Customer Reviews

Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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2 star:		(47)
1 star:		(64)

 

 

"You really want to know what being an X-Man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto. Mamma mia! Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest."

Meet Oscar de León. Once upon a time, in elementary school, Oscar was a slick Dominican kid who seemed to have a typical life ahead of him. Then, around the time he hit puberty, Oscar gained a whole lot of weight, became awkward both physically and socially, and got deeply interested in things that made him an outcast among his peers (sci-fi novels, comics, Dungeons & Dragons, writing novels, etc.). A particularly unfortunate Dr. Who Halloween costume earns him the nickname Oscar Wao for the costume's resemblance to another Oscar: playwright Oscar Wilde (Wao being a Dominican spin on the surname). His few friends are embarrassed by him, girls want nothing to do with him, and everywhere he goes Oscar finds nothing but derision and hostility. And he's not the only person in his family suffering through life: his mother, a former beauty, has been ravaged by illness, bad love affairs, and worry regarding her two children; and his sister Lola, another intense beauty, has been cursed with a nomadic soul and her mother's poor taste in men.

The kicker about the de León family? They just may be the victims of a bona fide curse (a particularly nasty one at that, called a fukú) as a result of their history with Rafael Trujillo, a former dictator of the Dominican Republic renowned for his brutality, and whose enemies uniformly met with disastrous ends one way or another (historical details about Trujillo and the history of his reign are scattered throughout the novel, a tidbit that may turn some off of the book, but rest assured that Díaz is so utterly entertaining a writer that they are a joy to read). The de Leóns are on a collision course with disaster, but can they break the curse before it's too late?

"you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in."

Embroiled in all this mess is Yunior, our primary narrator and Oscar's former college roommate (not to mention the philandering ex-boyfriend of Lola, the novel's other narrator), whose experiences with the de León clan will haunt him for the rest of his life. His attempts to help Oscar become more popular fail, as do his tries to escape Oscar's grasp. "These days," he remarks at one point, "I have to ask myself: What made me angrier? That Oscar, the fat loser, quit, or that Oscar, the fat loser, defied me? And I wonder: What hurt him more? That I was never really his friend, or that I pretended to be?"

Oscar is far and away the most poignant character to come along in a great long while; in my book he's every bit as memorable as Ignatius J. Reilly, Holden Caulfield, Randall Patrick McMurphy, and other literary giants. Furthermore, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is a phenomenal novel that is hysterical, hypnotic, heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal parts (and quite often at the same time). The plot is a madcap high-wire act balanced with astonishing dexterity by Junot Díaz. If he has a misstep it is in the denouement, which is rather sudden and slightly lacking in clarity for an otherwise thorough novel. Nonetheless, I loved, loved, loved this book. And, naturally, I highly recommend it.

Grade: A

The story opens by exploring the life of a Oscar, a promising young Dominican child growing up in New Jersey who morphs into an overweight, unpopular way-out-there nerd who is desperate to lose his virginity. The story goes on to explore the lives of Oscar, Oscar's mother (orphaned, faced class & race discrimination, unrequited love, assault), sister (angst to leave Mother's persistent negativism and see the world) and Mother's family (persecuted by Dictator). The first half of the book was challenging to read as the author uses footnotes and many Spanish language phrases that are not translated (and frustratingly so...and perhaps herein lies the not-so subliminal message to me that I need to learn Spanish). These language challenges, coupled with the weaving back and forth from the present to the past and between multiple characters made the storyline challenging to follow and impacted my enjoyment of the story. That being said, I appreciated author's integration of the political, social and economic history of the Dominican Republic and how the environment shaped many of the lives of the generations who migrated to the U.S. Hang in there as the book warms up at p. 150 and beyond where the main characters develop very nicely.

Dude can write. In fact, this book is one of the most original that I've come across in a long time.

