This Is How You Lose Her

To get this out of the way: The thematic variety of the stories in this collection is not too broad. Mostly Dominican men disappoint the women who fall for them. However Díaz turns himself into these men's mouthpiece. Sure, you still want to scream at the women in his stories: "Don't let that guy into your heart, in the end it won't have been worth it" - still Díaz lets us see behind those scoundrels' façades. It is not that the men he creates are just mean for the sake of it or because they do not care for the women in their lives. Nor are they misunderstood heroes. No, they are simply guys who value charme more than reliability. In 2018 I attended a reading session of Díaz, who also talked about what he thought was the main cause for his characters' behavior, namely the situation of Dominican immigrants, who are faced with the collision of cultures and languages and in the process lose their footing, so their only sensible response is to try to float through life being as charming as possible. This explains Díaz's empathy when writing these characters, and it also allows the reader to have a better understanding of them. It is not, however, a nice book for some lovely recreation.