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What are readers saying about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-11-05 06:44:35.
(Language: English)
 
Energična, duhovita, brutalna, duhovita, tužna, duhovita knjiga. Oskar je štreber, on je debeo, on je zaluđen naučnom fantastikom i Tolkinom, on je užasno zaljubljive prirode i sve bi učinio u ime ljubavi, ali slaba mu fajda. Kroz prizmu Oskarovog nesretnog života otkriva nam se svijet emigranata iz Dominikanske Republike u SADu i njihov pokušaj prilagođavanja i sudbina Oskarove porodice kroz generacije kao žrtve Trujillove diktature i njihovog ličnog prokletsva iliti fuku-a.Jedan Diazov citat koji objašnjava činjenicu da knjiga vrvi španskim (riječima i rečenicama) koje ustvari namjerno nisu prevedene: "Želio sam da se svi u jednom trenutku dok čitaju moju knjigu osjećaju kao imigranti. Da nailaze na dijelove ili rečenice koje ne razumiju. I to može izazvati ljute reakcije kod čitatelja, ali to je dobro jer će tada ići pogledati o čemu se radi i potražit će druge knjige. Mi često zaboravljamo da velik dio onog što pročitamo ne razumijemo i najčešće to preskačemo. Ako ste imigrant, onda ste još više naviknuti na to da ne razumijete velike dijelove razgovora, velike dijelove onog što pročitate." Primjerak knjige koja je meni došla u ruke je Buybook-ovo izdanje i prevod je radila izvjesna Mirjana Evtov. Sjajno je to odradila! 
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-20 08:16:20.
(Language: English)
This is the best book I have read in years--and I read a lot.The story is about a Dominican-American kid named Oscar, a fat sci-fi fantasy nerd growing up among the macho, streetwise Dominicanos of Paterson, New Jersey. But reducing this book to its plot doesn't come close to doing it justice. The prose is jazzy, sharp and luminous, a wild mix of Spanglish, Dominican slang, Tolkein and comic book references, and hip-hop diction. There is a gently amused tone to it all, even when the author is relating some truly horrific events. The book also provides a pretty good overview of the last seventy years of Dominican politics and culture. The book itself, the characters in it, and Diaz's prose style defy stereotype and genre. It's an amazing mix of disparate elements, and it sounds like the voice I sometimes hear in my own head when I slip into the role of narrator. It's the most close-to-perfect book I've read in years.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-26 12:26:09.
(Language: English)
Oscar Wao was a strange book for me to read. I would not recommend it but at the same time I wouldn't discourage someone who wanted to give it a go. If you look at reviews on Amazon - you can see by the many mixed reviews - some people LOVED it & others (like me) just didn't get it. It was too discombobulated for me going from present to past, back & forth. Some parts are written in Spanish which I could guess at their meaning but didn't know for sure how it translated. At many points I was like "what did i just read?" & "HOW does it relate to the story?". After reading reviews I have a better understanding of the book hence why 2 stars & not one.
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Alison posted a review at 2010-02-26 03:00:17.
(Language: English)
I notice that a lot of reviews mention the Spanish that is interspersed throughout the novel. I don't have any Spanish and my attitude was that I did not have to try to translate it - just note it. I thought it was good to feel the alienation of being immersed in an environment that you don't fully understand. Exactly what the Dominican diaspora would experience - but for them a thousand-fold greater, I'm sure. I was so sorry when I Googled 'Dominican republic' and received confirmation that Trujillo was a real person and the horrors described were real. I struggle to understand how these regimes and atrocities are possible throughout human history.
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Kelsey posted a review at 2009-07-29 01:22:22.
(Language: English)
When I hear a book is good, I generally agree with critics. Even if I'm not a fan of the subject matter or the way they attacked it, there's something that pulls you into the story, whether it be the prose or just the certain way they can draw you into their world. Oscar Wao was an extreme disappointment. The writing is so stream-of-conscious that I could hardly keep up, least of all enjoy the story that Diaz was laying out. Sometimes his writing was magical, and then it would slide right back into the mess of confusion and often unrelated tangents that were neither amusingly quirky or interesting. The main plot-- that of Oscar and his youth-- was the only thing that kept me reading this novel. This was not out of fun or interest either, but such extreme pity for this poor boy, and that feeling was one that I couldn't shake for the remainder of the novel. There was nothing fun or deep about it... just sad. If the focus had stayed on Oscar, I could have grudgingly accepted this novel, but instead it abruptly changes to characters that we barely know and often aren't introduced to until half-way through their narrative. In the midst of these shifting viewpoints are wordy, dull tales of the history of the Domincian Republic, written in a way that's supposed to be keeping the non-fiction fresh, but instead makes it almost unbearable to read. An incredibly difficult book to plow through, and it gave me little joy or insight. Utterly and completely disappointing.
