Drown

Drown
by Junot D?az

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Book Summary Information

Author: Junot D?az
Edition: Paperback
Published: 1997-07-01
ISBN: 1573226068
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Riverhead Trade

Book Reviews of Drown

Book Review: immigrant stories about the American myth
Summary: 5 Stars

This is the first book by the 2008 Pulitzer-winning author of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." It's a collection of short stories that are set between the 1970's and 1990's in the Dominican Republic, the Bronx and in a variety of Northern NJ towns.

In "Ysrael," two brothers walk to another town in the DR to see a boy who wore a mask (because his face had been eaten off by a pig when he was a baby).

"Fiesta, 1980" is about a party in the Bronx that Yunior, the narrator in several stories in this book and the primary narrator in Oscar Wao, and his family attend. In describing his aunt's place, Yunior says that it had "been furnished in Contemporary Dominican Tacky" (pg. 32).

In "Aurora," a small-time drug dealer tells the story of his relationship with a female heroin addict. "We all do s*#@ like this, stuff that's no good for you," he says (pg. 50).

"Edison, New Jersey" is a story about two pool-table deliverymen. Wayne is in his late 30's or early 40's. His partner describes him as "a big goofy guy - I don't understand why the girls dig his s*#@. One of those mysteries of the universe" (pg. 125). They deliver the tables and work in the showroom as the narrator relates the story of his recent break-up: "We stopped playing only when it started to go wrong for us, when I'd wake up and listen to the traffic outside without waking her, when everything was a fight" (pg. 132).

"Negocios" is the story of Ramon, who moves to America in the 1960's, leaving his wife and children behind him with the promise that he'll bring them over when he makes enough money. It's narrated by his youngest son, Yunior, who describes his father as "real good at planning and real bad at doing" (pg. 196). Ramon's story is one of hard work and occasional bad luck. Eventually, he marries a citizen in order to become a citizen himself, and he struggles with the guilt about his family that is still in the DR. The story ends with Yunior having a conversation many years later with Ramon's second wife.

Diaz's stories are filled with hard realization that the American dream for most immigrants is really an American myth - many more stumble along than succeed. NJ is a bleak place for these characters and their generational stories.

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Summary of Drown

With ten stories that move from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, Junot Diaz makes his remarkable debut. Diaz's work is unflinching and strong, and these stories crackle with an electric sense of discovery. Diaz evokes a world in which fathers are gone, mothers fight with grim determination for their families and themselves, and the next generation inherits the casual cruelty, devestating ambivalence, and knowing humor of lives circumscribed by poverty and uncertainty. In Drown, Diaz has harnessed the rhythms of anger and release, frustration and joy, to indelible effect.

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