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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz

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3,631170679 (3.86)209
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English (164)  Dutch (1)  Spanish (1)  Danish (1)  Swedish (1)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  French (1)  All languages (170)
Showing 1-5 of 164 (next | show all)
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. ( )
  tsolinger | Nov 12, 2009 |
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. ( )
  jbleil | Nov 12, 2009 |
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. ( )
  meadowmist | Nov 8, 2009 |
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. ( )
  wandereux | Nov 4, 2009 |
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.
  brizmus | Oct 29, 2009 |
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People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Of what import are brief, nameless lives . . . to Galactus?? (Fantastic Four, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Vol. 1, No. 49, April 1966)
Christ have mercy on all sleeping things!
From that dog rotting down Wrightson Road
to when I was a dog on these streets;
if loving these islands must be my load,
out of corruption my soul takes wings,
But they had started to poison my soul
with their big house, big car, bit-time hbohl,
coolie, nigger, Syrian, and French Creole,
so I leave it for them and their carnival--
I taking a sea-bath, I gone down the road.
I know these islands from Monos to Nassau,
a rusty head sailor with sea-green eyes
that they nickname Shabine, the patois for
any red nigger, and I, Shabine, saw
when these slums of empire was paradise.
I'm just a red nigger who love the sea,
I had a sound colonial education,
I have Dutch, nigger, and English in me,
and either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation.
(Derek Walcott)
Dedication
Elizabeth de Leon
First words
They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles.
Quotations
You wanna smoke?
I might partake. Just a little though. I would not want to cloud my faculties.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Junot Díaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Book description
From book cover: Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú--the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim--until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Diaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious beauty-queen mother Belicia, and in the family's epic journey from Santo Domingo to Washington Heights to NewJersey's Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere--and to risk all--in the name of love.

Amazon.com (ISBN 0143142801, Audio CD)

Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: It's been 11 years since Junot Díaz's critically acclaimed story collection, Drown, landed on bookshelves and from page one of his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, any worries of a sophomore jinx disappear. The titular Oscar is a 300-pound-plus "lovesick ghetto nerd" with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is also the story of a multi-generational family curse that courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake. This was the most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I've read in a long time. My head is still buzzing with the memory of dozens of killer passages that I dog-eared throughout the book. The rope-a-dope narrative is funny, hip, tragic, soulful, and bursting with desire. Make some room for Oscar Wao on your bookshelf--you won't be disappointed. --Brad Thomas Parsons

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:17 -0400)

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