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-04-20 10:51:41.
(Language: English)
A fantastically written and engaging book that relates to the true American family. It encompasses that of intrigue, suspense, sadness, and hilarity within the scope of the family dynamics in which Oscars Dominican family is of heritage. Life can be a blessing and a curse depending on the paths in which we decide to take. In Oscars families impending decision making we can blame in all on fu'ku otherwise known as Fuck you.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-03-02 08:03:42.
(Language: English)
3 1/2 stars. Widely hyped a few years ago, won the Pulitzer, yada yada yada...I wanted to love this book, but didn't!! I think Diaz is a good writer but this book is so disjointed and all over the place. After reading I discovered this was a short story that Diaz expanded to novel, which explains a lot. The narrator keeps commenting on what's to come in Oscar's life but the ending does not quite live up to the narrator's build up. What I took from this book and most interesting to me was the history of the Dominican Republic (esp. Trujillo's "reign of terror"). I would equate this to a mix between Confederacy of Dunces and the magical realism of Latin American writers. Most frustrating is the constant use of Spanish without any hint as to meaning. I can read some Spanish (from years of high school spanish) and often figure out meaning based on other references but Diaz uses Spanish phrases without any context or hint at their meaning. Overall? Eh, I kinda liked it!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-16 10:45:22.
(Language: English)
This book was a total miss for me and it really kind of bums me out because NPR gave it such glowing review. The sad part is that since I am totally a comic’s geek I got every reference in the book (it even begins with a quote by Galactus). I guess where I got lost was the fact that every character is a tragedy. Nothing good happens to them and they really don’t have a true connection to each other outside of being in the same family. There is no plot to the book; it is a look at characters in a family believed to be cursed. I could only make halfway through before giving up on it. I also think it might have had more draw for me if he had not used so much Spanish as well. I feel like I missed a lot of great points he was trying to make because I simply did not know what he was saying.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-15 06:46:54.
(Language: English)
What did I do to deserve suffering through this book? It kept coming up as recommended based on my purchase history at Amazon.... I hate to think something led the computer in the sky to believe I would like this book. I kept reading long after I reached dislike, partly in hopes it would improve, and partly to try and figure out how it won a Pulitzer Prize. Oh well, I often disagree with movie critics too. I have no problem with dark or deep books, but this didn't work for me. I gave it a lot of thought and have concluded that what is missing here is a single character that I like. I think I need that. The story can be very dismal, but I've got to have at least one character, someone, that I find tolerable as a person. As you can tell, I do not recommend this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-10 09:14:27.
(Language: English)
Oscar Wao is a welcome addition to our so-called "post-racial" society. Junot Diaz writes as frankly as any writer can. Whether he's speaking complete geek speak or in Spanish idioms, his narrators speak as honestly and accurately as any I have probably ever read. Other writers may have added a lot of window dressing to make the book more palatable to the general audience, but Diaz didn't do that. What was more impressive was that this was a fully realized novel, not a gimmicky tutorial on how to write narrative prose. Oscar Wao, himself, is a character that can embody generations of young immigrants who find themselves completely isolated from both their nation of origin and their new found home. Instead they find a world filled with fuku. This book is great so far. The writer sort of combines all sorts of nerd culture references and throws the right at you without any sort of apologies. It's completely the right type of book for the age of Obama -- completely encompasses all sorts of cultures and Junot Diaz never tamps down DR or nerd life just to help the book become more acceptable. If you don't know what he's talking about you'll just have to go and look read up on it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-12 09:20:21.
