This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Title: This is How You Lose Her

Author: Junot Diaz
Read by: Junot Diaz
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Length: Approximately 5 hours (5 CDs)
Source: Penguin Audio Review Copy

This is How you Lose Her is the first book I’ve read (or listened to) by Junot Diaz, but it will not be my last. This is How you Lose her was a brilliant series of short stories, mostly involving Yunior and his ill-fated love life.

If I would have read this book before I was married, I might have given up in despair. Most of the reason Yunior loses his loves is because he is a very unfaithful man and his girlfriends invariably find out. What brings this beyond a sad tale of a sad man that can’t keep it in his pants is the background story of Yunior. It was interesting how he came to America as a youngster and lived in the shadow of his older brother. As he older brother wasted away from cancer, Yunior tried to find meaning in life and love. By the end, Yunior has come a long way from his youth as an immigrant, but he still has not found the true meaning of love. One quote I loved from the book is “the half-life of love is forever.”

Overall, I enjoyed the story of Yunior. While he was not always a character I could relate to or even like, he had a compelling story full of vivid details of life as a Dominican immigrant. I was fascinated. Author Junot Diaz read the story himself and I now identify his voice completely as Yunior.