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This Is How You Lose Her
by
On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing fo
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Hardcover, 217 pages
Published
September 11th 2012
by Riverhead Books
(first published March 22nd 2010)
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This is a collection of short stories about Yunior. Yunior is a louse. All the men in his life are serial cheaters from his father to his brother to his best friend. Yes, there is a pitch that this is part of the Dominican Culture -- but frankly I can speak with women friends of mine from France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany and England and every single one of them knows this guy or has dated this clown. He screws around on women, and when he is caught and discarded there is great chest thumpin
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This is how you lost me. You gave me flat characters powered by preoccupations with sex and body parts, especially bushy hair, peppered the prose with Spanish words that were often slangy or derogatory, and allowed superficial, albeit energetic, descriptions of shallow thoughtlessness to masquerade as gritty literary style.
I am puzzled as to why I feel so far off the general opinion of the literary pundits who widely praise this book. I do wonder if it is because of my utter lack of exposure to ...more
I am puzzled as to why I feel so far off the general opinion of the literary pundits who widely praise this book. I do wonder if it is because of my utter lack of exposure to ...more

"This is how you lose her"
True dat. This is exactly how you lose me.
I usually like to start my reviews(rants) with a quote, since this involved words such as bitches, n****rs, sluts, in almost every single sentence, i think i'll just skip that part. Not that there was worth quoting anything in here anyway.
Here is the thing, i get tremendously excited when my real life friends recommend me a book, especially if it's a guy friend. No, no, i am not sexist by any means, i just like seeing what me ...more
True dat. This is exactly how you lose me.
I usually like to start my reviews
Here is the thing, i get tremendously excited when my real life friends recommend me a book, especially if it's a guy friend. No, no, i am not sexist by any means, i just like seeing what me ...more

This Is How You Lose Her is another blast of ingenious storytelling from the talented Junot Diaz. In 1997 he walloped the literary landscape and established his name as a meteoric presence with Drown, a collection of gritty stories centering on Dominican American immigrants and culture. Not until a decade later did he finish his next work, the acclaimed novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which recounts in ecstatic prose the tragedies that befall a first generation Dominican American fam
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I had the honour of attending Junot Diaz's author talk late last month here in Vancouver. He was reading excerpts from the first three of the short stories in this book (The Sun, The Moon, The Stars; Nilda and Alma). I was honestly struck by how emphatically he read his own stories, even more impressed that I remembered his cadences. He is a gifted orator, as well as a storyteller.
As mentioned, this is a collection of short stories. They all feature a young Dominican-American man named Yunior, t ...more
As mentioned, this is a collection of short stories. They all feature a young Dominican-American man named Yunior, t ...more

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
How does an author follow up a Pulitzer Prize winning novel? For one thing, you’d hope that under no circumstances they would attempt to replicate the work. Junot Diaz has come full circle and returned to his writing roots. Like his debut collection of short stories Drown, Diaz’s third literary outing, This Is How You Lose Her, is also comprised of short stories, but these revolve around the love life of Yunior, the character who surfaced in Drown and the author’s break ...more
How does an author follow up a Pulitzer Prize winning novel? For one thing, you’d hope that under no circumstances they would attempt to replicate the work. Junot Diaz has come full circle and returned to his writing roots. Like his debut collection of short stories Drown, Diaz’s third literary outing, This Is How You Lose Her, is also comprised of short stories, but these revolve around the love life of Yunior, the character who surfaced in Drown and the author’s break ...more

Junot Diaz brings back Yunior from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as the narrator for most of the stories but leaves out the Dominican history and the geek references. Instead we get to read about heartbreak, infidelity, remorse, alienation and cancer.
You know, the stuff that makes life worth living.
Taken as a whole, these powerful stories give us a history for Yunior as he grows up in Jersey as a Dominican immigrant dealing with his family and his tendency to cheat on the women in his li ...more
You know, the stuff that makes life worth living.
Taken as a whole, these powerful stories give us a history for Yunior as he grows up in Jersey as a Dominican immigrant dealing with his family and his tendency to cheat on the women in his li ...more

