A 'How To' book full of stories on how to lose a woman. Usually it is a significant other. Usually it is through bad behavior. No one needs to read about how to do that. It is obvious. It is inevitable. Diaz somehow has a better way to say it, a better way to show that in fact you have some control over how you respond to the world around you. The world responding to you is something you cannot control. And if you are Hispanic, in Diaz' stories (I think these reactions and attributes cross all cultural lines and are universal--which is the appeal of the book--but his stories are largely about Dominicans and they are all about Latinos), it might not be the response that you were hoping for. But it is a two way street, and how you respond, well, that is in your control. However, not everyone can let things slide off of them, and that affects their relationships, their families, their neighbors, and their co-workers. The last story in the book seems almost autobiographical. Maybe he lives these lives, maybe he knows people who do, maybe he has a great ear for pendejos y sucias. No se. Tal vez es verdad por todo el mundo.
But there is something softer about the world view in this book as compared to his last one ("The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao"). He still has the smart snappy lines, the edge of bitterness that comes close to but just avoids being irksome. He is not quite the Sherman Alexie of the immigrant Hispanic, but he is young still, he has time to develop into that kind of funny, honest, difficult to look in the eye but you know he is telling the truth kind of writer. I am not a lover of short stories, but these are more like linked tales, different people in different situations that have a common theme. Very much worth your while to read.
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