(Language: English)
This is the story of a sci-fi/fantasy/comics fanboy nerd, Oscar de Leon. He’s overweight, unpopular, and a virgin. He writes, too, hundreds of pages that are never published. The novel centers on Oscar, but it also tells the story of Oscar’s sexy, accomplished, athletic sister, Lola; his angry, dominating mother, Beli; other family members; and the Dominican Republic, with its tragic history. And there’s the narrator, in some ways the antithesis of Oscar, who remains entangled with the de Leons for much of his own life. His voice is both rough (and full of slang) and sharply intelligent. He’s the consummate street-wise player who has a remarkable mind that he doesn’t always choose to use in the best way possible. The novel is enjoyable—funny, moving, smart, insightful, and interesting. But it’s also challenging. Diaz uses quite a bit of Spanish, much of which is, I think, Dominican slang. I could figure some out from context, but for some passages, I had to do some research (I came across a good site that annotates the novel). And there are allusions to sci-fi, fantasy, and comics throughout, too; the story is steeped in these genres in ways that I don’t fully comprehend since I’m not terribly familiar with them. I don't fault Diaz for any of my lack of knowledge, but for me, the book was difficult to get through--rewarding, but difficult. Still, though, I found the characters real, compelling, and fascinating; not one of them was boring or weak. Each has his or her own tragedy, too, supporting the theme of a fuku, or curse, upon the family and upon all Dominicans. There’s also a thread of magic and mysticism here, with the talk of curses, a mysterious mongoose vision, and ideas and feelings that words cannot express at the end of the novel. Each character finds love of a sort, too, although ironically Oscar might end up with the most passionate, fiery love of them all. He meets a middle-aged prostitute in the DR, Ybon, who is the girlfriend of a police captain—not the kind of man that should be made an enemy. When his mother’s history repeats itself in Oscar, this love destroys him, while liberating him, too.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-12 09:20:58.
(Language: English)
For someone who has often wanted to become a person with no history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a crushing tale of the self, a heartbreaking bit on geekdom, the inescapable social unit called family, a nation’s becoming and unbecoming, US-backed dictatorships, diaspora and beyond. Though less so if, like in this case, it’s going to be narrated by someone who ought to be a rockstar or a pop culture journalist, or someone who can comfortably tell the tale of national amnesia without the readers actually vomiting their lunch. I bought the book because of my friends (they have that hold on me, the literary kind), and because much has been said about this Mr. Diaz, who actually looks dapper on the back cover photo. It is beyond me now to say something useful about the book, something that would delve on its literariness, but from page one onwards I was able to taste the violence and grief and despair in my mouth. Oscar’s sister Lola puts it so sadly yet ruthlessly, “If you ask me I don’t think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. That’s enough.” No fuku, no supernatural Trujillo, just life as you have it. And there’s Oscar, the kind of sensitive, well-meaning guy geek who broke my heart to smithereens yet chose to deal with the whole fuku thing until the end, who, in his moment of catharsis or something, knew there’s life as it is and life as you decide it to be. Now I can’t wait to get my hands on Drown and be seducted by Diaz’s prose all over again.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-18 04:34:12.
(Language: English)
I know this book is like, Pulitzer Prize winning and really hyped up to be amazing, but for me, didn't get me moving until the middle of the novel. The writing is incredibly creative (although not sure why there was a switch from the perspective of Yunior to Lola for like, only one section of the book) and Junot Diaz has a way with words and story telling. I laughed outloud at some of his descriptions and felt like he really put 100% of his voice into it. Definitely not boring at all. However, while the story of Oscar and several generations of the de Leons is heartbreaking to say the least, I didn't really feel enthralled. I felt, during much of the novel, like I wanted to rush through certain parts to find out what happens. The climactic moment is set up by pages and pages of details and I felt like I just wanted to hurry up and get it over with rather than really bask in all of the descriptive wordplay Diaz is so fond of. But then when you reach the climax, your world is kind of shaken because it's that good. In a way, it reminded me of "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" and "Middlesex" in that so much "pre-Oscar" info is given to show that who your family was and what happened to them greatly determines your fate. In this case, the fuku is supposed to have cursed the de Leons, and I like that we hear about Oscar's grandfather, his mother Beli growing up in the DR with La Inca, his childhood in Paterson. It all builds up to the incredible end and shows how connected everything in life really is. This is why Diaz is brilliant in what he does. I also liked that we got a little bit of Dominican history thrown in, because it's something we never learn about in school, despite it being incredibly violent and crazy interesting. There is also quite a bit of the Spanish language thrown in...which can get tiresome if your Spanish knowledge only includes one semester in college six years ago like me. I found myself googling a lot of the words; otherwise, you miss out on key information. All in all, I'm glad I read this. It's definitely one of this generation's defining novels.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-28 08:00:38.
