The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz

This is a good book. Diaz tells the story of Oscar, an over-weight Dominican nerd who grows up in Paterson New Jersey falling in love with just about every girl he sees, but never getting any affection (or anything else) in return. He sees himself as the Dominican Tolkien, and can't quite understand why explaining that to girls he approaches on the bus isn't getting him any action. We follow poor, doomed Oscar through his life, which is indeed brief and wondrous.

The book also tells the story of Oscar's family, and the fuku, or curse, that has been haunting them for generations. We learn about his sister, who falls afoul of their commanding and domineering mother. We learn about his mother, and how she became such a strong person in the first place. We even peer back to Oscar's grandfather, and his experiences with the Trujillo regime, which is believed to be the root of the fuku. Finally, we learn a great deal about the Dominican itself, especially through the footnotes that take us on some tangential journeys through Caribbean dictatorship.

Diaz writes in a very refreshing style. The book is narrated by a character that I suspect is his idealized version of himself, and as such is told in modern voice that incorporates street slang and a plethora of references to comics, fantasy, and science fiction, many of which were out of my frame of reference. The book flows nicely, and at times is nearly impossible to put down.