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.
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Amazon.com
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: It's been 11 years since Junot DÃaz'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
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 great book
great book, great condition... delivery was not as fast as i expected it to be...
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this year's stunning Modernist Romance ( pahamaha )
Fantastically well-written (from multiple perspectives and with a poetical mixture of footnotes and slang) story of a big nerdy guy looking desperately for love. A mythic story spanning generations of Oscar's Dominican family, including his run-away sister and his orphaned beauty mother. With its subject matter, character, and style, it is very similar to other recent great contemporary/modernist/Romantic novels The Shipping News and Everything is Illuminated. Powerful and thoroughly engaging story with fascinating and charming characters and a truly wondrous style. Grade: A
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The Story of a Curse
Can a family be cursed? Can an entire country be cursed? Yes, and yes -- according to Junot Diaz. His inventive THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO chronicles a family tagged by a curse called "fuku" and a nation dragged down by a decades-long curse called "Trujillo," as in the dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930-1961.
What starts off as a coming-of-age novel for a 300-plus pound Dominican Republic boy in Jersey with a penchant for fancy vocabulary, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and Marvel comics, evolves into a family saga that not only follows big Oscar, but envelops his lovely sister Lola, her philandering boyfriend Yunior, his bigger-than-life (both her breasts and her personality, it appears) mother, Beli, and his grandfather, Abelard (allusions, anyone?).
It all adds up to an entertaining romp through the Garden State and the first Caribbean island to be discovered in the new world. Oscar's goals are simple: to kiss a girl and to make love with one. Only it's not so simple when you're obese and could serve as president of World Nerds, Inc. Even his nerdy friends eventually score, but Oscar is left with his own misery, his overprotective sister, and his hell-on-wheels mother. The novel evolves into a family saga when Diaz artfully envelops the history of the mother and her father (Oscar's abuelo) in the Dominican Republic. These riffs show the roots and the tenaciousness of fuku as the novel wends its way to an inexorably tragic end.
Some readers may be put off by Diaz's excessive riffs in Spanish, but the use of the language says much about the DR, about American history, about Westerners (the dominant culture), and about the diaspora's need to adapt to English (the Spanish turns the table on English-speaking readers, you see). Others may be put off by the lengthy footnotes about Trujillo and Dominican history and atrocities. Nevertheless, the book's strands all weave together nicely, and Oscar's love is so sweet and foreign to "normal people's" interpretation of that emotion's potentials and limits that the ending, no matter how predictable, is unarguably perfect. Diaz is a talented modern voice and his subject matter is refreshingly different for those bored with the same old suburban American "drawing room" dramas. Give it a try. Like me, you might find it funny, sad, and -- for lack of a better word -- wondrous...
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 Well Written But Lacks Emotional Punch ( kschelberg2 )
Before writing this review, I read many of the fine reviews that other readers had previously submitted, and now I want to throw in on some of the oft repeated comments:
1. Many readers objected to the heavy use of slang. Rather than offend me, I found the use of slang lyrical and realistic.
2. Like the prior comment, I enjoyed the use of spanglish. My Spanish is pretty good, and the spanglish added color and depth to the novel for me. However, the spanglish was hardly essential, and I was able to skip over those words I didn't know without any loss of enjoyment.
3. I really enjoyed the footnotes, and thought they added depth and uniqueness to the novel. One of the themes of the novel was the interaction of larger historical events (the demonic Trujillo regime) and the life of this family. In this regard, the footnotes were essential. Moreover, I appreciated the unique mixture of this "street" novel and these very detailed historical references.
At the same time, I was surprised to see that there weren't more reviewers that shared my lack of interest in the thoughts and fate of Oscar, the main character. As hard as I tried, I had a hard time empathizing with this character. For me, the best part of a well-written, well developed novel is the opportunity to inhabit the mind, spirit and experiences of another human being, to feel for them, to feel what they feel. For several reasons, I just couldn't get there in this book.
1. Here, the narrator was neither an omniscient voice, nor the main character, but instead, Yunior, another character who related the facts. To me, Yunior's narration was without much insight or understanding. While it was stylistically interesting, it did little to bring Oscar to life.
2. The title refers to Oscar's "brief wondrous life." While I certainly understand the brief part, the wondrous part completely escapes me. To me, Oscar's life was anything but wondrous, and in fact, was at times downright boring. His life was little more than a series of defeats and disappointments, and his one success was too little, too late for me.
3. Pagewise, much of the novel is spent on the lives of Oscar's family members, and not on Oscar. While this material adds to our understanding of the De Leon family history (including the theme of "fuku", the curse), it detracts from Oscar's story.
In conclusion, this is a unique, well written book, but lacks the emotional punch to make it really shine, Pulitzer notwithstanding.
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the american-domincan experience
this is one amazing journey. every character is vibrant, well developed and the book is written in a way in which you might get slightly lost from chapter to chapter, however, you quickly realize the method used by the author, which makes the read that much more enjoyable. I truly belive that you have to be knowledgeable of the Dominican culture to get the most out of this novel. and fuku is pronounced foo-koo. very proud that Mr. Diaz won the Pulitzer price for this work.
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