The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoJunot Diaz
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao marks the second of my reading resolution titles for 2009. I had heard nothing but praise for this novel, so I expected it to either a) be absolutely astounding, or b) be a piece of crap. Surprisingly, neither option ended up happening. Instead, I found I liked Oscar Wao much more than Oscar Wao.
The novel follows Oscar, a Dominican nerd who lacks the lady skills Dominicans are known for. Instead of being a lady killer, girls either run from Oscar or mock them. It doesn't help that Oscar is hugely overweight and has a penchant for fantasy. Any young man who enjoys Dungeons & Dragons and openly discusses The Lord of the Rings will have a problem getting laid.
Unfortunately Oscar grows up in a culture that values virility in its men. Unwilling to die a virgin, Oscar is determined to experience love -- that is, reciprocated, not unrequited love -- at least once in his life. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao follows Oscar in his quest.
As we follow Oscar in his quest, we are also treated to the histories of his older sister, mother, and other relatives, the lives of whom all had some influence on Oscar's current situation and on his future. At times these digressions felt absolutely necessary to the text; other times, I felt frustrated by being denied Oscar's story and I craved some editing to shorten what felt like unnecessarily long passages. Diaz also includes long asides about the history of the Dominican Republic, and again, at times these asides were welcomed and at others they were anything but. I admit to skimming many of these historical passages, eager to return to Oscar and his personal story.
Besides the character of Oscar, the other best aspect of the novel was, for me, the narrative voice. Oscar Wao is narrated by a friend of Oscar's, a friend whose voice is a blend of urban slang, Dominican vocabulary, and all-out hysteria. There were a more than a few times that I laughed out loud at one of his comments. My only complaint about the narration was the large frequency of times that Spanish was used without any indication of its meaning; I did my best to figure it out, using both contextual clues and my knowledge of French, which did help a little...nevertheless, there were still times when I was unable to discern what was being said, and that annoyed me.
In a nutshell: Oscar Wao itself could have affected me more, but Oscar Wao himself stole my heart.
Bibliolatry Scale: 4 out of 6 stars
The novel follows Oscar, a Dominican nerd who lacks the lady skills Dominicans are known for. Instead of being a lady killer, girls either run from Oscar or mock them. It doesn't help that Oscar is hugely overweight and has a penchant for fantasy. Any young man who enjoys Dungeons & Dragons and openly discusses The Lord of the Rings will have a problem getting laid.
Unfortunately Oscar grows up in a culture that values virility in its men. Unwilling to die a virgin, Oscar is determined to experience love -- that is, reciprocated, not unrequited love -- at least once in his life. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao follows Oscar in his quest.
As we follow Oscar in his quest, we are also treated to the histories of his older sister, mother, and other relatives, the lives of whom all had some influence on Oscar's current situation and on his future. At times these digressions felt absolutely necessary to the text; other times, I felt frustrated by being denied Oscar's story and I craved some editing to shorten what felt like unnecessarily long passages. Diaz also includes long asides about the history of the Dominican Republic, and again, at times these asides were welcomed and at others they were anything but. I admit to skimming many of these historical passages, eager to return to Oscar and his personal story.Besides the character of Oscar, the other best aspect of the novel was, for me, the narrative voice. Oscar Wao is narrated by a friend of Oscar's, a friend whose voice is a blend of urban slang, Dominican vocabulary, and all-out hysteria. There were a more than a few times that I laughed out loud at one of his comments. My only complaint about the narration was the large frequency of times that Spanish was used without any indication of its meaning; I did my best to figure it out, using both contextual clues and my knowledge of French, which did help a little...nevertheless, there were still times when I was unable to discern what was being said, and that annoyed me.
In a nutshell: Oscar Wao itself could have affected me more, but Oscar Wao himself stole my heart.
Bibliolatry Scale: 4 out of 6 stars
6 comments:
I have this on the TBRs for the next month or two and have heard so much about it that I'm not sure what to expect. Thanks for a fresh perspective!
I was not super impressed with the novel, but it wasn't all bad. I thought it tried a little too hard to be post-modern, and I too, wished for a Spanish-to-English dictionary. Good review.
This was one of the books that popped up in my book club's book exchange. It was stolen 4 times - far more than any other book! I'm really looking forward to reading it eventually ... it sounds like my kind of book. :)
Interesting that what you found annoying is exactly what I found exciting about the book...
Well, first I must say that I do speak Spanish, so I appreciated the flavour of a real Dominican voice, which must be necessarily in Spanish. But at the same time I was asking myself how some readers who do not speak good Spanish would react to all the non-translated phrses.
I didn't mind all the historical background and I enjoyed the story of Oscar's mother but I also wanted more of Oscar. He's a great character!
If you wanted to try reading it again, or just to look up some of the words that you missed, I pulled together a site for Oscar Wao with some translations and pop culture reference definitions - hopefully it will help! http://www.annotated-oscar-wao.com
Kim - what an awesome site! Thanks!
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