Muy Bien, Señor Diaz.

Junot Diaz, in a picture not taken by me.

Though I do have a picture of him, becuase I met him. In fact, we had dinner a few weeks ago. Or I should say, my book club did. Right before he was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Dang.

He's also written a collection of short stories, Drown, which I've not yet read but has been highly praised by my colleagues. One thing that was great about Mr. Diaz and our discussion time was how he was willing to talk about his book and reveal some of his thoughts on the craft and interpretation of it. He was eager to talk about the "layers." We discussed themes and the footnotes and how they are almost a story unto themselves.

One theme that came up was the "deconstruction and reconstruction" that takes place in the story. Examples were cited. Connections made. And then I managed to stumble onto something that made me feel very good. I asked if the character of Isis who appears at the end of the novel, was named, in fact, for the Egyptian goddess known for searching the world and collecting the pieces of her brother/lover Osiris and putting him back together. I figured that idea might fit in with his theme. Junot responded with genuine delight and exclaimed, "You are the first person to pick up on that!" Well, how about that? Teaching Senior Literature pays off. Truth be told, I love Isis and I've included her in a poem of my own, an allusion to the very same trait.

--Kate, who does enjoy good literature. This book was good--wish I spoke more Spanish.