Like the layers of an onion, Diaz peels back the layers of years to reveal the back history of Oscar and his sister Lola. And what a history it is! The Banana Curtain is unveiled and the horrors of Trujillo -- the raging narcissist and despoiler of women -- are unflinchingly revealed, creating shudders of revulsion and flashes of understanding in this reader.

Junot Diaz creates a language and a tempo unlike any I've read before, peppered with Spanish colloquialisms, street talk, and video game terminology. Somehow, though, it works -- and works beautifully -- even if you don't know an "hola" from an "adios" or have never played a video game in your life (like this reader.)

I will not soon forget Oscar Wao, the 300+ pound romantic, Lola, Yunior, or his mother and the Gangster and his ill-fated grandparents. The book is compulsively readable. For all of those who say that "the novel is dead", I say: read Junot Diaz.

I actually bought this book before it won the Pulitzer but just now got around to reading it. It's not horrible, but I did not compelling, either. It's just sort of "there". I would read during lunch, or before bedtime, and could have shelved it or taken it to the used bookstore at any point. The only reason I finished reading this book is because I started reading it in the first place.
Numerous people have commented about the use of Spanish, Spanglish, hip-hop, or street language in the book. Admittedly, I probably missed some nuances because I didn't take the time to translate every non-English phrase. But, again, it wasn't compelling enough to me to make the effort. Which begat which, apathy or disinterest?
I also didn't find the "multiperspectival view" as compelling as did Publisher's Weekly. To me, it fragmented the story's flow, although provided some interesting background info. As some have mentioned, one is left to wonder, is this a story about its titular character, or his sister, or his mother, or a sadistic Dominican dictator, or his grandmother, or......
The writing is edgy, witty, sometimes funny, and, Diaz can certainly take an interesting turn with a sentence or phrase, but for me the style could not overcome the substance. It's as if this book is avant jazz being played at the Nebraska State Fair (no offense intended to any Nebrakans out there). Maybe it's great & I simply lack the degree in literary criticism that would allow me to enjoy it, but give me Cormac McCarthy any day instead.
A more accurate title would be "The Brief Somewhat Interesting but Certainly not Wondrous Life of a Fat Nerd and his Entire Family Tree, Plus a History of the Dominican Republic." So, if you're into that, dig it.

I loved Diaz's short story collection Drown, and like almost everyone else who read it, have been eagerly waiting years for his next book. Now, something like a decade later, Diaz brings a character from that collection (Yunior) back to narrate the family history of his Rutgers roommate Oscar (who is also the brother of Yunior's sometime girlfriend). This tale begins with Oscar's grandfather and ends up encompassing quite a bit of the modern history of the Dominican Republic. And although the story hopscotches back and forth in time and location quite a bit, Diaz has complete command of his narrative.

To be fair, sometimes the story feels more like "A People's History of the Dominican Republic." than a novel about a geeky kid from New Jersey. Not that this is a bad thing -- Diaz manages to get at the political, economic, and psychological forces that brought so many Dominican immigrants to the U.S . over the last fifty years via captivating and dextrous prose. The dominant theme of this multigenerational story is the "fuku" (curse) Oscar's family lives under. (Of course, as Yunior points out, every Dominican family believes itself to be cursed by the fuku americanus, a curse brought by European colonialists which has turned the Caribbean Eden into a despotic prison to be escaped.)s The fuku first hits Oscar's grandfather, an upper-class doctor undone by the rise of the Trujillo thugocracy (equal to that of Saddam Hussein in horror inflicted on its subjects). His daughter (Oscar's mother) faces her own tragedy due to the fuku, and is the bridge between life in the D.R. and life in America, as she escapes to New York. Her children, Oscar and Lola, represent the generation born and bred in the U.S. -- both connected to, and apart from their Dominican heritage.

