s efforts to commute between two cultures, Dominican and American, while always remaining an outsider.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times  “These stories… are virtuosic, command performances that mine the deceptive, lovelorn hearts of men with the blend of tenderness, comedy and vulgarity of early Philip Roth. Is it the Star Trek metaphors that the characters use to give shape to their emotions? I hate to filter my response to book based upon others' responses to a book, but after a National Book Award nomination, a Guggenheim, and the almost unseemly vocal adoration of seemingly every major reviewer, one comes to a book with certain expectations. These stories are hard and sad, but in Díaz’s hands they also crackle.” –Library Journal (starred review) “Magnificent… an exuberant rendering of the driving rhythms and juicy Spanglish vocabulary of immigrant speech… sharply observed and morally challenging.” –Kirkus “A beautifully stirring look at ruined relationships and lost love—and a more than worthy follow-up to [Díaz’s] 2007 Pulitzer winner, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” –Bookpage “In This Is How You Lose Her, Díaz writes with subtlety and grace, once again demonstrating his remarkable facility for developing fully-realized and authentic characters with an economical rawness… Díaz skillfully portrays his protagonist so vividly, and with so  much apparent honesty, that Yunior’s voice comes across with an immediacy that never once feels inauthentic.” –California Literary Review “Díaz continues to dazzle with his dynamite, street-bruised wit. On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. Nine interlinked short tales chronicling ruined relationships, cheating, death, family, and more. (Not really, at least). Earlier this year I read Junot Díaz's first and only novel to date, I feel like a literary fraud because I did not like this book. The majority of the stories center on his infidelities and the problems that he faces because of prejudice. His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her, charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed.” … I listened to the audio book of this as read by the author, so I don't have page numbers. For this gorgeous new edition, Jaime Hernandez—deemed “one of the twentieth century’s most significant comic creators”—has crafted stunning full-page illustrations, one for each story, that brilliantly capture the love-haunted spirit of the book and of the gutsy women whom irrepressible, irresistible Yunior loves and loses. This second collection of stories follows where his first collection, Drown, left off—tracking the love life of his narrator Yunior. Most of the characters in "Lose Her" are flawlessly interchangeable, all women have long sexy dark hair, all men are extrao. Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s, Editor's Picks: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Stories Read By Your Favorite Celebrities, Contact us about speaking engagements with Junot Diaz, Discover Book Picks from the CEO of Penguin Random House US. And in the case of this collection of nine short stories (seven of which were published previously in periodicals) that it took the author ten-plus years to complete, the subjects of which are men who keep cheating on their girlfriends and feeling sorry for themselves when those girlfriends get mad about it, one is acutely underwhelmed. Watching parents struggle with their own disappointments. Find books like This Is How You Lose Her from the world’s largest community of readers. Yes, there is a pitch that this is part of the Dominican Culture -- but frankly I can speak with women friends of mine from France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany and England and every single one of them knows this guy or has dated this clown. A true work of art, inside and out, this is a keepsake that fans will treasure and new readers will delight in discovering. I'm so excited about how much I'm going to love this book. Buy, Oct 31, 2013 In This is How You Lose Her, the humor and fun is always tempered by the awareness that there is always something more dangerous lurking. I think most of the time I was lost somewhere in translation. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. Díaz’s new story collection, “This Is How You Lose Her,” is his first book in five years and only his third book over all. Its heart is true, even if Yunior’s isn’t.” –Salon “[A] propulsive new collection… [that] succeeds not only because of the author’s gift for exploring the nuances of the male… but because of a writing style that moves with the rhythm and grace of a well-danced merengue.” –Seattle Times    “In Díaz’s magisterial voice, the trials and tribulations of sex-obsessed objectifiers become a revelation.” –The Boston Globe “Scooch over, Nathan Zuckerman. The wife who sends letters to Ramon is. Men will cheat and fuck anything that moves until they die. Yet Diaz inflects this struggle with the complicated particulars of cultural exile, of want and of the bravado that is born of fear. Refresh and try again. Stream This is How You Lose Her, written and read by Junot Diaz by PRH Audio from desktop or your mobile device. "This Is How you Lose Her" (SP): The