The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot D?az
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Book Summary Information
Author: Junot D?azEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-02
ISBN: 1594483299
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Book Reviews of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Book Review: Forgettable, regrettable
Summary: 1 Stars
I wanted to like this book, I really did. But this is not Oscar's story. It's about his sister and his mother. It starts out promisingly and then gets lost in it's own stream of consciousness garble and it's footnotes (that are laborious and really break up the cadence of the narrative). I also balked at the use of the N word. It's unnecessary in this day and age to use that word so often and flippantly. (In a book about slavery by Toni Morrison or Edward P Jones, I can take it because it's relevant....here it is just (over)used for shock value). A big miss for me. I did not find it humorous or interesting or relevant.
Summary of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The most talked about-and praised-first novel of 2007, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize.Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who-from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister- dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fuk?-a curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao<./I> opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere-and risk it all-in the name of love.
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: It's been 11 years since Junot D?az'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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