Monday, December 29, 2008

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz



This book was very interesting and I really really enoyed it. I have been lucky to get a great run of books lately. This book chronicles the life of Oscar and his family from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to where Oscar lives in New Jersy. It is a dark novel, with humor and sadness. Oscar is overweight, has never had a girlfriend and has never really fit in. Life is hard for him and the narrator says that is because a fuku (a curse) has been put on his family years ago and has brought bad luck to all his decendents. We learn about the horrors of the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic and how the people suffered. I really liked the footnotes in the novel that gave me a background on the Dominican and other characters that I didn't know about. I felt that this helped the book flow better and allowed me to really understand the book.

This is a great book to just sit down and read, with a cup of tea and no interruptions!

5 comments:

Bybee said...

I'm thinking about trying to talk book group into this one.

myza said...

It would be a great bookclub book...there is lots to talk about!

Susan said...

I found you via Bybee :-) I really want to read this book! I still don't have it. I'm glad you liked it so much. Where in Canada are you? I'm in Ottawa. I love the title of your blog, too!

Susan said...

Sorry, i jsut saw you are in Turkey. Sorry about thinking you were in Canada, normally no one wants to read our literature (including ourselves!) :-)

myza said...

I am originally from Nova Scotia but live in Turkey now. I try to read as many Canadian books as I can and I am mad at myself for not bringing more with me to Turkey because they are pretty hard to find here!

What is your blog's address, Susan?