Nine interlinked short tales chronicling ruined relationships, cheating, death, family, and more. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own.
“And that’s when I know it’s over. As soo ...more
“And that’s when I know it’s over. As soo ...more

The straight reviewers (meaning non-GR) have curled up and just about died of pure pleasure from reading this book, but I was not quite so jaw on the floor, for me it was a little bit Junot Diaz’s difficult third album. 1996, 2007, 2012 – three books, not big ones either, in 15 years. If Junot Diaz was a singer songwriter he’d be Kate Bush. He takes forever on his stuff. It reads extremely fast, goes down like alcopop, but you know it’s meticulous. He keens over every word, and the words are goo ...more

Released September 11, I heard a a lot of hype for this book by Junot Diaz. I wanted to see--what is all the fuss about? Why did this jump to the top of the NY Bestseller List?
I think I can tell you. In my best bookish librarian voice: the writing is raw. Eye-opening. It shifts between several different love stories, some unrequited, some failed...some still standing. I felt as if the narrator was sitting with me on the stoop of some NY slum, telling me about this girlfriend. Or this story that ...more
I think I can tell you. In my best bookish librarian voice: the writing is raw. Eye-opening. It shifts between several different love stories, some unrequited, some failed...some still standing. I felt as if the narrator was sitting with me on the stoop of some NY slum, telling me about this girlfriend. Or this story that ...more

a.k.a The Various Sexcapades of Yunior and Other Dominican Men.
I can praise this. I can even say that it shows you a more accurate representation of what love is than a hell lot of books out there.
But I won't.
Yunior, so funny and eloquent in Oscar Wao, is only amusing at best here. From start to end, it's just an unemotional, cold, and distant narration of who he fucked and who he cheated on and what he did to win them back - only to lapse back into the habit like gamblers and alcoholics.
There ...more
I can praise this. I can even say that it shows you a more accurate representation of what love is than a hell lot of books out there.
But I won't.
Yunior, so funny and eloquent in Oscar Wao, is only amusing at best here. From start to end, it's just an unemotional, cold, and distant narration of who he fucked and who he cheated on and what he did to win them back - only to lapse back into the habit like gamblers and alcoholics.
There ...more

1.) Misogyny. Women are just fucktoys. Men are not loyal, never will be loyal, and women shouldn't expect them to be. Men will cheat and fuck anything that moves until they die. Just the way it is. There's no such thing as a loyal husband or boyfriend.
Women have no personalities or character traits. Instead they are distinguished by their body parts, "the one with the small breasts," "the one with the wide hips," "the one with the gigantic ass."
2.) The world is pain. Everything is terrible. Ther ...more
Women have no personalities or character traits. Instead they are distinguished by their body parts, "the one with the small breasts," "the one with the wide hips," "the one with the gigantic ass."
2.) The world is pain. Everything is terrible. Ther ...more

Junot Diaz has always been a favorite author of mine, ever since college when he came to the Latin-American lit class I was taking in '98. By that time, I had already read Drown and was on my way to reading Negocios, the Spanish translation of Drown, expertly done by my lit. professor, Mr. Eduardo Lago (even the colloquialisms and the SHUCO-ness, the grit, the sarcasm, the naughtiness, came through, which I know, as an amateur translator myself, is supremely tough to accomplish).
Diaz's language, ...more
Diaz's language, ...more

