David Dacosta's Reviews > This Is How You Lose Her

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 breakout novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This Is How... can best be described as a spinoff. The unapologetic use of the word nigger and the raw sexual references that Diaz has become known for are also back for a second occasion.

Short story collections are usually hit and miss. You’ll find yourself reading one story and be completely engrossed and not want it to end. Then the next moment you’ll question the very inclusion of another story. This Is How follows this pattern. The book begins with the story The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, a tale of infidelity and karmic justice. Yunior has a bleeding heart girlfriend in Magdalena; forgiving, in attendance every Sunday for Spanish Mass, super sensitive and according the author, “Takes to hurt the way water takes to paper.” Much to Yunior’s chagrin, Magda, as she’s affectionately known, receives an anonymous letter from a girl Yunior has been secretly seeing behind her back. The relationship between Yunior and Magda subsequently takes a turn for the worse after this revelation.

Alma ends almost as soon as in begins. Yunior is found to be a cheater by yet another girlfriend; Alma, summarized as ‘a comic-book-reading alternatinas with a big Dominican ass.’ The four page story, despite its abbreviated length, manages to paint a detailed portrait of a young academic minded Latina, who’s adored for the dimensions of her plump backside, and ultimately betrayed by her philandering partner. Yunior receives the brunt of Alma’s ire for his acts of indiscretion.

Readers are introduced to Yunior’s Cancer plagued and equally antagonistic older brother, Rafa, in the story Nilda. The Pura Principle revists the plight of Yunior`s sibling in an expanded treatment. Here we are given a clear glimpse into their family dynamics. Due to her initial fears of not being able to conceive, Yunior`s mother regards her first offspring Rafa as a miracle child of sorts and following his birth he instantly becomes the apple of her eye. However, this maternal bond is now being threatened by each irrational decision of Rafa`s while in the throes of the Big C; namely his choice to date, Pura, an opportunistic Dominican mother of two young children desperately seeking citizenship in America.

In the end it really doesn’t matter what type of book Diaz decided to write as the follow up to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. And despite the fact that This Is How... is not a novel, it will still draw unfair comparisons to its predecessor. I’m neither unimpressed nor blown away by This Is How. It certainly deserves credit for its unique construction. Diaz is one of Caribbean literature’s most fearless voices in terms of his use of language. His absolute disregard for the notion of offensive content is refreshing. You’ll either love his style or be repulsed by it. There’s no real middle ground.