Still, I keep coming back to the relative impunity with which the men in This Is How You Lose Her get to behave badly, and to the tone of the critical reception to these stories, which are not only stories but confessions, lamentations of misdeeds. We have all been influenced by a culture where women are considered inferior to men, and I would have loved to see what a writer of Díaz's caliber might do if he allowed his character to step out of the constraints of the environment he grew up in, one to which readers are all subjected. In
Roxane Gay reflects on the stories in "This Is How You Lose Her," highlighting the troubling ease with which male characters misbehave without facing consequences. She notes the cultural backdrop that perpetuates the idea of women's inferiority and critiques the mixed responses to the male characters' actions. Gay wishes to see a divergence from the entrenched societal norms in the narrative, particularly imagining what a writer like Junot Díaz could craft...
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
