The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Díaz, Junot Díaz, Junot Diaz

English language

Published by Faber Moderns.

ISBN:: 978-0-571-30203-1

(20 reviews)

Things have never been easy for Oscar. A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, he's sweet but disastrously overweight. He dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and he keeps falling hopelessly in love. Poor Oscar may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku - the curse that has haunted his family for generations.

With dazzling energy and insight Díaz immerses us in the tumultuous lives of Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, their beautiful mother Belicia, and in the family's uproarious journey from the Dominican Republic to the US and back.

Rendered with uncommon warmth and humour, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a literary triumph, that confirms Junot Díaz as one of the most exciting writers of our time.

12 editions

annewalk reviewed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Strong Narrative Voice

3 stars

I liked the use of a strong narrative voice in this book, and that the story is narrated through the eyes of one of the side characters. The world inhabited by the characters is dangerous and difficult and I really got a sense of it. I did find the language (racism, misogyny, fatphobia, etc) difficult to deal with. I didn't like the protagonist, Oscar, a young man with Incel/stalker tendencies, and I had a hard time empathizing with him. This isn't always necessary in order to enjoy a novel but, in this case, I thought my ambivalence toward him lessened the effect of the conclusion. Overall, I'm glad to have read this story. I may go through it at a later date and read through the footnotes which I left out as they slowed the pace of the story.

tiff reviewed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Review of 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I rarely give a book five stars but as a writer I just had to. I loved the narrator's voice. Yunior had a distinct, urban Spanglish, of today's generation that just absolutely blew me away. Oscar was a lovably morose character and his nerdiness appealed to me because in junior high I had a thing for science fiction novels, I was a habitual writer, and I played video games like non-stop. So Oscar appealed to me on many levels.

Beli's story really resonated with me as well. When she was young...gosh, her struggle just...WOW.

I appreciated the down to earth personalities of each of the characters in this book (except the older Beli) and their honesty as well. The only bad thing about this book for me were the constant foot notes Diaz used. They were necessary but distracting. As a writer, I would have probably done the same thing …