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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | 
 enlarge | Author: Junot Diaz
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.34
You Save: $10.61 (43%)
New (53) Used (32) Collectible (15) from $14.34
Rating:  147 reviews
Sales Rank: 48
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 2.1
ISBN: 1594489580
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781594489587
ASIN: 1594489580
Publication Date: September 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ALL BOOKS ARE BRAND NEW
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: It's been 11 years since Junot Diaz's critically acclaimed story collection, Drown, landed on bookshelves and from page one of his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, any worries of a sophomore jinx disappear. The titular Oscar is a 300-pound-plus "lovesick ghetto nerd" with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is also the story of a multi-generational family curse that courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake. This was the most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I've read in a long time. My head is still buzzing with the memory of dozens of killer passages that I dog-eared throughout the book. The rope-a-dope narrative is funny, hip, tragic, soulful, and bursting with desire. Make some room for Oscar Wao on your bookshelf--you won't be disappointed. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Product Description
This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today.
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar 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 Fukoe-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.
D az immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot D az as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 142 more reviews...
 the weird life of Oscar Wao July 6, 2008
S. Walter (Huntington, NY USA)
While I am sure this is an accurate portrayal of life under Trujillo it was hard to get past the obscenities that liberally sprinkled this book. The use of so much Spanish made part of the book incomprehensible to one who does not know the language.
 Not brief enough. July 6, 2008
J. A. Forsyth (Montrose, CO)
If you read Spanish this is an interesting book but I was frustrated by not knowing the language.
Language is a bit problematic July 5, 2008
J. Phillips (Colorado)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Diaz hits it big with this novel, but. . .
Unlike Frank McCourt, Sherman Alexie, et. al., Diaz doesn't set out to show his people's shortcomings and failures. He just spins a great story, full of fuku and a Man With No Face.
This book has the typical makings of Pulitzer Awards: A minority immigrant writes about how difficult life is where he came from and even harder trying to avoid assimilation in America. And of course, America is often a villain in this story. Futhermore, the middle and lower class reader can't access the Spanish unless they happen to speak the language. So a certain exclusivity is created that limits the reading to a certain class. Like I said, perfect Pulitzer material here.
The language is incredibly self-indulgent. He drops the N-Bomb like it's the coolest thing ever spoken, and the supposed "high-energy Spanglish" is really something like this: Slang, English, then Spanish, then more slang. He falls into a Spanish phrase at the very moment a character reveals something crucial during a passage. This is a problem "reading in context" isn't going to solve. If you don't speak Espanol, you're going to miss a lot.
I loved and hated Drown for similar reasons, and Diaz has found a voice that rings true with so many readers. But he is another example of a writer criticizing America's treatment of minorities--offering no answers and no accountability for the downtrodden-- while living one of the nicest lives one can live in America.
A little wow for Wao June 28, 2008
Steve Duffy (Austin TX)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have to say I liked it. Kind of a day-in-the-life story that spans a long time. I found it infectious and descriptive, the kind of story that has you thinking the way the characters think and speak. Ending wasn't very clear but is good anyway. Definitely worth reading for the how it pulls you into the feel of it.
 A transcendent novel about the power of love. June 24, 2008
Paul Stotts (San Diego, CA USA)
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
In contrast with last year's Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction, Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" which is a novel of intense despair and lack of hope, Junot Diaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", this year's Pulitzer winner, is brimming with life and hope. It is a special novel, heartbreaking sweet and touching and filled with an overwhelming sense of human warmth. This is literature as a form of magic, a wonderful spell that entrances and makes us feel better about the human experience. It is a novel that filled my heart with hope.
The novel follows the life and times of a Dominican-American family: the beautiful and fierce mother, Belicia, the smart, intensely-driven daughter, Lola, and Oscar, an obese sci-fi/fantasy-loving nerd who is unlucky in love. A history of family misfortunes and tragedies leads the family to believe they are haunted by an ancient curse or fuku. As one may expect from the title, Oscar is the main focus of the story, but each of the three main characters, as well as other members of the family, have chapters detailing their own story. We watch as each character struggles to find their own answer to the fuku, all of them seemingly unsuccessful and doomed to misfortune.
The question eventually arises, though, in the novel: can love overcome tragedy? Does embracing love so intensely in the face of peril speak only of the tragedy or of something else transcendent? We only have to envision the Christian crucifix to comprehend the import of this question. But this is also what makes "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" so human and transcendent.
Diaz writes with a manic energy that imbues the story with a vast amount of life and heart. Passion flows from the pages like happy waves lapping against the reader. The characterizations, particularly of Oscar, are vivid and brilliant. Diaz lays his characters out fully open in front of us with all their flaws exposed, and eventually, this honesty charmed me, leading me to embrace these wonderful characters. I loved them for their honesty, love and passion.
Last Word:
It is a rare thing when a novel can truly capture a transcendent emotion like love, lay it out, and enrich everyone who reads about it. Junot Diaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is such a novel, and deserves to be celebrated and recognized as a great American literary treasure.
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