Originally published in 1997, Drown instantly garnered terrific acclaim. Moving from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, these heartbreaking, completely original stories established Díaz as one of contemporary fiction's most exhilarating new voices.
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Product Description
Book Description
The first book by Junot Díaz, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
About the Author
Junot Diaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from Cornell University. His collection of short stories, Drown, was described as 'a dazzlingly talented first book' by Hermione Lee in the Independent on Sunday. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is his debut novel. He teaches creative writing at MIT (Massachussetts Institute of Technology).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Junot Diaz has been hailed as one of a new breed of East Coast talents. His insight into the Spanish American experience in the US can be deservedly labeled as profoundly moving and richly complex. It is astonishing how little attention has thus far been paid to this element of American culture, but let's hope that Diaz's work will go some way to redressing this imbalance.
The stories in Drown focus on characters who have managed to survive domestic abuse, pandemic crime and crippling prejudice. Despite the recurrent and critically important theme of social dislocation, Diaz doesn't seek to simplify or patronize. His characters are individuals who make a convincing attempt to breathe beyond the pages of the book.
Diaz is a sympathetic narrator and his characters are emphatically three-dimensional. In the first story, told from the perspective of a young boy, his bullying and adulterous father is contrasted with his benevolent and loving Mother. However the father is not all beast and despite the misery he inflicts, the man is also full of a bitter regret for all that he has allowed to be lost between himself and his wife.
Despite their innate fragility, Diaz's characters have a revitalizing vigour. I think of the schoolboys who feel remorse for hunting and taunting the school freak, and the lover who regularly forgives his largely absent girlfriend who steals from him to feed her drug habit. These and other characters disappear, sometimes to return or more frequently indefinitely lost in a haze of pollution and dirt.
I recommend this book as an astonishingly effective piece of literature. More than this, there are, to my mind, few contemporary parallels. Buy it, read it, recommend it.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By U. Sinha
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book has been on my reading list for a creative writing course I teach for several years now, along with Maya Angelou, Michael Frayn, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jenny Diski. And every year students have unanimously proclaimed this the best written and most impressive book on the reading list. Diaz has an ability to make writing seem effortless and artless. His settings and characters are real, the situations believable and the narrative voice compelling. He does not pander to the reader, retaining Spanish words with no glossary but they are used in a way that makes sense in their context and they provide a flavour of speech and thought that takes us into his world. The only writer I could fairly compare him with is Raymond Carver - the same truthfulness and directness - but stylistically Diaz is the superior writer. Recommended for any aspiring writer.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Avid Reader
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great short stories
I really enjoyed these short stories, a segment of literature that I have come to appreciate in recent years, not least thanks to the genius Alice Munro. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lillis
5.0 out of 5 stars
So familiar
I think most immigrants will identify with the stories in Drown. It clearly & truthfully describes experience s of immigrants.
Published 5 months ago by Ms. S. A. Hammond
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty and wonderful at the same time
A set of short stories that moves from claustrophobic Dominican townships to anonymous diasporic New York. Read more
Published 7 months ago by jacr100
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jealous
I'd love to write like this. The stories are evocative, touching and hilarious. I discovered Diaz on a recent trip through Central America, after picking up OSCAR WAO. Read more
Published 10 months ago by High Seas Drifter
4.0 out of 5 stars
Drown
I previously read Oscar Wao and bought this as I thought I'd enjoy it. I've only read the first 3 stories and it is really difficult to put the book down, Diaz really does know how... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Alex Pughe
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful
This is simply beautiful writing. Stories about real characters, writing that takes you deep into their crazy lives until you feel as though you knew them. Also quite funny.
Published 16 months ago by Shunzi
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece
A masterpiece of literary fiction. Diaz writes with not just remarkable skill and detail but also an ability to give his stories a low-slung hip-hop rhythm that no other writer in... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2010 by Junkyard Dog
3.0 out of 5 stars
Drown
There is something very refreshing about this gritty tale. It is a crystal clear image of the life of the dispossessed and the struggles they face, little frames of humanity... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2010 by Book 1981
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Drowing but very much Alive
First published in 1996, Junot Diaz's Drown is a collection of short stories. They are set in Santo Domingo and the typical US, African Caribbean diaspora of New York, New Jersey... Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2009 by Herman Norford
5.0 out of 5 stars
The brilliance is in capturing the tensions...
These stories are all different but form a continuum, overlapping and coming from different angles and times. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2009 by stevieby
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