This Is How You Lose Her collects linked stories about Yunior, love, infidelity, masculinity, and Dominican American identity.

Junot Diaz moves through failed relationships, family history, migration, illness, and the habits that make intimacy difficult. The focus stays on This Is How You Lose Her Book's own material, so the description explains what the reader actually meets on the page.

The book is sharp because Yunior understands his damage only slowly, often after the women in his life have already left. That gives the reader a clearer sense of the subject, structure, and practical or imaginative value of the book.