Oscar Wao was a book that went missing from my collection after we moved two years ago. About six months ago the book was found, miraculously in a box in the corner of a closet. I didn't realize until I pulled it off the shelf that it had won the Pulitzer Prize. I imagined that the story was worth waiting for.
I was prepared for all the Spanish. My sister had warned me after she'd heard Junot Diaz speak in Cleveland. I've taken some Spanish classes over the years when I lived in South Florida where English often takes a back seat. I can't speak Spanish but I can figure out most of it on the written page. Or so I thought.
After reading the first ten pages I was ready to quit. The story is loaded with Spanish slang. I had difficulty following. And the footnotes! Sometimes half the page was a footnote written in tiny print. I didn't know if I should read it or not. Mostly I didn't. I kept going though since I'm always afraid I'm going to miss some brilliance that will make me a better writer. In this case I'm ecstatic that tenacious streak inside kept me reading.
Oscar Wao is a nerdy, bookworm, sci-fi crazed, fat Dominican who is desperate to get laid. He's being raised alongside his sister by a wild and crazy single mother. The family is followed by the curse, the fuku and have been for generations. There were so many good things about Oscar and his family, I found it impossible not to fall in love with all of them. Pain and misery followed them everywhere, yet they never gave in to the fuku.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is one wild ride that is well worth the trip. No wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize. The book is all I imagined and well worth the wait. It's brilliant.
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