sailsgoboom 's review for:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

4.0

---

This book manages to be wild, intimate, whimsical, epic, and gritty all at the same time-- pretty much everything about it is such a fascinating blend of disparate pieces: Spanish slang, esoteric academia, large-scale San Domingo history, scifi/fantasy allusions, intimate family history. Rather than making it difficult to connect to (for example, if the reader has no familiarity with Lord of the Rings or Spanish), this makes the story more human. We're all a sum of parts-- our heritage, our current environment, our interests, people we know-- pieced together in a greater whole, and the fact that not everyone will understand every piece of us can be isolating is universally relatable.

Incredibly creative and highly enjoyable read.