Junot Díaz

“In Junot Díaz: On the Half-Life of Love, critic José David Saldívar argues with stunning acuity why Díaz’s oeuvre is essential in understanding how colonial histories are palimpsestic in nature, inescapable and violent, intimate and communal. Díaz’s fiction may represent one artist’s fierce intelligence and profound storytelling talents, but it is Saldívar whose richly textured analysis and readings prove that great fiction shines a light on devastating distortions of truth.” - Helena María Viramontes, author of Their Dogs Came with Them

“Wise, and wide ranging, José David Saldívar allows us to explore the contradictions and gifts of a major writer with grace and candor. He places Díaz’s life and fiction against the ‘historical traumas passed like cursed heirlooms among our aggrieved communities’ and shows us ‘the everpressing need for decolonial love.’ And, as always, Saldívar remains attuned to the immigrant and diasporic sensibilities of our Americas.” - Glenda Carpio, Professor of English and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

"This is an engaging, important contribution to understanding of Junot Díaz’s work and life. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." - A. A. Edwards, Choice

"Junot Díaz is a good introduction to the Diaz oeuvre, while at the same time, a must-read for an intermediate reader of Junot Díaz’s work." - Gustavo Gutierrez Hernandez, Kritikon Litterarum

"Junot Díaz: On the Half-Life of Love offers a compelling critical examination of Díaz’s fiction and his distinctive place in the development of Latinx literature in the United States. It represents an indispensable and insightful guide to the emergence of Díaz’s decolonial aesthetic for scholars and students interested in the study of contemporary Latinx fiction. Saldívar’s absorbing and thorough interpretation of Díaz’s fiction and literary career demonstrates that Díaz’s work matters, perhaps more than ever, as the legacy of colonialism and other systems of control continue to influence the trajectories and fiction of Latinx authors." - Jose O. Fernandez, New West Indian Guide