This Is How You Lose Her

By: Junot Díaz

Narrated by: Junot Díaz

Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Junot Díaz burst into the literary world with Drown, a collection of indelible stories that revealed a major new writer with the "eye of a journalist and the tongue of a poet" (Newsweek). His eagerly awaited first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, arrived like a thunderclap, topping best-of-the-year lists and winning a host of major awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. Now Díaz turns his prodigious talent to the haunting, impossible power of love.

The stories in This Is How You Lose Her, by turns hilarious and devastating, raucous and tender, lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weaknesses of our all-too-human hearts. They capture the heat of new passion, the recklessness with which we betray what we most treasure, and the torture we go through - "the begging, the crawling over glass, the crying" - to try to mend what we've broken beyond repair. They recall the echoes that intimacy leaves behind, even where we thought we did not care. They teach us the catechism of affections: that the faithlessness of the fathers is visited upon the children; that what we do unto our exes is inevitably done in turn unto us; and that loving thy neighbor as thyself is a commandment more safely honored on platonic than erotic terms. Most of all, these stories remind us that the habit of passion always triumphs over experience, and that "love, when it hits us for real, has a half-life of forever."

©2012 Junot Díaz (P)2012 Penguin Audiobooks

Good story.

Good story of life and loves. Well told. Middle of the book gets a little muddled but finishes strong. Relatable story of young loves gained and lost.

Love/Hate

This is my favorite author. Oscar Wao is my favorite book of all time. This is the first time I have listened to any of Diaz’s books rather than read them. I’m not sure what voice I had in my head when I read them myself, but it definitely wasn’t the one I heard listening to this. Diaz is a brilliant author, but should probably leave the narration to someone else. In my opinion his voice and narration style did not match Yunior’s character at all.
Despite that I love the story and I love his style of writing.

So great

One that I’ve listened to over and over. Great story teller. Harsh and descriptive language—FYI.

Wow. Moving. Thought-Provoking.

This is absolutely worth a listen. It is emotional, involving, and makes you think and feel. It’s about love and family, cheating and breakups, lying and communication, connection and loneliness. Man, it’s a journey, but it’s easy to listen to and goes by in a rush. I normally can’t stand when authors narrate (though this is quite hypocritical, since I narrated my book), but I feel that this book could only have been narrated by the author, who did a spectacular job.

JUNOT DIAZ NAILS IT... AGAIN!

Would you listen to This Is How You Lose Her again? Why?

YES!!!!!!! This audiobook experience comes together perfectly. The story is classic Junot Diaz with characters that are alive and kicking with non-negotiable street cred. You get front-row views into the comedy and pain of their situations, and location descriptions that make you feel like you're standing in the middle of the action.

Junot Diaz as a reader is surprisingly fantastic! He reads the stories at the right pace, injecting the spanish slang words with just the right emphases, and altogether convincingly brings to life the Yunior character.

The bachata music before the first story and in between the stories set the right mood for the poignant, heartbreaking stories, allowing them to flow into each other seamlessly.

EXCELLENTLY DONE!

What was one of the most memorable moments of This Is How You Lose Her?

A vicious description of one of Rafa's ex-girlfriends, Tammy Franco. She's a tertiary character and yet Junot is able to commit her to his readers' memory in a few words. He describes the abusive relationship that she has with Rafa as a "two-year-long public-service announcement", and even details how she gets physically exposed and publicly humiliated when Rafa drags her by the hair in a parking lot in a fit of temper. Yet she never actually stops loving him. Descriptions like these are testament to Junot's ability to create memorable characters, and his unflinching ability to present the EVIL in the characters that we LOVE and desperately want to root for, characters like the cancer-ailing Rafa. There are no monsters and there are no angels, even the "good" people are fundamentally flawed.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

In "Invierno", the story of a the child Yunior after first relocating to New Jersey from the Dominican republic-- there's a scene in which his mother tries to practice English with his father, and he shuts her down mercilessly with "You don't have to learn. Besides the average woman can't learn English." This unbearable disrespect and a lack of empathy towards his wife is especially heartbreaking because the people we love and depend on to help us the most are most times the ones who break us the most. They can and sometimes use the power we give them over us to keep us down and disillusion us. It is worse than anything an enemy can do to us.

Any additional comments?

Junot Diaz is one of the best writers of our time. I look forward to reading (and listening) to whatever he has next.

really great

Where does This Is How You Lose Her rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Hearing Junot read this is essential, i can't even imagine it any other way. His storytelling is superb and accessible, witty and full of heart and grief and real emotion.

Have you listened to any of Junot Díaz’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Junot 's reading matches the quaility of the prose. Direct and honest, with that touch of feeling that is so masculine and heart breaking.

Who was the most memorable character of This Is How You Lose Her and why?

Yunior

Junot Diaz is one of the best writers today

His stories are so beautifully written they make you ache. His characters are painfully flawed and real and vibrant and wonderful. This story, like everything I have read by him was masterful.

Listened to the whole thing....

in one sitting. It was a really interesting book and the narration was excellent! It felt just like I would imagine the voice of the main character. Even my boyfriend sat through most of it with me as he too got hooked as he passed me by. Love how I could relate so much to the Dominican culture embedded in the whole story as well as to loves lost.

Fantastic Stories - Loved Diaz's Performance

I loved The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao and was looking forward to hearing this collection of related stories. I was so happy with the results. The collection is beautifully written and a bitter sweet description of his character's loves (or rather failures of love) and lives. The real treat was Diaz's performance of his stories. His narration provided the amazing experience of hearing the author words as he meant them.

I'm also a Central New Jersey guy and know almost all of the places where the stories took place. That also made it great.

I cannot recommend this collection of stories more.

excellent listen

really enjoy listening to an author read his own words. and I loved the musical interludes