Ten intensely personal vignettes of life for a young male Dominican immigrant living in the New York/New Jersey area in the 1980s and 90s. That soul-sucking urban poverty in both the DR and the US is the background for every story, along with dysfunctional families--functioning in the ways they know how--girlfriends, aunts, uncles, distant moms, disappointing dads--living their everyday lives and told in the disconnected voice of a young male relating everyday struggles and humiliations as if he were not a part of them. Some loom large---Your dad brings you and your brother to his mistresses house where he, apparently, has another family. His mistress is nice to you, the house is nicer than the one you live in with your mother, and they leave you in the living room to watch TV while they go into the bedroom. On the way home, back to your mother, your dad doesn't talk about this.... Others are much more subtle---hide the government cheese and the picture of yourself with an afro before a new girlfriend comes over...
I loved this book and read through it twice. Diaz creates sympathy for often-unsympathetic characters and sucks us into the lives of his characters with subtlety and lightness of touch. Lots to talk and think and write about here. Older teens and adults will eat this up. Highly recommended.
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