5. Drown by Junot Diaz

I always know that I really enjoyed a book when it makes me want to write a novel myself (that will probably never happen, unless I make it next year's resolution?). Anyway, that's the way Junot Diaz's books (this one and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which I could not recommend enough) make me feel--like if I could write a book that was even 1/10th as great as either of his, I'd be happy. This, like many of my other dreams, will probably never happen (these dreams include hosting SNL, being on an episode of Sesame Street, and recording a hit single with Ben Folds). But let me get back to the topic at hand--the overpowering brilliance of Junot Diaz.

Diaz has an amazing power to weave that which I don't know--what it's like to live in the DR, what it's like to be a Dominican immigrant in the tristate area--with what I do--what it's like to have annoying brothers, to feel the weird pressures of love, to feel indebted to the experiences of your relatives before you.

Drown is encompassing. It's a short story collection, not a novel, but the stories focus essentially on one main character. It's sad, but not in the boring, dragging way that Freedom was. I could not read it fast enough. Diaz is just brilliant.

Diaz's books remind me of In the Heights, the Broadway musical about the Hispanic community in Washington Heights written by the effervescent Lin Manuel Miranda. In the Heights is definitely less depressing, but is also about the "ambivalent promise of the American dream" (as the San Francisco Chronicle is quoted on the copy of Drown I borrowed from the lovely Medha). Both Diaz and Miranda tell stories that ought to be told, the stories of new immigrants that the mainstream consciousness often ignores, and both tell these stories splendidly (now that I think on it, the importance of storytelling is a major theme in both Heights and Diaz's works).

That's all I really have to say. This book is marvelous, but I'm definitely not the first person to say that, nor will I be the last. It's more depressing than TBWLoOW, and less uplifting, and I think that novel was more refined and focused than this collection. But this book was just raw and powerful. No garbage, no sugar-coating, but it was not exploitatively depressing. Just honest, and honestly beautiful.

In my English class sophomore year of high school (one of the best English classes I ever had, for a whole bunch of reasons that need not be elaborated on right now), someone asked my teacher why we always read depressing books. My teacher said that one of his college professors had hold them something like "Great literature comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comforted." Diaz creates great literature.

Next up: Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shytengart, which I'm reading for a book club (friends + books = awesome). I'm still looking for a new good love story, and this book's title is at least promising something love-related. If this doesn't work out, I want something sappily romantic for Singles Awareness Day (I can't believe I just used that term, a term that apparently has a Wikipedia page).

Also, give me your book suggestions, s'il vous plait. Merci!