The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
First edition hardcover
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| Author | Junot Díaz |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Rodrigo Corral |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, Spanish |
| Publisher | Riverhead |
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Publication date
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September 6, 2007 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 352 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 123539681 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3554.I259 B75 2007 |
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) is a novel written by Dominican American author Junot Díaz. Although a work of fiction, the novel is set in New Jersey in the United States, where Díaz was raised and deals with the Dominican Republic experience under dictator Rafael Trujillo. The book chronicles both the life of Oscar De León, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations.
Narrated by multiple characters, the novel incorporates a significant amount of Spanglish and neologisms, as well as references to fantasy and science fiction films and books. Through its overarching theme of the fukú curse, it additionally contains elements of magic realism. It received highly positive reviews from critics, who praised Díaz's writing style and the multi-generational story. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao went on to win numerous awards in 2008, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The book chronicles both the life of Oscar De León, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations.
The middle sections of the novel center on the lives of Oscar's runaway sister, Lola; his mother, Hypatia Belicia Cabral; and his grandfather, Abelard. Rife with footnotes, science fiction and fantasy references, comic book analogies, and various Spanish dialects, the novel is also a meditation on story-telling, the Dominican diaspora and identity, masculinity, and oppression.
Most of the story is told by an apparently omniscient narrator who is eventually revealed to be Yunior de Las Casas, a college roommate of Oscar's who dated Lola. Yunior also appears in many of Díaz's short stories and is often seen as an alter ego of the author.
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