The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“Absolutely heartbreaking.”

• Rated 5 stars

“This book is full-packed. Funny and interestingly written by Mr. Diaz. This book is the definition of unorthodox yet wonderfully written :) Oscar Wao's life was really wondrous indeed. When I was reading the book, I was really laughing. This book is seriously hilarious and unpredictable as well! I love how Mr. Diaz put some classical curse of what you call fuku. The ending was even fulfilling for Oscar. I remember while reading this, I had also my Spanish dictionary beside me. This book is especially not just entertaining but also educational for me because I learned new Spanish words.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Read before my trip to DR and after reading In the time of the Butterflies. I am glad I did as basic knowledge of the Trujillo dictatorship helped me understand this story better. I didn't relaize that the author is actually the narrator in the book until the very end....so Junot Diaz (author) is Oscar's sisters ex-boyfriend???!!”

• Rated 4 stars

“To be honest, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. It served to be a fascinating glimpse inside the life of not just Oscar (wondrous as he is) but also that of his family. Steeped in history of the Dominican Republic, yet set also in present day New Jersey, Diaz delivers a certain kind of story that really hit home for me. In it, the characters struggle, the are beaten down, lifted up, they make mistakes, they try to redeem themselves and ultimately conclude: "That's life for you. All the happiness you gather to yourself, it will sweep away like it's nothing. If you ask me I don't think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. That's enough."”

• Rated 3 stars

“A bilingual history of the violent Trujillo years in the Dominican Republic with the story of Oscar and his family thrown in. I liked it but don't quite understand why it was so praised.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Have never really read a book quite like this. It received The Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. The author's voice was amazing, especially for a first-time novelist. I had read other books about this period in the Dominican Republic and this one was stunning and at times graphic. It would be a great book for a discussion group. So unique it almost defies description.”

• Rated 3 stars

“"The most talked about—and praised—first novel of 2007, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister— dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love." Amazon.com”

• Rated 5 stars

“read it and reading it again.”

• Rated 3 stars

“While I ended up enjoying Diaz's book of an overweight sci-fi Dominican geek, it took me several attempts initially to get into the book. The unique aspect of the storyline is the regular and rather seamless interspersing between an English language written book, but with a large amount of Spanish sentences and phrases thrown in, very much as one might hear naturally in the speech of a family or individual whose first language was not English, and with no translation generally provided. The other unusual aspect for a novel that intrigued me was the large amount of footnoting for a novel, some of it tongue in cheek, but most providing further information on the history of the Dominican Republic (Santa Dominica), an area I knew very little to nothing prior to reading this novel. That footnoting alone was a clever and well handled approach to writing in a conversational tone about a life that would not be familiar to many non-Dominicans (or at least non-immigrants). Still, this exposure was balanced with a very universal character of fat, geeky underdog who we come to care about. While I will not spoil the ending for anyone, it didn't end at all the way I'd anticipated, though I was not disappointed. An engaging and well done novel. ”

• Rated 2 stars

“I found it hard to read. It was good, but made me never want to visit the DR.”