Drowning in Drown?

[Anwebb]

Drown by Junot Diaz is a window into the life of a troubled Dominican family in the various stages of immigration and broken family life. A story of a rough but realistic upbringing, this book is an interesting read with many tough hard hitting themes delivered in an unforgiving blunt manner. It is also a bit of a rough read at first, however.

In the first half of the book, the strong use of Spanish and vague points of view were a bit frustrating, but not a real detraction from the stories found in the book. By the books namesake, the story titled "Drown," things feel like they start to come together and the use of Spanish drops to an easy to manage and understand (enough to get by) amount. The point of view does not clear up, but does seem to matter less.

Overall, I found that while the book was a bit more than I expected, it was still enjoyable to read and that no one should be worried about being able to handle this book or not. If you take in the stories without over thinking the first time, you can always come back to try and unravel the deeper meanings again later. There is no need to be intimidated by this novel! Relax and enjoy the read.

[Monty J]

You have posted your review in the wrong place. This is a discussion forum.

To post a review, click on the book icon, then scroll down to "My Review" and click on "Edit." You can copy and past your review there.

(Some English teacher must have told his class to post a review on Goodreads, because six reviews have suddenly appeared here.)

[Anwebb]

I posted this three years ago, so if it's only now showing up I would guess that a change occurring within Goodreads is more to blame than an English Professor or a student's inability to navigate a website. But thank you for taking the time to police every one of our posts, I'm sure it was a good use of your time! :)

[Monty J]

Anwebb wrote: "I posted this three years ago, so if it's only now showing up I would guess that a change occurring within Goodreads is more to blame than an English Professor or a student's inability to navigate ..."

Glad to help. It only took 10 minutes. (It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.) :)

[christopher]

i first read this book in 2010, during a rough patch in my life. junot diaz's writing about the immigrant experience helped ground me in a concrete version of reality and i was particularly impressed by his depiction of being dominican and also being in new jersey. i recognized some of the landmarks that he visited in this novel and was often hungry for more. the structure is very good and enjoyable. overall i would give this book 4.5/5 stars.

[Jorge]

L read first "This is how you lose her", which was great. Then "Drown" and finally, "Oscar Wao". I find "Drown" the weaker of the three and "Lose her" the best.