The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | 
| Author: Junot Diaz
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  461 reviews
Sales Rank: 620
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1594483299
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781594483295
ASIN: 1594483299
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: It's been 11 years since Junot Diaz'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
Product Description
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 fuku 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 456 more reviews...
Great read March 1, 2010
M. Minkin (Chicago, IL)
I'm not Dominican, but I lived in "way uptown" Manhattan for many years so I certainly experienced a lot of Dominican-American culture. Maybe that's what it takes to "get" this book, but if you're open-minded, I doubt it. I am amazed that people could call this writing style lazy. It's a highly stylized version of how a lot of people really talk, and I was impressed how he took a speaking style and turned it into a corresponding writing style--the long-winded descriptions, the use of colloquialisms, the use of Spanglish, the irregular interjections. Brilliant. The only thing that kind of irked me about the writing style were the insanely long footnotes. I was never sure if I was obliged to read them or if it was safe to skip them. It's a character piece of an unlikely hero (the nerdy teenage-angsty Wao) told by a couple rather stereotypical voices. I thought it was a great read. Recommended.
 Incredible book February 26, 2010
Alicia Copeland (Brooklyn, NY)
This book was incredible. It is definitely one of the best books I have ever read, which is not surprising since it won the Pulitzer Prize (that is actually why I had put it on my wishlist; one of my methods for finding new books is looking at lists of award recipients).
The book is set in both the Bronx and the Dominican Republic. It tells the story of Oscar Wao, an unpopular, Dominican nerd, and his family. The book combines Dominican history and culture with a classic and compelling coming of age story. While the book is mostly in English, Diaz mixes in Spanish words and phrases regularly. However, at no point did I feel excluded or isolated. Instead, this book became the determining factor in my beginning to learn Spanish in my free time. That is how good it is; it inspired me to do something. I recommend this book to anyone. Read it.
 Even being a Spanish speaker may not help February 26, 2010
A. Leyack (None of your business, California, USA)
A friend lent me this book and told me that he had some difficulty with it because he doesn't know much Spanish. Figured I'd do better with it since I do speak Spanish with near fluency. As previous reviewers have mentioned, the book does contain several phrases and words in Spanish that are not translated. The issue is, even if you speak Spanish but aren't familiar with some Dominican/Caribbean specific terms, you may still find it difficult to understand. There were a lot of words I was unfamiliar with and asking my husband who is a native Latin American Spanish speaker was also no help since even he didn't understand some of the words. So, that was frustrating because a lot of these phrases were key to understanding the characters and various situations well.
The Spanish piece aside, the book was wonderful. So unique in the language used and fascinating character development. Sure, a book with the term "brief life" in the title, you have a pretty good feeling things aren't going to work out for the main character- but, it's ok. It is, in a lot of ways, an uplifting and wonderful story.
Also interesting about the book was the history of the Dominican Republic. One thing I would recommend is making sure to read up a little bit (Wikipedia?) on Trujillo and the DR's history from the 40's on. I ended up doing that, but only after I was about halfway through the book. Would have been better had I done before starting as Diaz jumps into Trujillo et. al at the very beginning.
 Devoid of Hope... February 17, 2010
Francisco Morazan (Schaumburg, IL)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Devoid of hope is how I could sum up this book. I read this for a book club and I can say I enjoyed some portions of it: specifically, Dominican history under the genocidal dictator Trujill*, some insights into Dominican culture, the build-up of the characters, and especially the writers voice overall with its "hipness" intact. However, even after all of these complimentary things I can still say the perpetual frustrations and tragedies under this "fuku'ed family (and particularly Oscar) with a generous helping of hopelessness and despair of the Trujill* years and especially the "conclusion" really killed it for me...I cannot recommend this to anyone, and I will definitely give it a grade of D- when I attend the next book club meeting. If you would like a story with similar characters (at least in terms of Oscar but with a dose of coolness) and hipness, with a lot more humor, and a generally brighter and unusual plot then I strongly suggest The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust instead of this book of despondency. If you enjoy wallowing in depression and despair or more appropriately like to see Dominicans crushed to the ground time and time again, if you like the bad guy to win and the good to lose each in every time then I suggest this book for your crazy ***...
Tears at the End February 14, 2010
S. L. Collins (Hermosa Beach, CA USA)
I have occasionally shed a tear or two when reading a portion of a novel, but I can't recall ever tearing up at the conclusion. I'm not sure how to explain the reaction, but I think it was to the sheer beauty of the work in its totality -- its seamless evocation of the worst and the best in us.
Did I understand the words that were in a different language? Not usually. Did I understand all the political information and anecdotes, often footnoted? Rarely. And I'm fairly clueless when it comes to Oscar's preferred genre. But I was fascinated by all the above and grasped enough to know that this was a tale about all of us, not just one culture or one country.
It's a heartbreaking work that deals beautifully, unflinchingly with all that it means to be human. To those offended by "dirty" words or by inferred preoccupation with sex, I have nothing to offer except my pity for your having missed all that this amazingly talented author offered you in this poetic novel.
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