The story thus enables Diaz to examine how nationality, culture, and language become more and more blended over generations (non-Spanish speakers should note that the book is full of untranslated Spanish words and phrases, which can be a little frustrating at times). The segments of the book set in the D.R. under the Trujillo regime tend to be a great deal more compelling than the contemporary storyline. The story of Oscar's mother's childhood and teen years are far more colorful and dramatic than the on-again, off-again romance between Yunior and Oscar's sister Lola, and are definitely more interesting than Oscar's own geeky problems. Fat, obsessive, and devoid of social skills, Oscar makes it hard for people (including the reader) to sympathize with him and his dual dreams of becoming the "Dominican Tolkein" and losing his virginity. The final section of the book, in which Oscar pursues love with the trademark oblivious obsession that has made him an outcast, is pretty much straightforward classical doomed love, and thus the least interesting and convincing.

The overall effect of the book is a good deal more sad and depressing than I had expected. Although the title and opening chapter alert the reader to the brevity of Oscar's life, for some reason, I hadn't expected it to unfold quite as pathetically and tragically as it does. Similar tragedies unfold in the previous generations, and by the end of the book, there is little consolation of any kind to be found. Diaz writes with so much compassion for his characters that one would be hard pressed not to be affected. However, the sexual themes that pervade all the storylines act as somewhat of a life-affirming counterbalance to all the death and disappointment. And above all, there is the sheer exuberance and dexterity of the prose, which makes the book well worth reading from a purely stylistic or technical perspective. Not exactly a masterpiece, but well worth reading.

I was delighted to learn that Junot Diaz's novel was finally being published. Like so many others, I wanted more when I finished Drown 9 years ago and even read it again when he published it as Negocios. I bought Oscar Wao at my first opportunity and finished it last night before bed. It was what I had been waiting for. Diaz's voice is so original and his characters so interesting that I nearly zoomed through the book. I say "nearly" because I kept hitting speed bumps in the form of his liberal use of the "n-word". I know that the word is a part of the cultural milieu of the characters he has created and I have heard all the arguments about reclamation and empowerment. Still, I find the word jarring and distracting. It still rings of self-loathing and resignation to my middle-class moreno ears. The fact that Dominican Americans of African descent actually do often refer to themselves that way would surely make Trujillo smile.

Once I got past the hated epithet, and I did do so, I found that I loved the novel. I came to care about the characters, each of whom felt authentic. The footnotes were a great addition both for what they taught and for the social and cultural references Diaz chose not to footnote. I found myself grabbing for my Spanish-English dictionary more than once in spite of my own passable proficiency in the language. Still, I was forced live with the fact that there were phrases and references I didnt understand. That, I think, was the point. Junot Diaz's characters live in a world of blended languages, amalgamated ethnicities and blurred cultural distinctions. Sharp contrasts and right angles are dull and worse, they are lies. Oscar Wao forces us to deal with the fuzziness and twisted lines and it was great fun. I sincerely hope there is more of this perspective to come. I would even wait 10 more years for it. But, I hope I wont have to.

First of all let me preface my review by stating that just because I don't like a book doesn't mean I think it's bad. Obviously, a lot of people loved this book and it won a Pulitzer Prize, so it must have connected with a lot of people-just not me. And I have liked similarly challenging books like "Tree of Smoke" and "Stones of Summer" that a lot of other people hated, so I understand that it's "different strokes for different folks." There were a lot of problems with the book for me: the untranslated Spanish was a major distraction. Some of it you could figure out by its context, but a lot you couldn't, so what's the point? I'm not going to look up every word or phrase I don't know, it interrupts the flow of the book. To further complicate the writing structure, Diaz adds copious footnotes about Dominican history and culture. Make up your mind! Either explain it all or nothing. The other major flaw was a lack of interesting or likable chracters. None of them were fleshed out enough for me, and the plot itself wasn't strong enough to carry the story. The last thing that didn't work were all the pop culture references. They're fine if you know what they are, worthless if you don't. For a specific reader, the book may connect: those who understand Spanish and are familiar with Nerdworld, but for the general reading population it's going to be hit or miss. For me it was a miss.

Perhaps if I were a depressed twentysomething who thinks that life is meaningless I might have liked this book.

