what's it all about

curiouswao

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz

It's been a week since I've finished this book and I'm still thinking about it. That's alwasy a good sign. It took me four passes on that first paragraph which is unusual in that usually if a book doesn't grab me by the first page, I would have given up on it, unless it was required reading. In the story, Oscar Wao, an overweight, socially awkward Dominican boy comes of age, narrated from the various voices of himself, his family and friends with each narration skillfully incorporating historical events that shaped the Dominican Republic, the horrors of slavery and colonization and the decades-long dictatorship of Trujillo. These and many other things make this book interesting and worth the read. I can tell you I've never seen sentences constructed the way Junot Diaz does them. There is a rough but natural quality to the movement of his words on a page. Writers like Jhumpa Lahiri write words as if it were water, flowing in an ebb and flow that seems to echo back to the most primal, womb-like existence we may not have cognitive memories of but lives in our instinct. Junot's is different. The writing is alive because it jumps right out the page and punches you in the nose for your prompt and quick attention. It doesn't rest. It doesn't let you wallow in the misery. It makes you look at it, at fuku, at loss, at sorrow, at misery, at love with the intent and ferocity that it demands. That's what is all about.

Thanks, Amanda, for this book recommendation.

a clever way to get over a break up

Heartbreaks are nothing new. There are hundreds occurring as we speak, each one significant in its own space. I was driving back to my family for Thanksgiving when I heard this piece on the radio and it made me laugh and made me cry in its cheeky but dead on account of the other-worldly quality that we suddenly see the world through heartbroken eyes. I seem to like things that are both clever and sad at the same time. That's always a winning combination for me. Anyway, this piece entitled Dr. Phil (USA) won the Best Radio Documentary for the Third Coast Festival and it will be available in its full version for a limited time so I hope my sketchy intro here has instigated you enough to hear it while you can.

The writer, Starlee Kine, writes for This American Life about herself, as a girl who on the wake of a break-up decides to write a love song, and not just any kind of love song, a torch song even, the most pathetic ones, the kinds that made careers for Dusty Springfield and the likes. With lyrics that will make your circle of confidante friends' eyes roll wide such as the following: you don't have to say you love me just be close at hand. Pl-ease! Stop!

The funny bits come in as Starlee, dead serious, attempts to do this despite having no musical ability at all and in fact enlists the help of an apt but improbable mentor---Phil Collins. Talk about against all odds. So, grip your hearts and have a listen. It will make you laugh, I promise.

A sneak peak

Everyday I ride the train and more often than not when not reading the paper or a book, people are usually in some sort of a trance and I wonder, always, what they are thinking. I wish there was some kind of device that would allow you a view of the images in one's mind.

If one can see mine, this is what they will see. It's all coming together.