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A review by stolenpostit
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
5.0
…And that’s how you tell a story where every character is punchable. [1]
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is not a novel about a rootable nerd looking for love. There are plenty of white authors who have already written that story, and this book would be unremarkable if it continued that legacy. Rather, Junot Diaz turns that trope on its head as he uses Oscar and his geekiness as merely the catalyst to examine the dynamics of oppression within a community and through generations. While geekdom and intelligence is definitely in Oscar’s blood[2] he takes it to an extreme as a coping mechanism; he is the last man on the totem pole that is the Dominican Diaspora. Oscar retreats into his fantasy stories[3] to cope with a society that rejects him. His attempts to fit in with the Dominican identity result in his self-destructive depression and disastrous endless quest to get laid. In the same manner, the bloody history of the Dominican Republic triggers an identity crisis among people both on and off the island in the generations after Trujillo, which results in even more political instability, social repression, and violence. The oppressed group regurgitates the oppression within itself based on race, class, sex, sexuality, and even sexual attractiveness.
Not a lot of characters are particularly likeable, but most are rootable, and all are interesting, sympathetic, and, most of all, realistic.
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[1] Except Lola. This book would have gotten five stars had it been the Adventures of Lola
[2] See the section on his grandfather, and even Lola’s much more well-adjusted character
[3] Which also exclude him, given the overwhelming whiteness in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genres, but that’s another discussion
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is not a novel about a rootable nerd looking for love. There are plenty of white authors who have already written that story, and this book would be unremarkable if it continued that legacy. Rather, Junot Diaz turns that trope on its head as he uses Oscar and his geekiness as merely the catalyst to examine the dynamics of oppression within a community and through generations. While geekdom and intelligence is definitely in Oscar’s blood[2] he takes it to an extreme as a coping mechanism; he is the last man on the totem pole that is the Dominican Diaspora. Oscar retreats into his fantasy stories[3] to cope with a society that rejects him. His attempts to fit in with the Dominican identity result in his self-destructive depression and disastrous endless quest to get laid. In the same manner, the bloody history of the Dominican Republic triggers an identity crisis among people both on and off the island in the generations after Trujillo, which results in even more political instability, social repression, and violence. The oppressed group regurgitates the oppression within itself based on race, class, sex, sexuality, and even sexual attractiveness.
Not a lot of characters are particularly likeable, but most are rootable, and all are interesting, sympathetic, and, most of all, realistic.
------
[1] Except Lola. This book would have gotten five stars had it been the Adventures of Lola
[2] See the section on his grandfather, and even Lola’s much more well-adjusted character
[3] Which also exclude him, given the overwhelming whiteness in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genres, but that’s another discussion