Junot Diaz has created quite a lot of buzz within my circle of friends, but I never got to read any of the recommendations that I had received from them. Now I know what the hype is all about. Finally a piece by a Dominican like myself —the use of language was enjoyable because it depicted our speech impeccably, so it was a breeze to read. Overall I found his writing to be enjoyable, it felt very conversational and realistic. My friends and I tend to speak in Spanglish from time to time and Diaz’ portrayed that perfectly—I think many bilinguals have this issue. The switch from English to subtle hints of Spanish made it feel as though a friend was re-telling a story to me. The story line was also one that reflected the lives of many Hispanic youths who live in an impoverished neighborhood—drug dealing, theft, military recruiters trying to get them to join the military, trespassing troublemakers, etc.

A portion of the reading that I particularly found interesting was the beginning. Junot undoubtedly knows how to keep his reader interested. He starts the piece with an instant hook:

“My mother tells me Beto’s home, waits for me to say something, but I keep watching the TV. Only when she’s in bed do I put on my jacket and swing through the neighborhood to see. He’s a pato now but two years ago we were friends and he would walk into the apartment without knocking, his heavy voice rousing my mother from the Spanish of her room and drawing me up from the basement, a voice that crackled and made you think of uncles or grandfathers.”

After reading the boldfaced text, I instantly questioned why Yunior stopped being Beto’s friend, and I somewhat knew that this was a foreshadowing to a story that would be told later in the text. Yunior’s quick introduction of Beto a pato was interesting to me and hilarious to say the least. Then later in the text we see that Beto somewhat took advantage of Yunior during a session of porn watching, but was it really taking advantage of him since Yunior’s reaction wasn’t one that you’d expect from someone who would be resisting?

My interpretation of this text is that it’s a story of a troubled kid, one who is drowning in poverty, confusion and disbelief. Yunior retells his friendship with Beto vividly and somehow seems like they were great memories of his. My personal opinion is that Yunior in fact felt something for Beto, but because it was probably looked at as “wrong”, he decided to distance himself from him in order to avoid disappointment or disapproval from his family. Yunior’s character is one who is afraid of change and it is evident within the text.