Diaz, Junot. Drown. Penguin Publishing Company, 1997. ISBN 9781573226066
Plot
A short story collection. The narrator is Yunior and expresses the story of his family’s immigration to the United States from the Dominican Republic. It begins with Yunior and his brother Rafa (8 & 12) are sent to live with a family member so that his mom can work. Rafa and Yunior's dad was not around, left when Yunior was a young boy. They experienced food insecurity and other basic human necessities. As a single mother she worked long shifts. It continues sharing about the life in New Jersey, and follows along when Yunior is in high school. He is responsible helping his mother pay for bills while she does domestic work as a living.. Then there is the story of Yunior's father in the U.S. and the ways he makes a new life for himself, repeating patterns of leaving his kids and partner, with another woman, and ultimately grappling wiht how different the US is in reality to what he thought/dreamed it would be.
Critical Evaluation
Themes of becoming a man, narrow definitions of manhood, poverty, family dysfunction, and heartbreak are elements that come out of the page throughout the short story collection. The stories come together although told by different characters. It speaks to the American immigrant experience unique to the Dominican American young teenage boy perspective. There are many nuances, highly flawed individuals (misogynic behavior, homophobia, etc) depicting the very things that trauma creates. Yet the characters are trying their very best to make sense of their life and make it in the States. Despite much discomfort in his description in women, other men, experiencing trauma, there is vulnerability through and through. This book wiht a good discussion on these element s that are hurtful in the culture is an important read to highlight all the way human behavior perpetuates certain patterns, and the importance of interrogation to break familial and cultural patterns that are harmful.
Reader's Annotation
Young teenage Dominican American boy in New Jersey, dealing with becoming a man, and limiting ideas of manhood, and learning who he is despite dysfunctional familial relationships.
Author Information
Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. 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. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and PEN/O. Henry Award. A graduate of Rutgers College, Díaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He is the cofounder of Voices of Our Nation Workshop.
Source: http://www.junotdiaz.com/about/
Genre
Short Story: Fiction: Semi-Autobiographical
BookTalking Ideas
When he finds out his father is cheating on his mother, and decides not to say anything. His ideas on manhood, secrecy, and views on women, including his own mother.
Reading Level/Age Interest
18 years +
Challenge Issues
LGBTQI+, violence, sex, profanity. I would defend it with the Library Bill of Rights and the Los Angeles County Library Collections Policy. I will also listen, and ensure I am in line with the leadership of my library, and have their support.
Why I Included This Book in Collections
The protagonist is a young Dominican American teenage boy, dealing with growing up, not having his father, and trying to make sense of himself in the US. I also will like to have it in despite the controversies around Junot Diaz, and his writing since the way he writes is a true depiction of how many young people think. It's important to have these things interrogated, but we won't be able to interrogate if we can't reflect and see art, engage in conversations to contribute to cultural narrative changes and behavior changes overall.
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