"They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles."
Description:
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fuku--the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim--until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.
With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Diaz immerses us in the uproarius lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious beauty-queen mother Belicia, and in the family's epic journey from Santo Domingo to Washington Heights to New Jersey's Bergen-line and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere--and to risk it all--in the name of love.
A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time. -- from the inside flap.
My thoughts:
I enjoyed this book about a Dominican-American man trying to find his way in New Jersey and Santo Domingo.
Date read: 11/7/2013
Book #: 32
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction
ISBN-10: 1594489580
ISBN-13: 9781594489587
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Year: 2007
# of pages: 335
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page
No comments:
Post a Comment