This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Book Description:

On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”

 Christina's BookReview

“Then you look at her and smile a smile your dissembling face will remember until the day you die. Baby, you say, baby, this is part of my novel.

This is how you lose her.”

RECAP:

Coming to the US from the Dominican Republic Yunior recounts his transition in the states and the heartbreaks that follow him as we grows up. He will share with us the loves and loses of Alma, Miss Lora, Magdelena, Nilda and others that impacted his life one way or another.  Through his recklessness Yunior shares with us the lessons he learns and lays bear the real facts about "losing someone you lose because of your recklessness". 

MY TAKE:

Okay so I had to read this as a book club read at work and have to say that because of the synopsis I was kind of looking forward to it. When I finally got to read it I could not put the book down. 

We start off the book with Yunior's relationship with Magdelena. Yunior lets the readers know right away that Magdelena believes that all Dominican men are cheaters. That one sentence sets the stage for the entire book. Yunior flashes from past to present and introduces us to the women in his life and his infidelity. And although I wanted to dislike Yunior and smack him upside his head it was hard. There were times where i felt bad for him and his suffering. When you shouldn't. He is a cheat and the cycle continues throughout the book. The last story in this book shows us that even though he is the way he is there is one women that he loved but betrayed as well. The women's name is never mentioned but you see the impact that she had in his life.

We also learn about his family life and you quickly see that Yunior hasn't had the best influences in life. With a father that is strict and detached, a brother who runs through women and mistreats him, and a mother who stays quiet, Yunior doesn't know anything else while growing up. 

I will not get into the stereotyping in this book because it would not suede you one way or the other. I will say that I have grown up around Dominican's so reading this book I was just laughing at the truth in most things and the language that was used.

I liked the book. I liked the realism behind it and you could actually hear the authors voice in it. Throughout the  book I felt like I was reading someones real life story. And that in itself makes this book wonderful. 

If you want romance this probably isn't your book. But if you want to read about the relationships you will like it.

I say BUY or BORROW it. READ it. ENJOY it.

HAPPY READING!

ROOM by Emma Donoghue

Book Description:

In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue's Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances. A stunning and original novel of survival in captivity, readers who enter Room will leave staggered, as though, like Jack, they are seeing the world for the very first time.

Christina's BookReview

“Stories are a different kind of true.”

RECAP:

Five year old Jack and his Ma have spent the last five years living in ROOM. Jack doesn't know anything other then what his Ma has taught him and what he has learn from TV. To Jack ROOM is the world and there is no OUTSIDE. He spend his days doing different things with Ma and then hides in WARDROBE when Old Nick comes to visit. Old Nick is not very nice but Jack has to be quiet and hide from him.

When Ma makes the choice of finally revealing to Jack that the world is bigger then just ROOM life as Jack knows it changes forever. Ma is shutting down and Old Nick is terrible. Jack must save Ma and she has a plan. Although he is scared he will do it for Ma.

Will Jack and Ma finally be able to get out of ROOM? Or will Jack refuse to leave?

MY TAKE:

This book was written as if being told by Jack so you spend the whole time in his head. And although it was a good concept I found it a little disconcerting when at points he sounded like a five year old and others he sounded like an adult.

Through Jack you learn about the life he and his mother have been living and everything after their escape. It is truly a very sad one and although he doesn't know what's happening you do and automatically feel sorry for the life he's had to be brought up in. The journey Jack takes when he finally is able to see the OUTSIDE is one that you comprehend and expect. Taking a person from the surroundings they were born and raised in and putting them in today's society can be disconcerting to anyone but more for a child. Seeing him adjust to the new people in his life and new environment is amazing.

Throughout the book I found myself wondering what made the author write this book in Jacks perspective and realized that in every book you read you only get the adult perspective. Never the child's perspective and it's what made the book so unique.

I did like the book and the concept of the child’s perspective but I couldn’t get my head wrapped around the writing and behavior of the child and at times the mother. I understand that in order to be able to understand the behavior you would need to know about their sufferings but that’s the case with every book. In this book you just don’t feel the connection just the sympathy of their situation. The mother is at times very rude and selfish when she is trying to be helped and the boy is rude and gets away with it. Even in their situation, a little bit of discipline wouldn’t have been bad.

All in all an Okay read. I would recommend it because it is a different perspective of a crime that is still sadly committed in today's society.