The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

After dinner yesterday, I started reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz—and I didn’t close that book until I read the last page. I loved it. At first, I was sort of disappointed that it wasn’t about Yunior’s life—I really liked Junot Diaz’s short stories written from the point of view of Yunior—but as I got to the middle, I realized that the book was narrated by Yunior (for the most part—a little bit is narrated from the point of view of Lola, Oscar’s sister and Yunior’s ex-girlfriend)—just with a focus on Oscar, a friend of Yunior’s. With this story, Yunior has emerged from underneath the shadow of his late brother, Rafa. Yunior is a confident and attractive Dominican male—and he tries to help out Oscar, an overweight “nerdboy” that loves writing, and loves girls (although they hardly ever reciprocate). Like all the short stories we’ve read by Junot Diaz, this one is as blunt and raw and real—taboo subjects avoided? No way. Curbing of profanity? Hell no. Although these elements are risky to include—more often then not, these detract from the writing—Diaz blends these elements so seamlessly into the substance of the story that they end up enhancing the writing. These are a (large) part of life in the ghetto, and Diaz isn’t shy about telling it as it is. This truth is why I love Junot Diaz. His stories are so believable—the words on the page aren’t just letters, they bring the characters to life—they bring the story to life. I never find myself doubting that the stories aren’t true—with the amount of details, the carefree spontaneity of the dialogue, the little flaws and imperfections so characteristic of real life—the story is seeped in truth. I like the fact that the characters aren’t perfect. I like the fact that things don’t always work out for the characters. I like the fact that the characters do things that are blatantly stupid in the lens of hindsight. And Junot Diaz exploits these desires of the reader to be able to identify with the imperfect characters—that’s his secret...along with the perfect dose of humor and swearing, that is ;)