The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Editorial Review

The long-awaited-and thrillingly satisfying, genuinely original- first novel from the unmistakable voice behind the story collection Drown.

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

Features:

• Audiobook

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
• Overrated
  This book was recommended by several people and I read great things about it online. However, I felt it was incredibly overrated and no where near the previous Pulitzer Prize winner (The Road). It was painful to get through. The lack of Spanish translations and long pointless footnotes drove me nuts.
• This Book is KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF FANTASTIC!
  For me, Pulitzer Prize Winners are hit or miss. Oscar Wao is a bullseye. I loved everything about it. I read it in two days because I could not put it down. After almost a month, the story still lingers with me and I think about it every day and wish that every book I read bolled me over like TBWLOOW.
  The story follows Dominican loser Oscar De Leon through his childhood and early adulthood. He is a sci-fi, fantasy, dungeons and dragons overweight loveable loser who has many unrequited "crushes" on... more info
• Interesting, yet Frustrating
  The Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao follows the life of a nerdy young man living in New York. Oscar is a comic book-loving overweight kid who is obsessed with girls, but lacks any kind of social skills to actually form a relationship. Even worse, he is of Dominican heritage, and has a reputation to live up to. Also, his family is haunted by a fukú, or curse, resulting from his mother's interactions with the former dictator of the Dominican Republic. The narration is... more info
• Oscar Everyman
  THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO can be a bit aggravating at first. Diaz rotates between English, Spanglish, Spanish, street jive, and an advanced professorial vocabulary. He also uses elaborate footnotes to explain the political situation in the Dominican Republic.
  But I defy anyone to not get involved in Oscar Wao's predicament. He is a lifelong virgin who loves women. He also weighs around four hundred pounds and is a role-playing, video game addict, whose ambition is to write science... more info

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