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.