Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Oscar Waos korte, makeløse liv

This was the best book I've read all year. Hands down. Couldn't wait to give this a 5 stars. Would give more if I could.

I see Oscar so much in the people I've known and in myself, the Nerd of Color. The deeper connection with the women in his family was so beautiful (Lola and Beli for sure! and a whole monument to La Inca), these beautiful complicated women creating the structures that he would develop within, complete with their own difficulty grappling with freedom and independence, womanhood and the role love plays within it, generations of de Leon's fantasizing about being saved. This was just - amazing.

Oscar, that lovable nerd, and the own nerdiness of the narrator, Lola's novio, was cringeworthy in accuracy and I laughed and cringed with each self-sabotaging, self-deprecating line. Being a teenage/early adult nerd in constant love was something I felt so deeply. That juxtaposed against his cultural pedigree, the reputation that smothered him about Dominican men and their lothario prowess, was a new level of angst and anxiety I have rarely articulated but wholeheartedly appreciated seeing in print.

And the cadence of the narrator? UGH -- amazing. I've heard this language, this perfect weaving of the profane and the obscene with salient witticism, was comfortably colloquial and so accessible. It felt like the stories you heard in hushed whispers once the relatives got enough liquor in them at the cookout. Like....nostalgia. Like home.

I don't want to go into detail because I think the story is so perfect that I'd rather someone read it first. It made me literally laugh out loud more times than I can count, and actually made me cry on no less than three occasions. Truly the best book I've read this year and there were some heaters on the list already but this was truly a fucking awesome read and I am now a Junot Diaz forever fan.

Stop reading this review and go read it. Just -- go read it right now!!!

Content Warnings

georgie700's review against another edition

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Misogynistic

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jessgreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Rating: ⭐⭐✨⬜⬜⬜

Title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Author: Junot Diaz

Genre: Fiction

Setting: New Jersey, USA & The Dominican Republic

Month Read: March 2022

Book Type: Paperback

Publication: 2008

Publisher: Riverhead Trade

Pages: 340

*PBS Great American Read Book

TRIGGER WARNING-

Murder / Forced Abortion / Abuse / Graphic Violence / Sex / Alcohol / Suicide Attempt / Language / Racism / Classism / (there are more, these are the big ones I remember)

"...and when he thought about the way she laughed, as though she owned the air around her, his heart thundered inside his chest, a lonely rada."

No Spoiler Summary:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is about Oscar, a Dominican-American nerd who lives in New Jersey. He's overweight, loves J.R.R. Tolkein, is bad with the ladies, and watches tons of anime and manga. He wants to find love more than anything else, but because he believes his family is cursed, he is unlucky. You follow Oscar's family through a few generations as you follow the curse through their familial line as you travel from Santo Domingo to Jersey.

Review:

I'm not sure what I was expecting in this book, but whatever it was was not what I thought it would be. I think the writing was really beautiful in spaces, and the story, while sort of confusing to me, was really interesting. I didn't love this book, but I think, like with Harlem Shuffle this book was certainly not written for me in mind. I did google a LOT of Spanish during this book, so that was cool. I did love how Junot Diaz didn't simplify the Spanish very often, you almost never got an explanation as to what the Spanish meant, and I really enjoyed that because it forced me to do the work to figure it out.

I think I would have liked this book if I didn't recently read The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, as well. The books were pretty similar in theme (a generational family epic following many, many generations of people), and personally I think Love Songs did it a lot better? Or maybe it was just more engaging. I definitely recommend giving this a shot and seeing if you like it. Let me know if you've read this and what you think! I'm open to discussing this!

"She was the kind of girlfriend God gives you young, so you'll know loss the rest of your life."

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