Junot Diaz and Lorrie Moore: Voice

The two stories "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)” by Junot Diaz, and “How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes)” by Lorrie Moore both were written from the narrator talking to the narrator. While reading these stories, I got the sense as if the author was writing to themselves from the future.

The first story "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)” is pretty much about what the title describes, how to effectively go about setting up a date with a girl of a certain race. This story goes through different circumstances on the date from who will drop her off, what to do if she is late, and if she will put out at the end of the date and how to deal with these circumstances based on their ethnicity.

The way the other is speaking is as if it is from experience, as if he has done this before and know what is to come. This is why I believe he is writing to himself. Also, the author’s voice has got some slang to it. This gives the reader an idea of where the narrator is from by giving his voice some personality. For example, he uses some Spanish slang as well as improper English such as “ain’t”.

In the second story “How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes)” is written out year by year, but backwards. This made it interesting yet confusing because as the reader you know what is happening but not what happened, that is until you read what happened… if that makes sense. This story was intriguing due to that style of writing. This story was also written in a way as if the author was writing from her own experience. She was almost telling herself what she did during those years, what happened, and how it affects her.

The story was extremely sad. It mentioned the death of her father and mother as well as her going through three abortions. You can tell by her tone of voice she gets more and more sad during the years not knowing why her life is turning out the way it is. She sleeps with random men, cuts all of her hair off “short as a boy”, and watches her mom suffer being sick and has to take care of her. This story does not mention many positive things that happened throughout the years.

These stories definitely connected when it comes to the author’s voices. They both spoke from a place of experience and from a place of knowing what to do next and what was going to happen. I enjoyed this style of writing especially with the way Moore added in the backtracking aspect. As the reader you had to really pay attention and put the pieces together throughout the reading.