What readers think of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, plus links to write your own review.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is a novel published in the year 2007 to unprecedented acclaim, and the novel turned to be a huge critical and popular success winning The National Book Critics Award and The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Junot Diaz published his debut, which was called Drown, a collection of short stories that also received high acclaim from multiple critics including Hermoine Lee, the great literary biographer of Penelope Fitzgerald; yet it was not until this first novel, this masterpiece of diasporic fiction that he shot his way up to the stars.

This book is well written, smart, funny and unpretentious, and it has one of the few endings that have made me cry, ever. Unlike other books where you are built up and feel disappointed about the lack or originality in which the story unfolds, this book keeps you interested until the last page (though the title suggest what will happen).

I loved how the story was told by and unexpected person and loved learning the story of the whole family rather than just the main character, as it gives you and idea of how they became what they were and why so unusual it is to find a person like Oscar in it.

It does, however, have a bittersweet taste for me as a Dominican (born, raised and living in the DR) given that it portrays Dominican men to be insensitive and compulsive cheaters, being Wao himself the only exception. Again he is a "nerd", and that is unusual to find (as said in the book) amongst Dominican men.

In conclusion, very recommended, I will surely read this book again.

What an odd book! It’s without doubt one of the most unusual novels I’ve ever read. I think I did like it, more or less, and I recommend reading it. It’s so different, though, that it left me unsure for awhile as to how I felt about it. I’m sure, though, it’ll stick with me a long time, and it motivated me enough to read other works by this author.

The book’s description doesn’t provide a good idea of what it’s actually about. The jacket makes the reader think it’ll be a coming-of-age story, with the protagonist being a nerdy New York boy from the Dominican Republic. Some of it is, in fact, just that. There’s a lot more to this novel, however. There’s quite a lot of Dominican Republic history here, as well as the stories of Oscar’s mother and sister, as narrated by another individual (who isn’t revealed until about halfway through the book). The plot jumps around a lot, although the divisions are clear enough that it’s easy to follow the plot line. It was entertaining, and in places chuckle-out-loud funny.

The author slips in a lot of Spanish, and as someone who knows very little Spanish, I found this frustrating. He also included numerous fantasy references. If you’re not familiar with Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and other classics of this genre, you may feel lost.

Overall, though, a fantastic novel. Very original.

Diaz's first novel, after his short story collection Drown, is an exciting entry in the growing list of Caribbean literature. Diaz tells the story of the unlucky - in so many ways - Oscar de Leon through multiple voices, detailing the fuku that appears to curse's family. Each one of these voices tells Oscar's sad story, but also the modern history of the Dominican Republic and Dolinicians in The United States. The voice of the main narrator - Yunior, a collegiate friend and tormentor of Oscar - is brilliant. Using a fast-talking, Spanish-sprinkling, name-dropping, pop-culture-referenced voice, Yunior draws the reader into Oscar and his family; the reader is also drawn into the 30 year rule of the country's dictator, which shapes Oscar's fate as Oscar and his mother are linked to Oscar's grandfather - an early victim of the dictator. The book, by a young, emerging author, is enthralling and enjoyable!

Well, this is a very strange book. Bizarre. Weird. Peculiar. The storyline of this multigenerational epic is convoluted—skipping around in time in a way that is abrupt and confusing. The prose is breathless and fast-paced—so much so that reading this book felt like the literary equivalent of being punched in the face.

Oh, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008, as well as winning The National Book Critics Circle Award and being named one of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. So who am I to quibble?

And then something interesting happened. When I started the book, it was a one-star rating in my mind, but soon enough it elevated to two or even three stars. About halfway through, it rose to four stars. Why? It is the power of fiction to tell a story from history that is so much more formidable and personal than a recitation of facts. NOW I understand why it won the Pulitzer.

Written by Junot Diaz, this is primarily the story of a smart, nerdy kid named Oscar de León who weighs more than 300 pounds and is obsessed from a young age with losing his virginity. But even more so—the title not withstanding—this is the story of Oscar's family, all the way back to his grandparents who died under mysterious circumstances during the reign of terror of Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, who ruled that country with an iron fist. Oscar's family is said to have a curse on it, so subsequent generations blame all the bad things that happen to them—and there is a multitude of bad things that happen—on this curse.

The story follows several characters, but most especially Oscar's grandmother (who is really his great aunt), La Inca; his mother, Belicia; and his sister, Lola. The family now lives in Paterson, New Jersey, but there are frequent flashbacks to Santo Domingo, and toward the end of the book, they visit their island home. As teenage Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien, he spends his time reading science fiction, writing novels, and chasing girls. As a young man in his 20s, Oscar—still a virgin—travels to his family's homeland with his mother, sister, and uncle, and his life forever changes when he falls in love with a middle-aged prostitute who lives next door to his grandmother. Ah, but nothing is simple, is it? Her boyfriend is a police captain…a very jealous police captain.

Although this is a novel, the book contains dozens of footnotes, some of which are several pages long. The footnotes primarily provide historical background on the plot developments, as well Dominican legends, myths, voodoo, and superstitions. The book makes more sense if you read the footnotes.

This is not an easy book to read. It's like a fever dream on steroids that is touched with a bit of magical realism. This is obviously an important part of our literary heritage, but read with caution.

I am in the minority, but I found that the wall of bilingual filthy language, graphic violence, and brutality too much to plow through. While this is a prize winning book and praised by literary experts, it was too much for me to retain these images in my mind. I am an educated senior, fluent in Spanish, so had to endure the public restroom style descriptions of every part of the human body in two languages. I deeply sympathize with people who have to live this way, but I would prefer to have read a history book about the Trujillo era. Sorry.

This is a very good book but I could not enjoy it at all. there was way too much cursing and I understand that it is a part of the"book's emotion" but if cursing every page is a problem as it is for me than its not possible to enjoy. Also if you can not understand Spanish than this book may become a little confusing and you will not be able to enjoy the full effect and powerfulness of the text. And many told me that our group can relate to this book and if your life is not remarkably tragic,are hispanic,or a complete outcast then you can not relate to this book.The only way I can relate is partially to his obsession with anime. I was honestly looking forward to reading this because of how a teacher described it( it could not be read at that time because a parent did not approve of the foul language and now i can see why) but now I feel a distance from myself and the people I know who enjoyed the book, luckily there aren't many I'm close to.