Rating: ⭐⭐✨⬜⬜⬜
Title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Author: Junot Diaz
Genre: Fiction
Setting: New Jersey, USA & The Dominican Republic
Month Read: March 2022
Book Type: Paperback
Publication: 2008
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Pages: 340
*PBS Great American Read Book
TRIGGER WARNING-
Murder / Forced Abortion / Abuse / Graphic Violence / Sex / Alcohol / Suicide Attempt / Language / Racism / Classism / (there are more, these are the big ones I remember)
"...and when he thought about the way she laughed, as though she owned the air around her, his heart thundered inside his chest, a lonely rada."
No Spoiler Summary:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is about Oscar, a Dominican-American nerd who lives in New Jersey. He's overweight, loves J.R.R. Tolkein, is bad with the ladies, and watches tons of anime and manga. He wants to find love more than anything else, but because he believes his family is cursed, he is unlucky. You follow Oscar's family through a few generations as you follow the curse through their familial line as you travel from Santo Domingo to Jersey.
Review:
I'm not sure what I was expecting in this book, but whatever it was was not what I thought it would be. I think the writing was really beautiful in spaces, and the story, while sort of confusing to me, was really interesting. I didn't love this book, but I think, like with Harlem Shuffle this book was certainly not written for me in mind. I did google a LOT of Spanish during this book, so that was cool. I did love how Junot Diaz didn't simplify the Spanish very often, you almost never got an explanation as to what the Spanish meant, and I really enjoyed that because it forced me to do the work to figure it out.
I think I would have liked this book if I didn't recently read The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, as well. The books were pretty similar in theme (a generational family epic following many, many generations of people), and personally I think Love Songs did it a lot better? Or maybe it was just more engaging. I definitely recommend giving this a shot and seeing if you like it. Let me know if you've read this and what you think! I'm open to discussing this!
Recommendation:
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (YA)
"She was the kind of girlfriend God gives you young, so you'll know loss the rest of your life."
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