The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

This award-winning novel follows Oscar, a young Dominican-American man from New Jersey struggling with his present as a self-confessed “ghetto-nerd” and the legacy of his family’s past. The book is a dazzling example of how complicated our relationship to our family can be. I read and reread passages trying to decode Diaz’s choice in language and how he created such a compelling cast of characters. Told in vary perspectives and points of view and leaping gloriously back and forth in time, the book brazenly displays how the past is never truly past when it comes to matters of family.

A central theme in all of Díaz’ work is his critique of toxic machismo in Dominican society, which extracts a heavy emotional toll on men as well as women. That’s why it’s such a delight that the protagonist of this award-winning multi-generational novel is a chubby science-fiction-loving nerd who dares to challenge the hyper-masculine norms. Set in New Jersey—where Díaz grew up—and the Dominican Republic, this novel is the story, in part, of Oscar’s doomed quest for love with a Dominican sex worker. Its larger theme is the way Oscar—and Dominicans by extension—is caught between the US and the DR… show more.