Drown by Junet Diaz was rather hard for me to relate to since I’ve never really been in this type of situation. I have never really even been to another country for a visit. I found all of these stories to be somewhat similar in manner. With all of them written in first person, it was somewhat difficult to separate all of the different narrators from one short story to the next. The way this book is written, it almost seems like the stories are all about the author’s life. Not really knowing much about this author, just from reading this novel, I would say Diaz lived a very similar lifestyle.
The one thing I really didn’t like about Drown, was that it seemed like all the stories had about the same identity, or idea with it. All of the characters are immigrants. Most use or sell drugs. All of them have negligent or abusive fathers and they all seem to have come from Dominica. I think I would have liked the novel more if the stories all had very different backgrounds instead of all having a very similar one.
At the same time, with all of the stories having the same type of background and sad story to tell, by the last story, it was a little bit easier to try and fit into the story and understand where the narrator was coming from. This also works as evidence that this story maybe almost like a piece of the author’s identity and that these stories are actually true accounts from Diaz’s life.
Another thing that I really didn’t like about the stories was how the narrator often spoken in a “spanglish” type of dialect which made understanding parts of what he was saying difficult at times. I understand how using Spanish words helps bring out the identity in the character, but it also leaves readers wondering what the English translation for some of the objects and nouns he was referring to where. This was especially bothersome in the first and second stories in the book.
However, I did like the dialect used in boyfriend. At first, the dialect was somewhat comical to me, because it reminds me of people trying to be cool by using homie and homegirl. But after a couple of pages, I really got into this story and realized that this dialect is actually how the characters spoke and it wasn’t just being fake and goofy like the dialect might be used around here. The dialect in this story really helps to identity the characters and bring readers to the time and place of the story.