The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz


Interesting is about the best I can come up with right now to describe this book. Did I enjoy it? Yeah it was an enjoyable read. Would I recommend it? Probably not. Would I read something else by this author? Yes, in a heartbeat. I wasn't very interested in the main character but I kept reading because I really enjoyed the writing and I also really enjoyed the story behind the character, his family, their history and the Dominican Republic. Oscar and I just didn't hit it off. I could have been besties with his sister though.
Let me explain. Oscar is a loser who wants to get laid. He is a great writer but a disaster of a person. He is odd, not very social and throughout the book our narrator blames the fukú, a curse on the family. We don't really hear from Oscar himself but from the people around him who describe him and his habits in detail. But in explaining him, our narrators describe the history of his family, and how they became cursed. Those are the moments that really shined to me. The moments when the history of the other characters were laid bare. The characters were well developed and the bits of history regarding Trujillo and the Dominican Republic was really fascinating. I just didn't care for Oscar and he was the center of the story.
Díaz though like I said before is an author I want to read more of. He has a great writing style that kept me intrigued I just wish I had been more interested in this particular story. I give this 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

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