(Language: English)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, will blow your mind, assuming you read it with a decent grasp of conversational Dominican Spanish (or a bilingual dictionary at your side). It's a romance, a bildungsroman, historical fiction, genealogy, fantasy, and urban fiction all rolled up in a dense and dazzling package. Our "hero" is Oscar, a morbidly obese, geeky, romantic young Dominican-American man growing up in New Jersey. His brief wondrous life is narrated by his college roommate, Yunior, whose careful adherence to the stereotypes of the Dominican man is challenged and occasionally thwarted by his on-again, off-again friendship with Oscar. Yunior suspects that Oscar's problems are caused by a fuku, a powerful curse that can extend over generations and, in Oscar's case, is rooted in the powerful and terrifying dictator Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic with an iron and very perverted fist. Long before Oscar was born, his family posed a threat to Trujillo's authorty and for this, is his family forever cursed--a curse that has played out in the lives of Oscar's mother Beli, his sister Lola, and his powerful and mysterious aunt La Inca? Eventually, Oscar returns to DR to find out, and to find love. I don't want to tell you much more because the story is amazing. Diaz's short stories are pretty cool, but they're modest trifles compared to this crazy and gorgeous novel. Treat yourself to reading this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-10-23 05:35:18.
(Language: English)
The black sheep of his family, Oscar finally finds what he sought his entire life and makes a valiant last stand to right an awful injustice. Under the umbrella of Wao's recent family history during the Trujillo era in the Dominican Republic, the author illustrates that evil can manifest itself in a system or an individual. But like the "unknown rebel" who famously faced down a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square and is rumored to have perished for his deed, Wao - literally large in life - becomes even larger after confronting his demon. An enjoyable and thought-provoking story.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-09-08 11:23:40.
(Language: English)
A book, I truly couldn't put down for more then a few hours. once i put it down i was always left wondering what's next. The book flows so fast. I read the first part of the book oscar's story, Roughly 75 pages, in what felt like seconds. This is a epic of a book stuffed down into just over 300 pages. Almost every page has a memorable quote or passage. It probably doesn't hurt that friends who read the book and recommended it to me said the character of Oscar Wao reminded them of me. After reading the book i don't know if i should take it as a compliment or a insult. I have to agree most of the perils and experiences he has gone through ring true for times and characteristics in my life. But don't we all read some truths that have affected us now or then in Coming of age stories?
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-04 09:46:07.
(Language: English)
One of my favorite books.The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a story that is conscious of being a story. The narrator is a writer who is himself an integral part of the narrative, and the essential footnotes written in the voice of the narrator constantly blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction. The footnotes are as engaging as the actual text; they're like pebbles that light in the dark and guide the reader into the story, to better understand the context with which Oscar and his family inhabit the world they live in. Read it! One of my favorite books.The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a story that is conscious of being a story. The narrator is a writer who is himself an integral part of the narrative, and the essential footnotes written in the voice of the narrator constantly blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction. The footnotes are like pebbles that light in the dark and guide the reader into the story, to better understand the context with which Oscar and his family inhabit the world they live in. Diaz frames the struggles of the Cabral and De Leon family within the fuku, the curse he sarcastically names "fuku americanus," said to have originated from Africa "carried in the screams of the enslaved" (1). Already, as readers, we are drawn to the stories of those inflicted by the curse, and Junior, the narrator whom we don’t meet until later in the story, states that while Santo Domingo might have been fuku's port of entry, "we are all of us its children, whether we know it or not" (2). How best to describe European and American imperialism and its lasting and insidious effect on humanity! Diaz's irreverent narrator has effectively implicated the reader by using the pronouns "we" and "all of us" and alternating these with "you" (3) (50-53). In theater, this is called "breaking down the fourth wall," when the audience is addressed as a character in the story and is invited to join in the struggles and dilemmas of the play's protagonists. In telling the story of his people, Junot Diaz consciously counters the lies and myths that the dominant culture tell (and the truths they omit) to perpetuate the othering and, consequently, the marginalization of ethnic people of color. In the novel, Junior writes about his dream of Oscar holding a book, but his "hands are seamless and the book's pages are blank" (325). Oscar has, in fact, become the story and the story has become Oscar -- the umbilical that binds Junior to Lola and to his Dominican culture -- and only when the story is told, would Oscar give Junior peace (326).
