This Is How You Lose Her is a collection of short stories by Junot Diaz. Although each story can stand alone, each is linked by the common narrator, Yunior. The running theme is male infidelity. (These men can’t keep it in their pants.) Cultural machismo is definitely at play here but throughout I wanted Yunior to do better. Women were nothing but objects for most of the book. In the end I think Yunior was beginning to see them as something more. Regardless, he got little sympathy from me on this front. As a character he was both endearing and rage inducing.

Diaz’s unapologetic use of Spanish throughout his prose was refreshing. I especially liked the fact that there is no coddling of the reader. No explanations or definitions are given. You either know it or you look it up. I really liked that. As a reader, I appreciate feeling like the author respects my intelligence. His style of writing has me looking forward to reading more of his works.