Drown

by Junot Diaz

From the beloved and award-winning author Junot Díaz, a spellbinding saga of a family’s journey through the New World.
 
A coming-of-age story of unparalleled power, Drown introduced the world to Junot Díaz's exhilarating talents. It also introduced an unforgettable narrator— Yunior, the haunted, brilliant young man who tracks his family’s precarious journey from the barrios of Santo Domingo to the tenements of industrial New Jersey, and their epic passage from hope to loss to something like love. Here is the soulful, unsparing book that made Díaz a literary sensation.
 

• ISBN10: 1573226068
• ISBN13: 9781573226066
• Publish Date: 1 July 1997 (first published 8 August 1996)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Riverhead Books,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 240
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781573226066

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Oh boy. This one is much the same as Oscar Wao. Only it doesn't have a Watcher to tell the tale and weave a coherent overall story. It's chunks and pieces of Jr.'s life in the DR and in Jersey, his father's journey, and a story about No Face.

It's sad. Depressing. Disjointed. Jumps around. Couldn't tell where one started and one ended on the audio. Have to pay attention like Oscar Wao.

Since I listened to Oscar Wao first, as this collection came afterwords as a bonus, it helped me understand Jr. better and fill in some information.

Full of domestic violence, rape, sexism, racism, misogynoir, anti-sex worker, cheating, toxic masculinity, ablism, homophobia, addiction, fatphobia. Uses the n-word, “fag”, “pussy”, “puta”, “halfie”.

I did really like the parts Jr.'s experience dealing with rich white people with their pool tables. I didn't like how they blamed the woman being kept as a slave for going back to the bastard. So many strong women dealing with so much bullshit, and motherfuckers just blame and shame them instead of being better. Ugh.

At least this collection gave me some hope for the next generations unlike Oscar Wao.