This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz - Book Review

This Is How You Lose Her is a 2013 novel by an internationally bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz. The author has won these accolades and awards for books like Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The intriguingly titled book features stories about characters from these books. Read our review of the book below.

The Story

This book is a collection of short stories about twisted relationships. The general theme of all the stories, some of them connected, is misogyny. Many of the characters, men, from the stories, express strong negative views on women. And these might make women readers quite uncomfortable and challenging to go through the stories with a full heart.

The book is actually about a guy who loses the woman he loves because he cheats on her. Most of the male characters in the book are facing issues with their infidelity. On the surface, this book might seem like a criticizing point of view of women by men.

But if you look at it closely, it explores how the characters are wrong and how they have realized how mistaken they were to think and behave in such a manner towards women. This thought may not be put up firmly, but it is the underlying emotion as the characters start to think differently as the story progresses.

The Writing

The writing style of Junot Diaz doesn’t disappoint. It’s clear, direct and conversational. But the odd thing in the entire book is there are no quotation marks to indicate someone is speaking. That didn’t come in the way of the reading, but we found it weird. Also, his writing has a mix of English and Spanish, where the meanings of the Spanish words are not explained. So you might feel a little lost while reading the stories.

Verdict

This book is an interesting read, we rate it 3/5 stars. It is for anyone who likes reading about complicated and flawed characters. This is How You Lose Her is also recommended for writers as it mentions some interesting tips on writing through the protagonist’s academic journey as a writer.

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This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz