Writing in a combustible mix of slang and lyricism, Díaz loops back and forth in time and place, generating sly and lascivious humor in counterpoint to tyranny and sorrow. Díaz’s besieged characters look to the supernatural for explanations and hope, from fukú, the curse “unleashed” when Europeans arrived on Hispaniola, to the forces dramatized in the works of science fiction and fantasy so beloved by the chubby “ghetto nerd” Oscar Wao, the brilliantly realized boy of conscience at the center of this whirlwind tale. Paralleling his own experiences growing up in the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, he has choreographed a family saga at once sanguinary and sexy that confronts the horrific brutality at loose during the reign of the dictator Trujillo. Readers who have had to wait a decade for his first novel are now spectacularly rewarded. First published July, 2007 ( Booklist).ĭíaz’s gutsy short story collection Drown (1996) made the young Dominican American a literary star.
Titles similar to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books, 2007.
National Book Critics Circle Awards: 2008.
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