Vulgar. Brilliant. Misogynistic. Beautiful. Heartbreaking. These are all words that people have used to describe Junot Díaz’s writing. Díaz’s most recent book, a collection of short stories about lost love titled This Is How You Lose Her is narrated by Yunior, a muscle bound closet-nerd with Dominican swagger that has an extremely difficult time being faithful.
The language and rawness of the book as a whole is characteristic of Díaz’s work and it is easy to become offended. He isn’t afraid to mention sex or violence with jarringly clear descriptions that can shock the reader at first.
“People have sex,” Díaz said. “It’s a normative process. If a writer can’t talk about sex how is she going to talk about more difficult subjects like racism, rape, genocide?”
Díaz’s brings his characters to life with vivid imagery, and though it’s rough, Díaz doesn’t hold back. He said his style shows the vulnerability of human beings.
Díaz says he was influenced by his “Dominican-ness” while growing up in New Jersey.
“My New Jerseyness in the Dominican Republic,” Díaz said. “My experience being the son of a very brutal machista father. My fascination with love, both as a narrative and an experience, what love might mean and what it might cost us.”
Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and came to live in New Jersey at when he was 6 years old and encountered the process that several young immigrants undergo. There is eventually assimilation to some extent, but never a sense of truly belonging. This is even reflected in his novels’ formats, which never show italics when presenting Spanish words.
“Because there are no italics in my head,” Díaz said. “These words all belong to me; they are not foreign to me so why should I italicize any of them?”
Following his own vision is what has led to his success and he encourages others to do the same.
“Read a whole lot. Take time off between college and grad school. And try not to write because you want money or fame. That lust for approval is only going to mess you up and make it hard on you to be happy. But what the hell do I know?”
Díaz’s students and the literary community would answer that he knows much more than he gives himself credit for and that this view of writing has led to his unique writing style. Critics have also begun to take notice of this unique style and Díaz was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for The Brief & Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2007 along with several other literary awards. This is How You Lose Her is currently a National Book award finalist for the year 2012. Díaz was also awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship which awarded him $500,000 this year.
Aside from writing, he is also a literature professor at MIT. Díaz is also active in the Dominican community and has actively criticized the United States’ immigration policy. Right now he’s working on his first science fiction novel, which he said is a shift in genre.
“I’ve always loved science fiction and especially apocalyptic stories. I guess growing up in the shadow of nuclear war during the 80s will do that to you. As an artist you have to change up or you’ll stagnate so this is my attempt to try something radically different.”
What’s to come will certainly be a change in pace to readers that are accustomed to his extremely realistic narratives but regardless of what genre he picks his writing has an undeniable Dominican flavor and a universality that exposes the ugly and admirable traits within human beings.
