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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by: Junot Díaz

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781594489587
ISBN: 1594489580
Label: Riverhead Hardcover
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 06, 2007
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Sales Rank: 315
Studio: Riverhead Hardcover

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today.

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar 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 Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

D’az immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot D’az as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

Amazon.com:
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

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- I Have Never Read a Book Like This One
Fast paced, interesting language...a great book that makes you care for Oscar and his little life. Knowing nothing about the culture of the Dominican Republic, I learned a lot...which is always a good thing! The book has many footnotes which bothered me at first, but it just becomes part of the reading and you can easily dip in and out of them. Well done Junot Diaz...he has done a masterful job on many levels...story, DR culture, NJ culture and the crazy pace of this novel.

Rating:

- spanglish Is Swonderful
Diaz's Pulitzer Prize winning novel didn't get any awards for its plot--it shines for its language. The intricate web of family history in a traditional Dominican upbringing is slowly unfolded with each long and eloquent sentence. Every sentence could be re-read four times over and still be appreciated for every deliberate diction choice Diaz makes. I often found myself pausing in the middle of a paragraph thinking, "How does he think like that?" Spanglish is a large part of Diaz's writing because it further emphasizes the messy transition from Dominican to American, from ancient curses to modern realism and how an awkward, chubby, adolescent dork gets caught up in the confusion of it all. However, the Spanglish isn't a roadblock for any reader, Spanish speaking or not. The words are expressive through tone and sound, so that the literal meaning of the short phrases that were precisely thrown into the story ... Read More

Rating:

- Come for the language -- stay for the wonder
It takes cojones to promise that a story will be wondrous; indeed, that very word kept me from reading the book for several weeks. Wonder, which I associate with "the world of Disney," is usually something to avoid for fear of marketing. It's by no means the state of mind of most readers as they read Díaz's multi-voiced text. Oscar seems sad, pathetic, amusing, and stubborn - even his heroic act of romantic rebellion in the novel's climax seems as adolescent as his taste in literature. And yet it lingers, perhaps because the novel's poignant sadness has such deep roots in reality. The whole story has the pop quality of a comic book or fantasy fiction, but the exaggeration doesn't prevent the reader from becoming immersed in the deeper currents of feeling in the family Cabral. Engrossed in juggling Dominican history, family narrative, and allusions from the worlds of fantasy, anime, comics, video games, music, and ... Read More

Rating:

- Well-deserving of the Pulitzer!
After Junot Diaz's collection of short stories was released some years ago, the eyes of the literary world waited, with much anticipation, for the results of his first full-length attempt. By all accounts, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao did not disappoint and went on to win the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for long fiction.

This story of a 300-lb, D&D loving, fantasy-adventure writing, Dominican nerdboy is funny, tragic, pitiful and sweet all at the same time. Told through the voices of those who know him best, it is a wonderfully fleshed-out account of a young man's life viewed from the many different angles and points that give us all our form, and never is it clearer than when driving home the point that no one of us is an island, and that no matter how we fight it, we are to some extent - more than most of us would probably like - products of our heritage, our upbringing, and the actions and words ... Read More

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