Junot Díaz, My Girl in Amsterdam

(source: GK)
no copyright infringement intended

"She was from Amsterdam, a black Dominican mother, a white Dutch father, a luminous gale of a girl. I called her my chabine because that’s what she looked like, only her lips and her hair keeping her from passing completely, from pulling a Jean Toomer. And the ass she had—my fucking God—it was supersonic—which is to say she couldn’t walk past a group of straight men without pulling out the shingles or shattering the panes of their conversation."


It has been quite a time since I haven't read some from Junot Díaz anymore, and as I found today this tale of the girl from Amsterdam and their crazy love, I realized how much I was missing his style, his streetsmart tongue, so relaxed while so wonderfully controlled, the universe of his stories, apparently just chaotic while keeping inside a well constructed subtlety. It is the workshop of a wizard.

This story was published by him firstly in 2008, in the GK magazine, with the title "Summer, Love, Overheated". You can read it on his web site:

my girl in amsterdam

(Junot Díaz)