Just More Spanish Machismo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               I did not know, when I picked this book up, that it was a short story collection.  They do not especially thrill me, because, with few exceptions, like Shirley Jackson, Truman Capote, or Carson McCullers, who can be counted among such talent today???????

                                                 Not Junot Diaz.  Now, I admit I loved his novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao."  And I think he does paint better on a larger canvass.  Because the stories assembled here, while fascinating, especially to me, born in Jersey, and knowing a lot of the locales, and possessing a certain literary skill that made me want to continue, amount to the same sort of Spanish machismo in each story.  I am certainly not accusing Mr. Diaz of not being culturally truthful, but a whole story collection of it was just too much. Variations on the same theme--over and over.  A literary "Groundhog Day."  It was all mildly entertaining, and readable enough, but, once finished, I could care less.

                                                 The problem is not Diaz as a writer.  The problem is the short story. It really is the most difficult literary medium to master it, and this author does better with the novel form.  I look forward to his next endeavor there!

                                                    Save yourselves the trouble of reading this one, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!