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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
A fine book, but I found it most interesting when it was exploring characters outside of Oscar. I just couldn't find myself to care about Oscar as much as Yunior, Lola and Inca. The story has very funny writing though as well as important historical context of American Imperialism as well as the true horrors of the Dominican Republic.
I don’t know how to feel about this book. One the one hand, it’s an entertaining and rather gripping read, that I gulped down in about three days, and the family saga mixed with the history of the last few years of Trujillo’s regime in the Dominican Republic makes for a very interesting story. On the other hand, while I loved and had endless sympathy for Lola, and found the section about Beli’s teenage years fascinating (and horrifying), I simply couldn’t warm up to the so-called protagonist.
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” is the story of a family cursed with the fukù of mad love, from the mother’s affair with a pimp under Trujillo’s thumb to Oscar’s ill-fated unrequited feelings towards, well, a lot of girls who friendzone him because he is overweight and geeky. This story is narrated by the colorful Yunior, a friend of Oscar’s, who put all the pieces of this story together after its tragically inevitable denouement. Yunior is almost as nerdy as Oscar, but he hides it better – though not when he writes, as the story is very liberally sprinkled with sci-fi and fantasy references, especially “Lord of the Rings”. I wasn’t really bothered by the Spanish words and sentences, or the Dominican slang – most of it could be deciphered with context, and the rest was easily googled.
While Oscar is far from a bad guy, what ruins him, much more so than his weight or intellectual interest, is his self-pity and his refusal to actually make any kind of changes to his life. His stewing in passive self-loathing is to blame for his misery, and maybe it’s because I’ve known quite a few people like that, who refused to work on changing even the simplest things in their lives and simply carried on being miserable and blaming the whole world for it, but I just don’t have patience for it anymore, in real life or on the page, apparently.
If the book had been just about Beli, I might have liked it better, but then, I read “The Feast of the Goat” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1844685002) earlier this year, and that’s basically what that book was about, only written much more skillfully, and has more nuanced and interesting characters (it was nagging at me, so I checked and the main character of Vargas Llosa’s book is named Uriana Cabral, and Beli’s full name is Belicia Cabral; are you kidding me, Mr. Diaz?).
I re-read it to make sure I had not “read it wrong” a few years back, but alas, I am still in the minority of people who will never quite get what the fuss about this novel is.
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” is the story of a family cursed with the fukù of mad love, from the mother’s affair with a pimp under Trujillo’s thumb to Oscar’s ill-fated unrequited feelings towards, well, a lot of girls who friendzone him because he is overweight and geeky. This story is narrated by the colorful Yunior, a friend of Oscar’s, who put all the pieces of this story together after its tragically inevitable denouement. Yunior is almost as nerdy as Oscar, but he hides it better – though not when he writes, as the story is very liberally sprinkled with sci-fi and fantasy references, especially “Lord of the Rings”. I wasn’t really bothered by the Spanish words and sentences, or the Dominican slang – most of it could be deciphered with context, and the rest was easily googled.
While Oscar is far from a bad guy, what ruins him, much more so than his weight or intellectual interest, is his self-pity and his refusal to actually make any kind of changes to his life. His stewing in passive self-loathing is to blame for his misery, and maybe it’s because I’ve known quite a few people like that, who refused to work on changing even the simplest things in their lives and simply carried on being miserable and blaming the whole world for it, but I just don’t have patience for it anymore, in real life or on the page, apparently.
If the book had been just about Beli, I might have liked it better, but then, I read “The Feast of the Goat” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1844685002) earlier this year, and that’s basically what that book was about, only written much more skillfully, and has more nuanced and interesting characters (it was nagging at me, so I checked and the main character of Vargas Llosa’s book is named Uriana Cabral, and Beli’s full name is Belicia Cabral; are you kidding me, Mr. Diaz?).
I re-read it to make sure I had not “read it wrong” a few years back, but alas, I am still in the minority of people who will never quite get what the fuss about this novel is.
I just could not get in to this book. I enjoyed 'This is how you lose her' and decided to explore Diaz's other works. Meh.
Oscar Wao is literature dressed up as a saucy telenovela. The novel features an odd melange of pop culture and nerd-inspired references, wicked footnotes about real life evil dictator Trujillo, a sprinkling of Spanish words and phrases, old and new school homey-speak, curses and blessings (mostly the curse Fuku),the immigrant experience and Dominican Diaspora, and larger-than life characters right down to their hyperbolic nether regions. I'm not sure if it's my slice of pie in the end, but I enjoyed reading it.
I really enjoyed this novel. I had heard a lot about it when it won the Pulitzer and bought a copy. Just before I started it a few weeks ago, I read some of the reviews about it on Good Reads and wondered if it wouldn't live up to the hype. But to me, it did. Although the footnotes could be a bit much - I thought the history behind the book was fascinating (I didn't know that much about the DR) and the voice fresh and real.
I'd previously read Drown and moved on to this one. Although I enjoyed it, at times I found myself rushing through sections because they were repetitive and lulled a bit. This didn't happen with Drown. I know one shouldn't compare different books, but...I would recommend it, but I would also recommend some patience in sections.
Oscar a nerdy boy living in Paterson, N.J. He's Dominican, but he's not the love-machine Dominican males are supposed to be. And it's all because Fuku – a curse or bad luck has followed his family and now him. His life is traced and his family's history back to the grandfather who brought the fuku down on them.
Lovely story which jumps around in time, but it gives you a complete picture.
Had trouble with some of the language because wasn't sure of the translation.
Lovely story which jumps around in time, but it gives you a complete picture.
Had trouble with some of the language because wasn't sure of the translation.
Also a book I was unfairly skeptical about. This was many years in the making (his only novel! and he's been on the scene for like 10 years or more!), but you can tell it was really carefully written and thought-out. Lots of humor and sadness. TONS of Dominican slang. If you want a basic primer, let me know.
2.5 stars. There were times when the story was very engrossing and compelling, which was great. But the author had a habit of writing key words in Spanish, which I'm sure was much more effective for Spanish-speaking people than it was for me, since I don't speak Spanish. I looked up the words online when I could, but this was impossible to do when I was reading on the subway, and feeling like I was missing important information was super frustrating. Same goes for the nerd references. Perhaps Diaz was writing for a niche audience that I just am not a part of?
I also felt like WAY too much emphasis was put on Oscar's virginity. Not quite sure why it was such a big deal. And the "miraculous" ending of him finally having sex was tarnished for me because he was stalking her beforehand. Why is male persistence in pursuing uninterested women so often rewarded in media? Honestly. So annoying.
One thing I did enjoy was the historical tidbits about the DR, since I know virtually nothing about it.
I also felt like WAY too much emphasis was put on Oscar's virginity. Not quite sure why it was such a big deal. And the "miraculous" ending of him finally having sex was tarnished for me because he was stalking her beforehand. Why is male persistence in pursuing uninterested women so often rewarded in media? Honestly. So annoying.
One thing I did enjoy was the historical tidbits about the DR, since I know virtually nothing about it.