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-28 10:00:47.
(Language: English)
Wonderful story of an articulate nerd whose family history back to the dictatorial days of the Dominican Republic makes for a harrowing, maybe redemptive read. Let's see, the narrator can manage half a dozen girlfriends every two semesters at Rutgers, while 300-lbs. Oscar has only his fantasies (which he writes very well a la his hero, Tolkien) and his plaintitive desire for a first kiss, both of which persist deep into his 20's. The price he pays for that yearned-for prize turns out to be a little steep but from the book's title you know it's coming. Bring along your Spanish-English dictionary because Diaz likes to slip in obtuse aphorisms that even the Latina behind your favorite truck stop in South Jersey will have a difficult time explaining to you.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-01-27 02:00:39.
(Language: English)
I was so excited to read this book. The Pulitzer Prize, all the accolades, and the praise heaped upon it all contributed to my extremely high expectations. I hate it when that happens. While the book was good, it didn't blow me away when I started it and though it all came together in the end, it just wasn't the work of literary achievement I thought it would be. I honestly feel there should have been a glossary for those who don't know a lot of Spanish slang--and I know basic Spanish so I'm not completely in the dark. I think I missed out on some important things due to this. However, Oscar was extremely endearing and wish we had more of his voice. I wish I 'caught the spark' so many others did upon reading this. I am definitely more informed about the Dominican Republic and the dictatorships that pummeled it's people mercilessly. I now want to learn even more about this period so I owe this book the credit it deserves for enlightening me. I've read and heard great reviews of "Drown" and people who were disappointed in this book after reading "Drown. I'm not giving up on this author but the book was not up to par for me for all the awards it accrued.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-29 08:16:13.
(Language: English)
The under-told tale of the north Jersey urban nerd, as narrated by said nerd's idealized self; an idealized self fortified with the wisdom of multi-generational 20/20 hindsight. Particular to Oscar are the effects on his life of being an atypical Dominican male. Oscar was a total misfit among urban, minority, working-class north Jerseyans (in his case Dominican, though he could have been essentially the same but black, Puerto Rican, Filipino, etc, to largely the same effect), but had he come up in a suburban, middle-class, mainstream setting just a few exits away, he may have found peers early on. He might have been a typical college-prep honors kid, or maybe a goth or garden-variety disaffected youth. Nowhere would Oscar likely be voted most-popular, nor crowned the homecoming king, but he also might not have been doomed necessarily to the status of social pariah. He could have graduated high school, enrolled at Rutgers, progressed nicely from Demarest freak to '90s geek-chic had he developed early on a less destructively anomic self image.
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Amy posted a review at 2009-03-04 09:04:06.
(Language: English)
I chose this as my selection for March bookclub. I ended up getting through it much more quickly that I had anticipated or hoped! A truly new voice, a refreshing change from what I usually select. The narrators slang and cursing had a beautiful rhythm to it. The novel focuses on a different character each chapter and ends up being less focused solelt on Oscar than I would have thought. We explore the family's history, jumping back and forth in time and place from the 60s and the present and the DR and Nuevo York. Nearing the end the pain and reality of the main character's situation threatened to send me spiraling into pity, but, as all good stories, it ends with a happy ending. In a strange way.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-11 08:28:17.
(Language: English)
This book just really worked for me. Maybe it's my hunger for post-colonial fiction. Maybe it's my admiration for authors who don't bother to translate phrases from other languages. Maybe it's my love of writing voices that authors shouldn't a)be able to get away with b)be able to sustain. I don't know, it just really worked for me. It also made me damn certain I never want to go to the Dominican Republic. I wonder how Junot Diaz feels about that - I know it's not his responsibility, and it's an age old problem of exposing the viscious underbellies of cultures rather than making it all seem nice, but fuck - what a horrible, horrible, horrible place that country has been for its people. What a cruel, insane history, and what a self-cannibalizing, self-loathing people it has created. Ok, not everyone - but the pressure is there on everyone. It's an eye opening book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-28 01:22:26.
