by Junot Diaz
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Click here to read the Penguin Reading Guide to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
I liked the book a lot. I haven’t quite sorted it all out yet, but what I liked was the next generation characters and their sheer assertion of self, in contrast to La Inca and the father Abelard.
OK, the self-assertion was variously brutal, self-destructive, messy, and tragic, but it was — and I know this is not a word we’re supposed to use too often — poignant.
I liked the voice of Junior (Yunior) — the way a dude such as he got hooked by someone as improbable as Oscar and just couldn’t quite let him go in his mind.
And Trujillo–I’ m glad he didn’t get to die peacefully in his bed like Pol Pot!!
Here you find annotations for the book:
http://www.annotated-oscar-wao.com/