Boyfriend by Junot Diaz

The Rico Suave routine.

I don't know how he does it but Junot Diaz's writing is pure magic. His dazzling prose has a raw ferocity behind it that I find to be utterly captivating. It's raw and darkly humorous with a sharp witted eloquence that is distinctly Junot Diaz. Nobody writes like him. 

His stories usually focus on the Dominican American experience, racial identity and gender politics through a de-colonial lens. One way he does this is by utilizing Afro-Latino vernacular and spanglish as another form of dissident literary experession. It is important to note that it is almost always from a male perspective and in Boyfriend, the voyeuristic narrator becomes fixated on the Dominican couple living underneath him in the downstairs apartment. We are only provided his perspective on events as he chronicles their intense break-up through the thin walls. 

Junot Díaz’s story is a sharp, unfiltered look at "machismo" and its grip on Dominican masculinity, framed within a broader post-colonial context. His male characters, shaped by generational cycles of dominance and emotional detachment, uphold traditional gender roles with an almost suffocating inevitability. Women, on the other hand, are often trapped within these misogynistic dynamics. They are seen as objects of desire, sources of pain, or figures of quiet resilience.

Díaz’s prose is raw and unapologetic, mirroring the bravado of his male protagonists while exposing their deep-seated insecurities. The boyfriend character embodies the contradictions of machismo: outwardly confident yet emotionally stunted, craving control but unable to truly connect. His relationships are transactional, fueled by conquest rather than intimacy, reflecting a colonial legacy where power over land or people remains the ultimate currency.

What makes the story compelling is how Díaz refuses to romanticize this culture. Instead, he lays bare the toxic masculinity that permeates his characters’ lives, showing how it both empowers and cripples them. Women in the narrative push back in subtle yet powerful ways, challenging the rigid expectations placed upon them. The sad cycle of misogyny continues and the narrator will likely replicate the boyfriend's behavior in his mistreatment of women.

While the story delivers a searing critique of gender roles in a post-colonial world, it does so with Díaz’s signature blend of humor, grit, and vulnerability. It’s an unflinching and captivating read about Latino toxic masculinity.