(Language: English)
Heartbreaking. Rich, patchwork history of a family said to be cursed. Blunt and in your face at times, immediately gripping. While I understand some of the complaints about the use of casual Spanish phrases and sayings, I really feel it is ultimately unimportant to know the exact meaning. Most seem to be the type of colloquialisms used by older generations that we would not understand were they in English. It's the context they are used in that shines the light of understanding upon the words; mysterious, beautiful and perhaps even sacred sentences like pieces of art dangling at the end of a paragraph to ground the novel in the dominican culture of the characters. The sad songs of an abused, neglected and often violent culture. The footnotes were not distracting in the slightest, having been trained to appreciate them by reading Infinite Jest years ago. Recommended and deserving of the Pulitzer.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-30 12:35:14.
(Language: English)
Junot Diaz has written the book I've always wanted to read. Syncretic, passionate, raw, idealistic, painful, real... We all know Oscar Wao, the overweight outcast, the bookish nerd; fatter, blacker and uglier than Biggie, with strange habits and an even stranger family. Worst of all, Oscar is a Nuevo Dominicano (of all people!) who gets absolutely no play. What we discover is that Oscar's lack of skills in the romance realm is not the only unusual thing about him. In fact, it may be a blessing in disguise because Oscar has inherited a fuku--a curse-- from his Dominican lineage that renders anything you've read or heard about Caribbean spells child's play. In recounting the experiences of Oscar, his beautiful, if enigmatic, sister, Lola, his fierce, off-the-hook psychotic mother, Beli, and his noble, if star-crossed, grandparents, Diaz provides the reader with the lyrical and unspeakably tragic history of the Dominican Republic, and shines a light on the incalculable toll that it takes on the lives of its exotic, complicated and all too human inhabitants during the tyrant Trujillo's reign of terror and diasporic Dominicans thereafter. Rarely have I been so informed and enthralled by a novel. Part history, part fantasy, part crazy, Diaz has constructed an eclectic, deft, nuanced narrative for the ages. The Caribbean has crowned it's latest muse. In him I have discovered my new, favorite writer.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-18 05:12:34.
(Language: English)
At the National Book Festival in September, crowd favorite Junot Diaz expressed some concern that book critics reviewing his first novel were placing too much emphasis on its title character at the expense of the rest of its cast. And he's right: Oscar -- obese, nerdy, lonely, miserable and doomed -- gets his name on the cover, but he's one thread in a larger tapestry of the Dominican immigrant experience, a tapestry pinned to the wall by the curse of history. Oscar's older sister, Lola, and her volatile, violent relationship with her mother could easily rate their own novel, as could the earlier family saga under the dictator Rafael Trujillo. But at heart, "Oscar Wao" is an intimate coming-of-age story -- a series of coming-of-age stories actually -- and although the details may be unique, there are certain universals to all coming-of-age stories: One of those is that life can suck almighty balls for the intelligent and terminally out-of-step. "If you ask me I don't think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. That's enough." Maybe it's that intimacy that makes the novel feel a little small next to its Pulitzer brethren. I expect big things from a Pulitzer winner. I expect grand, epic stabs at the Great American Novel. "Oscar Wao" lacks the heft (no weight pun intended) of a "Known World" or a "Middlesex." Back at the book fest, Diaz also spoke of the risk of brandnaming, of authors dropping too many pop culture references in their books. Writers can shortcut around the hard work of crafting an original description by simply referring to other artists' work: It's like Hellboy meets the Punisher!! Diaz falls prey to this habit too often. It's not that I doubt his sincerity or his geek credentials. He's a light-saber-waving, LOTR-reading, Spock-ear-wearing member of the tribe. So he doesn't need to keep repeating the password. In chapters told from the POV of the non-geeky, all the comic book/sci-fi lingo can be jarringly out-of-character. I hope I'm not coming off as overly critical of this book. I don't mean to be. It's a greatly enjoyable, even enlightening, novel, and I recommend it. It's just that from the enthusiastic raves by book critics and buddies alike, I went in hoping for a book I would love, and I had to settle for one I liked a lot. I think Junot Diaz has a Great Novel in him, but this is just his first attempt, so we ought to keep waiting for it. A Jon and His Ma Book Club selection.
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