Drown | 
 enlarge | Author: Junot Diaz
Publisher: Riverhead
Category: EBooks
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $9.75
You Save: $4.25 (30%)
Rating:  87 reviews
Sales Rank: 3840
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: May 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Amazon.com Review
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.
Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 82 more reviews...
 Drown is Brilliant June 25, 2009
R. W. Casey (Boston)
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.
 Evocative, provocative, and... June 21, 2009
Meredith H. (Seattle)
...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.
AWESOME, JUST PLAIN AWESOME May 20, 2009
mabel peralta (nyc)
Being 1st generation dominican-american, i could relate to alot of the stories here ( HELLO kneeling in pebbles facing the wall, yeah that was my grandmothers punishment as well, hahahah).
It was so well written. i could not put my kindle down because i was that into it.
Junot Diaz's writing skills make me want to revisit those often odd and out of place events in my time line where my dominican side and my new americanized side overlapped. Some moments were pure comedy.
I really loved this book. And the fact that it was based in jersey and he mentioned my hometown ( union city) made it perfect.
I can not wait for a new book. He makes me proud to be a Dominican.
 An engaging read April 12, 2009
Barry Varkel (Cape Town South Africa)
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.
Very real April 7, 2009
Violet Helmsley (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
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.
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