Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Dear everyone on the planet,

I'd like to introduce you to one of the most original and bizarre books I've read in a long time. I've been blessed that my recent reading has led me down a path of nothing but great books, but this is wonderful on a whole 'nother level. The feeling I get when thinking about this book reminds me of when I first fell in love with Jeanette Winterson's writing so many years ago. The warm fuzzies, the long nights with my book light trying to sneak in just another page before my wife cries that she can't sleep; it's love.

How can I describe Oscar Wao? We have all known him in one form or another, maybe even in ourselves. He's sad, he's obsessed with Science Fiction (to him, those words are definitely capitalized), he's crazy for girls, and he's all of our nerdiness combined into one. I can finally relax and know that there is someone out there, fictional or not, who hands down makes me look smooth.

Combine the walking disaster that is Oscar Wao with the author's obvious devotion to Science Fiction, his meticulous research of the Dominican Republic, and his mere brilliance with spinning a great yarn. What you get is the perfect blend of exactly what turns me on as a reader. Not only me though. Diaz's first book, Drown, cemented him as a "landmark of contemporary literature." I read an interview with Diaz saying that he is the first critically-acclaimed author out of the Dominican Republic. I'm not sure if this is true, but if he is, others have a hard road to follow. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is marvelous and a joy to read. Allow yourselves to get lost in the footnotes, in the fuku, and in the family. While I thought about it, I'm going to resist the urge to give away the ending. It's my favorite part of the book and made me give Oscar a huge hi5 in the sky for becoming one of the bravest characters in contemporary literature.

Congratulations to Junot Diaz for patching together a pretty seamless novel of epic proportions.

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