**** RECOMMEND ****
Shortlisted : National Book Award 2012
Shortlisted : National Book Award 2012
Honest and depressing
Love and Yunior are the interwoven threads
This was a wonderful compilation of short stories, where each one left you both satiated and tantalised, annoyed that it finished but a little richer for having read it.
Yunior and his family are US immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Yunior is a womanising louse. This gives the fabric of the collection for the threads to weave through, producing a rich tapestry of life. Yunior is so easy to dislike (as a womanising louse!) but at the same time so easy to understand and identify his stupidity with relationships. I loved the sly humour, the sense of place and poverty, the street cred language, the trials and tribulations of love of family, friends and girlfriends. There were long portions of Spanish simply inserted into the text and translation wasn't needed as the tone and emotional direction of the writing was so obvious. Clever writing, honest and depressing.
