Hiranmaya

Okay, story time! I read “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz back in the 12th grade for AP Literature, which was four years ago and now, I am feeling quite old. Amazingly enough, Junot Diaz is a family friend of one of the students in that class and he was able to come in and speak to us! To say the least, it was an enlightening experience hearing him speak about his culture and the connections he draws in his writing. He initially planned to go to law school, influenced by his family’s pressure for his success. However, he claimed that he just couldn’t live without books and switched to a career in writing. Years later, his words have stayed with me and prompted me to seek out his other novels.

This Is How You Lose Her is a series of short stories centered around our main protagonist, Yunior and how he navigates love and loss at various points in his life. Yunior and his family grew up in the Dominican Republic but immigrated to the United States at a young age. We are taken through an array of unfortunate, complicated love stories between Yunior and the women who have darted in and out of his life. Mixed in with Yunior’s tragic life events is the racism he faces and the prejudices he adopts. 

Junot Diaz writes like he is breathing because the stories read like free verse poetry and seem so effortless. The beauty in his writing makes the difficult stories he tells all the more tragic and spellbinding. What’s so striking about these stories is that they showcase Yunior’s flaws and make us ache for him, despite the mistakes he makes. At so many points in the book, I kept wondering why I was rooting for Yunior, despite the ill-rooted mistakes he makes.

I realized that this book highlights something so important about human nature; despite it all, there is good.

Yunior has endured so much in his life and despite it all, he is trying to find the good. I think what is even more striking about this book is the way that Diaz weaves culture into every page; this speaks volumes to the way that culture is embedded in the lives we live. 

This isn’t an easy book to read. But I think that you’ll be surprised if you open up your heart to this book.

Diaz paints a world that is full of life. Culture and racism. Love and loss. Good and Bad. “This Is How You Lose Her’ has reminded me how human I am.