Junot Diaz's selection of short stories are extraordinarily written. The book is called Drown . In these short stories, the people face immigration and social issues. They are poor and face very difficult problems, especially teenagers. He puts these issues in a real way. In a way that most people are facing today. He chooses his words with freedom. He doesn't care if he says profanity. That and the real experiences of everyday life makes this book so interesting. His freedom approach makes the reader engage their attention in the book. The book lived up to my expectations and probably the expectations of other readers. The author is of Dominican background. He uses his own culture to make these stories. The ten stories in Drown probably bring out the difficult youth of Diaz in the Dominican Republic and New Jersey. Diaz writes about the life among immigrants from the Dominican Republic. In "Fiesta, 1980", the infidelity issue comes up. The boy Rafa expresses anger towards his father. "This was how I always figured Papi would be exposed, out in public, where everybody would know. You're a cheater!" The boy consumes himself because he doesn't want his mother to know that his father is seeing a Puerto Rican woman. Diaz's stories bring out the feelings and emotions that teens face now and days. He writes honestly. You have to be careful when you write honestly. You don't have to avoid bad language but you have to be aware of how the language is going to affect the reader. It could either turn them off or interest them more. These tales take jumps from scene to scene, a problem to another. The first scene is in the Dominican Republic. Rafa and his brother have a violent relationship. "If I was stupid enough to mouth off to him... he pounded the hell out of me and then I would run as far as I could." Yet the older brother teaches the younger brother about his sexual experiences, without holding back anything. In every story a family goes through something different. Whether it may be from infidelity to a girlfriend who does drugs or going through a bad relationship with a father. He tells these stories so well that it brings you in until you have finished the book. If adults read this book they'll understand it. Teenagers could probably relate to most of these stories. On the other hand, preteens should not read this book because they won't understand the context or the vocabulary. It will also teach preteens too much about sexual things. People who don't understand Spanish wont understand the words either because some of the words are in Spanish. The points and themes of the book were very clear. There were surprises in all stories. I didn't learn anything but another reader might learn a lot from reading this book. One thing I can say is that this book was written by an excellent author.