Holy cannoli on a flying Popsicle stick.
I never got around to reading Oscar Wao mostly because I never got around to it and a little because I was concerned that I simply wouldn't be able to relate to a story about a nerdy teenage boy living in what Diaz himself describes as the ghetto. But, I heard that it was good (you know, in that Pulitzer-winning way) and then there was increased buzz around this latest collection of short stories. Somehow, I was the first person on the library reserve lis ...more
I never got around to reading Oscar Wao mostly because I never got around to it and a little because I was concerned that I simply wouldn't be able to relate to a story about a nerdy teenage boy living in what Diaz himself describes as the ghetto. But, I heard that it was good (you know, in that Pulitzer-winning way) and then there was increased buzz around this latest collection of short stories. Somehow, I was the first person on the library reserve lis ...more

My friends sometimes ask me why I don’t read more contemporary fiction, and my reaction to this book is a good illustration of the reason. On a purely superficial level, I don’t like the style. Díaz’s prose is punchy and energetic; but its energy reminds me of how CGI is abused in contemporary films—an added dose of color and dazzle that attempts to make up for a lack of substance. I felt as though he was constantly trying to maintain my attention, with a punchline, a striking image, a vulgarity
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I'm a big fan of Junot. I own all 3 of his books and love when he has a story featured in The New Yorker (which is how I discovered him, many moons ago, in high school).
"This Is How You Lose Her" is another winner. Diaz has a way with words, that much is certain. Each story has it's own little gem and specialness to it.
This book is comprised of 9 short stories, most of them intertwined, linking the main character, Yunior, with his dealings with women, his dickhead brother, Rafa, who is arrogan ...more
"This Is How You Lose Her" is another winner. Diaz has a way with words, that much is certain. Each story has it's own little gem and specialness to it.
This book is comprised of 9 short stories, most of them intertwined, linking the main character, Yunior, with his dealings with women, his dickhead brother, Rafa, who is arrogan ...more

I have to preface this review with the following: I saw Junot Díaz at a sold-out Inprint event in Houston earlier this fall where he was promoting This is How You Lose Her. Anyone who has met Díaz in person will understand the significance of this statement. Díaz is a bona-fide firecracker and has a great sense of humor to boot. He showed up on stage in tennis shoes and blue jeans and held the audience completely captive. He was exceedingly liberal with his language, which, by the way, works its ...more

Voice, voice, voice. What a treasure. This slim volume of nine short stories, about the battlefield of love. There's cheating. And searching. Being with one you don't want. Yearning for the one you want. Watching parents struggle with their own disappointments. Several of the stories feature Yunior, a young Dominican man--sometimes boy--struggling to live up to male culture while at the same time trying to find what's true to himself--while his brother Rafa is a pure heat-seeking missile of sex.
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I hate to filter my response to book based upon others' responses to a book, but after a National Book Award nomination, a Guggenheim, and the almost unseemly vocal adoration of seemingly every major reviewer, one comes to a book with certain expectations. And in the case of this collection of nine short stories (seven of which were published previously in periodicals) that it took the author ten-plus years to complete, the subjects of which are men who keep cheating on their girlfriends and fee
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I don't know what to say...
What did I just read? Why did I read this book? What was the point of all this? Was there a message I missed? or was it just page after page of dudes Gettin' laid?
Even though I hated Oscar Wao, at least there was some historical facts woven into its story line that made things interesting; but this was just smut. Diaz might be a good writer but his choice of words, his storyline, his endless catalog of tits and ass, it just gives me goosebumps, and no matter how much I ...more
What did I just read? Why did I read this book? What was the point of all this? Was there a message I missed? or was it just page after page of dudes Gettin' laid?
Even though I hated Oscar Wao, at least there was some historical facts woven into its story line that made things interesting; but this was just smut. Diaz might be a good writer but his choice of words, his storyline, his endless catalog of tits and ass, it just gives me goosebumps, and no matter how much I ...more