newest one by darling Junot Diaz is so theme-heavy, so break-up-centric, that you soon realize that the writer is a wee less dynamic than we'd originally thought. Both were flat and p. Very relieved that others find this as disappointing as I did. An irritating infatuation or overconsciousness of the skin tone and overbearing macho complexes also describes lost loves, doomed relationships, & how perfect they were before they were shattered beyond repair. This is How You Lose Her is the title of Junot Diaz’s new short story collection, though it feels most accurate to call it an exposition: this is how you lose her. These are precarious, unappreciated, precious lives in which intimacy is a lost art, masculinity a parody, and kindness, reason, and hope struggle to survive like seedlings in a war zone.” –Booklist (starred review) “Díaz’s third book is as stunning as its predecessors. Welcome back. And searching. He was there to attend a reading at a bookstore a few doors away. J unot Diaz’s latest collection of short stories, This is How You Lose Her, continues to mine the author’s experiences as a Dominican immigrant in New Jersey. See all 8 questions about This Is How You Lose Her…, New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2012 (fiction and nonfiction), flavorwire most anticipated books of fall 2012, The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows, Serexin Male Enhancement: Avoids inflammation and alleviate discomfort, FIRST BOOK - February - This is How You Lose Her, Bookish Celebrities Share Their Top Reading Recommendations. And this is how you lose her. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Are they really just like us? All the men in his life are serial cheaters from his father to his brother to his best friend. a.k.a The Various Sexcapades of Yunior and Other Dominican Men. He is a gifted orator, as well as a storyteller. Just the way it is. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. They are immigrants from the Dominican Republic and came to the … His exuberant short story collection, called This Is How You Lose Her, charts the lives of Dominican immigrants for whom the promise of America comes down to a minimum-wage paycheck, an occasional walk to a movie in a mall and the momentary escape of a grappling in bed." The main character through these stories, Yunior, shares first-person experiences growing up in New Jersey from his teenage years through young adulthood. This Is How You Lose Her is a new collection from Junot Diaz ... From the title, it's clear that each of the short stories will end in heartbreak. Raw and honest, these stories pulsate with raspy ghetto hip-hop and the subtler yet more vital echo of the human heart.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Díaz’s standout fiction remains pinpoint, sinuous, gutsy, and imaginative… Each taut tale of unrequited and betrayed love and family crises is electric with passionate observations and off-the-charts emotional and social intelligence… Fast–paced, unflinching, complexly funny, street-talking tough, perfectly made, and deeply sensitive, Díaz’s gripping stories unveil lives shadowed by prejudice and poverty and bereft of reliable love and trust. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”. Buy, Sep 11, 2012 | ISBN 9781594487361 I liked one story, enjoyed a couple others. In a New Jersey laundry room, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. It feels as if the same story is being told exactly nine times--over and over there are relationships of love and hate, lives filled with disillusion and disappointment. In the short story “This Is How You Lose Her” by Junot Diaz Papi plays a dominant role in aims to separate his family from the supposedly “unknown lifestyle of an American”. Yearning for the one you want. Women are just fucktoys. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. “This Is How You Lose Her” is a collection of short stories about lost love, many of which have autobiographical tendencies. Read "This Is How You Lose Her" by Junot Díaz available from Rakuten Kobo. This section contains 362 words (approx. This Is How You Lose Her is the third book by Junot Diaz, and his second story collection. Book Review: 'This is How You Lose Her' by Junot Diaz Junot Diaz's electric new collection of short stories centers around Yunior, a macho yet mournful Dominican-American man. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. To see what your friends thought of this book, Very relieved that others find this as disappointing as I did. Why did this jump to the top of the NY Bestseller List? I felt as though he was constantly trying to maintain my attention, with a punchline, a striking image, a vulgarity. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud. Upon signing my book, he added "thanks for allowing me to help you live the fantasy. Even though readers are aware of this from the start, the deterioration of each relationship will hit you. Released September 11, I heard a a lot of hype for this book by Junot Diaz. Yes, there is a pitch that this is part of the Dominican Culture -- but frankly I can speak with women friends of mine from France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany and England and every single one of them knows this guy or has dated this clown. Alma has a great Dominican ass and Yunior is a chronic cheater.Alma is a short story in Junot Diaz's book "This is How you Lose Her. He screws around on women, and when he is caught and discarded there is great chest thumping and hair tearing and he learns...nothing. He lives with his brother Rafa and his mother in a small house. –Maureen Corrigan, NPR | 314 Minutes The story Otravida, Otravez, is magnificent. This is a collection of short stories about Yunior. Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. You gave me flat characters powered by preoccupations with sex and body parts, especially bushy hair, peppered the prose with Spanish words that were often slangy or derogatory, and allowed superficial, albeit energetic, descriptions of shallow thoughtlessness to masquerade as gritty literary style. I feel exactly the same, Diaz gives the reader an unfortunate and interesting character to follow but by the end of the novel I was left empty of any. Following Drown (1998) and his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), This Is How You Lose Her is Díaz’s third book. … This is a collection of short stories about Yunior. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness–and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses.In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, these stories lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. "This Is How you Lose Her" (SP): The newest one by darling Junot Diaz is so theme-heavy, so break-up-centric, that you soon realize that the writer is a wee less dynamic than we'd originally thought. This slim volume of nine short stories, about the battlefield of love. Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. Is it because I've never been an immigrant? SoundCloud This is How You Lose Her, written and read by Junot Diaz by PRH Audio published on 2012-09-11T18:04:14Z. It is, like the other two, excellent. by Riverhead Books. More elsewhere. We’d love your help. Men are not loyal, never will be loyal, and women shouldn't expect them to be. It’s Díaz’s voice that’s such a delight, and it is every bit his own, a melting-pot pastiche of Spanglish and street slang, pop culture and Dominican culture, and just devastating descriptive power, sometimes all in the same sentence.” –USA Today  “Impressive… comic in its mopiness, charming in its madness and irresistible in its heartfelt yearning.” –The Washington Post “The dark ferocity of each of these stories and the types of love it portrays is reason enough to celebrate this book. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. And searching. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. Finalist for the 2012 National Book Award A Time and People Top 10 Book of 2012 Finalist for the 2012 Story … Several of the stories feature Yunior, a young Dominican man--sometimes boy--struggling to live up to male culture while at the same time trying to find what's true to himself--while his brother Rafa is a pure heat-seeking missile of sex. You’ve got a fun, energetic style, and we don’t know any other Dominican writers, so you can keep writing about sucios and morenos and we’ll keep applauding because it’ll seem culturally insensitive to say that, after three books largely focused on your thinly-veiled alter ego, Yunior, it’s time you tried something new. This is by far one of my favorite books of all time. Unfair to ask, but still: Is this the work of "genius"? You put down your things and you waited and couldn't do anything really until the lights decided. Twelve pages in and this amazing line, "She's sensitive, too. Rafa's death hangs over several of the stories. In the section Otravida Otravez, the narrator (Yasmin) is dating a man (Ramon) who is Yunior and Rafa's father. Overview. I didn't like Oscar Wao any better. This Study Guide consists of approximately 33 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of This Is How You Lose Her. And I mean that I agree with the original review lol. As soon as you start thinking about the beginning, it's the end.”, NAIBA Book of the Year for Fiction (2013), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (Shortlist) (2013), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (2012), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2012), The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for 'Miss Lora' (2013). The unflinching view of the male experience, the immigrant experience, the Latino experience, opinions--correct or not--the less correct usually delivered in Dominican scented Spanish - fly like fur and as with all great writing, Junot Diaz wins it on the sentences, one surprising, perfect laugh out loud brilliant choice after another. He was reading excerpts from the first three of the short stories in this book (The Sun, The Moon, The Stars; Nilda and Alma). In the case of these individuals, the answer is a resounding yes when it comes to loving... On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. Overview. Easy... a valentine for heartbreak. Díaz’s prose is punchy and energetic; but its energy reminds me of how CGI is abused in contemporary films—an added dose of color and dazzle that attempts to make up for a lack of substance.