I stuck with it to the end, though I wanted to quit reading it several times. I was hoping that there would be a really good payoff at the end that would bring some meaning to the whole thing, but there wasn't.

The Lord of the Rings references get boring after awhile also.
The constant use of Spanish phrases, without translation, also become annoying. The little Spanish that I do know let me know that they had relevance to the story and to the character development, but without knowing what the hell is being said you lose a lot.

I've read nihilistic lit, which is what the author wants this book to be and makes several references to. But the end of this book just pissed me off. I will move on quickly to something else to read and try to forget that I ever read this.

This Pulitzer-Prize winning novel tells the story of the unlucky Dominican-American family of an obese science-fiction nerd. It's narrated first-person by Yunior a friend of the family contemplating these events years after they've happened.

In sequential order, Yunior gives us chapters on Oscar's geeky childhood, the mother-daughter conflict suffered by older sister Lola, mom Beli's story back in the Dominican Republic, Yunior's own college days with Oscar, the story of Abelard the grandfather back in the Dominican Republic, and the rest of Oscar's story.

Things I disliked:

(1) The hyper-machismo of the narrator gets really tedious, really fast. I realize that the author is either parodying the typical Dominican male or - eeek -giving an accurate representation, and I recognize that it's all right for him to do so. But some readers are going to feel like they're trapped on an endless city-bus ride listening to an obnoxious drunk as they wade through 335 pages of the f-word, the n-word, the b-word, and countless other derogatory terms for women and men who are attracted to other men. Here's a typical sentence from our narrator from page 195: "Some n-----s couldn't have gotten a-s on Judgment day; me I couldn't not get a-s even when I tried."

(2) The characters are often too willfully stupid to give you much emotional return on your investment in reading through their sections: they get numerous warnings of danger that could be easily avoided and still they blunder on their mindless course straight into it. Some character flaws are interesting, but too much of this makes the reader disengage. I'm mainly referring to Beli and Abelard here, but also to Oscar.

Things I didn't mind, but other people might find annoying:

(1) Lots of long footnotes in tiny font interrupt the narrative to dispense information about dictator Trujillo.

(2) Lots of slang Spanish, but not just single words that are easy to pick up in context. Rather, there are sentences and even lines of dialog that you'll miss if you don't speak the language.

(3) The pop culture references are non-stop to science fiction novels like Dune, war-gaming terms, Marvel comics, B-grade movies, etc.

Things I liked:

(1) The writing is very good and very energetic.

(2) Oscar is a fascinating character - but very sad. Readers may not find his story nearly as "hilarious" as they might expect.

(3) The history and culture of the Dominican Republic really comes across vividly.

Readers who might appreciate this book most are going to be much like the author: well-read, heterosexual guys who belong to ethnic minorities. Others include extremely open-minded readers from other demographics who seek a window into something very different from their own experience.

I suppose I can see why "Oscar Wao" won the Pulitzer Prize, as it is in some ways a groundbreaking novel. But what I don't understand are all the reviews about how "enjoyable" and "fun" it is, because I found it to be bleak, violent, vaguely offensive, and hopeless. As with many postcolonial novels, the formula Diaz uses is to weave the story of Oscar's brief life with that of his people, homeland, and diaspora. This formula has worked successfully in other novels, such as Toni Morrison's best (and she's also a Pulitzer Prize winner). But I was hoping for something different, a new twist on that idea. The only new twist Diaz gave was his writing style--poppy and quick (though certainly not "fun"). I did enjoy his writing. But the story was lacking--I felt I didn't know Oscar at all by the end, even though the title of the book would seem to suggest he's the protagonist. Rather, the main character was the curse, or fuku, on his family. I had hoped there would be a glimmer a light at the end, and that Oscar would somehow escape the fuku--but (and this is no spoiler, given the title of the book), there wasn't. Diaz's message seems to be that the black cloud of destiny is inescapable, and I just couldn't get into so bleak and disheartening a story.