Written by Junot Diaz
Overall grade: F-
Yes there are plot spoilers and you can thank me for saving you from this book later.
What can I say about this book? I hated it. Ha. I can count on one hand how many books I’ve said that about and this is on that hand. I will admit that I did not read the whole thing and only for one reason. It wasn’t a novel. It was a collection of short stories. I read the 1st and 2nd stories and was completely abhorred at what I read. I'm serious, it was truly horrifying. I read the first one,"Ysrael" and didn’t like it but decided to give the author another chance because not all short stories are alike and maybe the first one was his ‘edgy’ one. Well I read the second one, "Fiesta,1980" and decided then that the rest of the book wasn’t worth reading. I was offended and I think a great deal more people should be offended as well. I will tell you why.
First off the book was written by a Latino man, is that the politically correct way of putting it now? I don’t know where he’s from and after reading that garbage I don’t really care. Anyway so the author is of Hispanic descent ok. Both stories I read were so derogatory in the depiction of Hispanic men and women it was nauseating. First off both the father’s were the two worst kinds of fathers. In "Ysrael" the dad was not there, he was off working in “North America”. I don’t remember if he ever said the United States, but I think he kind of left it open like the dad could’ve been working in Canada as well. Anyway, in the second story the father was abusive, both verbally and mentally, and he was cheating on his wife. Not only was he cheating on his wife but he took his 2 sons with him to his mistress's house while they went off and fornicated upstairs. Gross. And if you want to play the devil's advocate and say "well all Hispanic men are like that, it's just being realistic", well that's just sick and I think all Hispanic men should be offended. I'm offended for them!
Now let me get to the women. They were either too busy and tired from working that they didn’t have time for their children, which I can see being a real problem when they make so little money in Mexico. But to me the second mother was the more offending. She is the typical doormat. Her husband cheats on her, he’s overly aggressive and abusive with her kids and her and she says nothing. Ugh. Where are the feminists screaming against this garbage? It really irritated me. I can’t express to you how much this attitude in women bothers me.
Anyway, the stories were just filthy too. There was quite a bit of cussing and multicultural cussing at that. And the words in Spanish were more foul than the English, probably because he knew the gringos wouldn't understand it. Well I did. Not to mention the fact that the "children" in this book were discussing completely inappropriate things. Granted the older brother in "Ysrael" is like 15 but all he talks about is trying to have sex with the girls in the village and how some girls will "let you stick it in their mouths or their butts". I mean seriously, is that really necessary?
Finally for the main reason I hate this book. I read 2 stories and no one learned anything, ever. What is the point of literature? To educate? To enlighten? The main character never learned anything or grew at all during the short stories. Nor did the audience learn an insight or get left with a question that challenged any of their preconceived notions. It was like "There was a rabbit. It pooped on the ground. A coyote ate it." Except it was dumber than that. Seriously. Ugh I'm getting mad all over again talking about it so I'm just going to stop now. If you liked these books message me. I'd love to hear someone's defense of these stories.
"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." - James Bryce
