The undoubtedly brief, yet questionably wondrous life of Oscar de León is one of an overweight nerd, who is impossible to hate. Oscar, our hero, is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey. He is not like your stereotypical "Dominican cat." Oscar is no playboy and certainly no ballplayer. In fact, he is rather nerdy and socially awkward.

While Oscar is clearly the novel's main character and protagonist, he is certainly not the only loveable, relatable character. The novel is multifaceted, enhanced by its many layers.

The book looks back on Oscar's family history, reaching all the way back to his grandparent's struggles living in the Dominican during the reign of Trujillo. On the way, we see the story of Oscar's mother and sister as well, each as complicated as the next. Oscar attributes the crazy happenings of his family to a Dominican curse- fukú. He is certain this is the reason why he cannot get a girlfriend, his sister ran away, and his grandfather was tortured and murdered.

The book is written in an easy to follow blend of English and Spanish. The text is riddled with Spanish colloquialisms that even the most novice speaker can easily understand. The text also contains many footnotes which, oftentimes, is where the author, Diaz's, wit truly shows. While these footnotes and "Spanglish" could be considered distracting, I found them both to be extremely informative and interesting. ( )

I am sad that I could not get past the language barrier, both Spanish and street language, to hear the messages in this book. I read about 100 pages and was growing to love Oscar, appreciate Lola, and understand (somewhat) their mother, but I felt I was missing too much of the meaning of the book by not understanding the Spanish and by my repulsion at some of the cruder language. ( )

I really couldn't get into this book...so much family drama and not really a good story.

My book club read it....some liked it, but most didn't. It was pointless if you ask me.

I did like translating the Spanish since I do speak Spanish, but other than that I did not like it at all. ( )

I'd give this good 3.5 stars if I could. I read Oscar Wao right after Middlesex (which I didn't like much) so I was a little wary of another immigrant-family saga. I have to admit I was frustrated at times by the amount of untranslated Spanish throughout the book and definitely recommend www.annotated-oscar-wao.com for notes & translations. By the end of the book, though, I was enjoying the read & had fallen in love with Oscar, that poor, hopelessly dorky, eloquent, beautiful boy. Zafa. ( )

Reading this book was an interesting experience.
Imagine living in a foreign country where you don't speak the language. You're really excited about a movie coming out and finally it does, and you go to see it in a VO theatre, so that it will be in English and just subtitled in the foreign language. Well, it turns out that 1/4 of the movie is actually in that foreign language, and, of course, since you're in a country where the language is spoken, there are no English subtitles for you.
The movie is awesome and you totally love it, but at the same time you know that you definitely missed something since there was a good 1/4 of the movie that you didn't understand. You could just see what was happening.
Well, that's how I felt reading this book. I absolutely loved it; the narrator was hilarious and interesting and exciting. He had an absolutely depressing and devestating story to tell, and he just jumped right in as if it was any other normal ole everyday happy story.
Oscar Wao himself was a totally likable character that you couldn't help but love but for whom you also couldn't help but feel sorry. Sometimes I wished I could be there with the narrator, pushing him in the right direction, urging him to do things just slightly differently.
His sister and his mother, while slightly less developed characters, were also exciting to follow. They were both just a little bit more than the average Dominican woman. They both had just a little something extra to add to the table, and, in their own way, their stories were just as fascinating as that of Oscar.
But still, this said, I couldn't help but feel that I was missing some basic elementary knowledge needed to really fully understand everything going on.
First of all, there was a lot of Spanish used - phrases and words that I just didn't understand. I'm learning Spanish, but I'm not quite there yet. And massive amounts of Dominican history were referenced without ever actually being explain. Maybe it's just me, but I never took a class on Dominican history. I also never took a history class in which we learned about Dominican history. So did I know that the United States had occupied the Dominican Replublic more than once? No. Did I know who Trujillo was before starting this book? No. Did I have any clue why Trujillo was constantly referred to as the Failed Cattle Thief? No. (Do I now? No.)
Do I feel that knowledge on these subjects (and many more) would have contributed vastly to my enjoyment and understanding of this book?
The answer to this question is a whole hearted YES!!!!
I mean, I really feel like I should go take a class on the Dominican Republic (where I have actually been) and its history and then read the book all over again.
None of this changes the fact that this book was beautifully written and heart-warming and heart-wrenching.