"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea."
You think about signs. How it is so easy to miss them, misinterpret them, ignore them, spit in their face. Is it about rebellion? Is it trying to defy the inevitable? If you ignore the whole nations, anguish, tossing part of the bible quote and focus on the selfish, defeatist, lovelorn Yunior and his tales of woe that is This is How You Lose Her, you kno ...more
You think about signs. How it is so easy to miss them, misinterpret them, ignore them, spit in their face. Is it about rebellion? Is it trying to defy the inevitable? If you ignore the whole nations, anguish, tossing part of the bible quote and focus on the selfish, defeatist, lovelorn Yunior and his tales of woe that is This is How You Lose Her, you kno ...more

“And that's when I know it's over. As soon as you start thinking about the beginning, it's the end.”
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"This Is How you Lose Her" (SP): The newest one by darling Junot Diaz is so theme-heavy, so break-up-centric, that you soon realize that the writer is a wee less dynamic than we'd originally thought. From acclaimed short stories to the dynamite novel that bestowed upon him the nifty Pulitzer--what could the young writer come up with next? Easy... a valentine for heartbreak. Most of the characters in "Lose Her" are flawlessly interchangeable, all women have long sexy dark hair, all men are extrao
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All right, we get it, Junot Diaz. You’ve got a fun, energetic style, and we don’t know any other Dominican writers, so you can keep writing about sucios and morenos and we’ll keep applauding because it’ll seem culturally insensitive to say that, after three books largely focused on your thinly-veiled alter ego, Yunior, it’s time you tried something new.
In his previous two works, “Drown” and the Pulitzer-winning “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Yunior was a dorky outcast more likely to rea ...more
In his previous two works, “Drown” and the Pulitzer-winning “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Yunior was a dorky outcast more likely to rea ...more

Several years ago I lived out a fantasy abetted by Junot Diaz, of which he was unaware. I was sitting in a cafe reading the searing conclusion to A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and upon closing it, looked up and saw the author himself 10 feet away, watching me read his work. He was there to attend a reading at a bookstore a few doors away. Upon signing my book, he added "thanks for allowing me to help you live the fantasy."
All of his work is intertwined, so much so that I am choosing to lab ...more
All of his work is intertwined, so much so that I am choosing to lab ...more

***I won this book from GoodReads as a free FirstReads giveaway.***
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
This book is composed of several short stories with Yunior, a Dominican, as the main character. The stories are related but not told in chronological order… they go forward and backward in time. There is a lot of Spanish in this book as well. I understood some of it but not a lot. I think most of the time I was lost somewhere in translation.
The first story is about Yunior on vacation in Sant ...more
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
This book is composed of several short stories with Yunior, a Dominican, as the main character. The stories are related but not told in chronological order… they go forward and backward in time. There is a lot of Spanish in this book as well. I understood some of it but not a lot. I think most of the time I was lost somewhere in translation.
The first story is about Yunior on vacation in Sant ...more

Twelve pages in and this amazing line, "She's sensitive, too. Takes to hurt the way water takes to paper." I'm so excited about how much I'm going to love this book.
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Earlier this year I read Junot Díaz's first and only novel to date, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and was smitten by it. A large part of why that book was so enjoyable was the point-of-view of it's omniscient narrator Yunior. While Oscar was never able to find a girl, Yunior never seemed able to keep one. Díaz's newest book, a story collection, is a sort of follow-up to Oscar Wao, focusing more on Yunior the Dumb-ass, and Yunior's predicament of not being able to hold a relationship; all
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I feel like a literary fraud because I did not like this book. Every reader, reviewer, Tweeter, and MacArthur genius granter was wowed and moved by this book - but me? I liked one story, enjoyed a couple others. Most washed over me like a muggy drizzle when you expected cleansing rain, and a few I outright disliked. Is it because I've never been an immigrant? Never been in love? (Not really, at least). I think it's because one of the books I was reading at the same time (The Long Walk: A Story o
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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
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Famous people! Are they really just like us? In the case of these individuals, the answer is a resounding yes when it comes to loving...
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“And that's when I know it's over. As soon as you start thinking about the beginning, it's the end.”
—
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“The half-life of love is forever.”
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