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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | 
| Author: Junot Diaz
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.63
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Avg. Customer Rating:  176 reviews
Sales Rank: 502
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 2.1
ISBN: 1594489580
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781594489587
ASIN: 1594489580
Publication Date: September 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
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
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 Fukoe-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.
Daz 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 Daz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 171 more reviews...
 Oscar Wao Sucks September 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Worst book I ever tried to read. Put it down in disgust after only 4 chapters. Lots of Spanish words not translated and huge boring footnotes trying to explain situations or references to people.
 WOW! I loved it! September 1, 2008
I just finished reading about Oscar & his familia - real characters I know that I've met. Wonderful storytelling - weaving in DR history (that I didn't know) - and sending me to the Spanglish dictionary several times. Truly a great book!
I Loved Oscar - 4.5/5 stars August 31, 2008
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was a very different kind of book for me. I enjoyed it very much, however, I found it very difficult as well. I attribute this to the fact that I had the audio version for this Pulitzer-Prize winner. There was a lot of use of Spanglish, and for someone without a Spanish background this was tough. The story itself was wonderful.
Told through the eyes of various narrators, readers enter the frightening world of a Dominican Republic family living in New Jersey. The characters' lives are overflowing with injustices, unrequited love, lost opportunities, physical cruelties, and as one narrator points out, an ancient Dominican curse called Fuku.
Oscar Wao, is a nice guy, who longs for love but he finds a lot of road blocks along the way: he's fat, a comic book, sci-fi, and fantasy nerd, and a loser. These undesirable characteristics diminish his chances of finding love. The love he so desperately craves, continues to elude him, and we witness the lengths Oscar is willing to endure just for the opportunity, however brief to feel love. Oscar is a poignant, painful, and lovable character who is in constant battle with his delusions. The female characters: Oscar's mother and sister, were very memorable as well. Their own brutal histories and sacrifices are heartbreaking.
I highly recommend this luminous, and humorous book, however, I would recommend the print version as opposed to the audio version, simply because of the English/Spanish difficulty I had.
I Have Never Read a Book Like This One August 28, 2008
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.
spanglish Is Swonderful August 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 is not vital to comprehension of the plot. The novel flies by because Diaz writes in a conversational manner, a storyteller of sorts. As readers, we sympathize for Oscar and all his social failures but also question the source of his inabilities. Adolescent angst, or a curse of his family? Regardless of who causes Oscar to suffer from nerdiness, obesity and unrequited love, we sit enthralled in his story, his sister's story, his mother and grandmother's story, and the Dominican story. The sarcasm and ease with which the book is written makes The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao less of a novel and more of a movie. A story that hits every emotion, crying at points, laughing at others, Oscar Wao is a true gem in modern literature because it's focus is the language and not some convoluted and yet trite plot. A great light read, one of the best I've read this year.
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