The Cheater's Guide to Love: Faber Stories by Junot Díaz

You try every trick in the book to keep her. You write her letters. You drive her to work. You quote Neruda ... You try it all, but one day she will simply sit up in bed and say, No more.

In Yunior, a Dominican-American writer and Harvard professor, Junot Diaz has created an irresistibly erratic protagonist, who sweeps you up in the poetic energy of his speech as he rehearses a broad repertoire of bad behavior.

Originally the climactic tale in the chain-linked This is How You Lose Her, 'The Cheater's Guide to Love' is a superb standalone song of decadence and experience.