Diaz's Dominican Republic

I quite enjoyed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; not only did I learn a ton about the DR (or Dominican Republic for all of you who haven't read Yunior's narrative), but I also found the writing refreshing--this is clearly literature, and it's uplifting that actual literature has been a best-seller.

The story covers Oscar Wao's family curse. Wao's maternal grandfather had insulted Trujillo, dictator for some thirty plus years in the DR responsible for genocide of the Haitians as well as a curtain of ignorance cutting off the island from the rest of the world. The story begins with the story of Wao, then works backwards through Wao's sister's history, his mother's childhood, then his maternal grandparents lives several generations before, then returns to Wao's college life and post-college career. This curse has become most focused in the character of Oscar, who is a severely overweight, sci-fi/fantasy uber nerd who is the accidental hero of the story. His grail (or as he would put it, his one ring)? Finding a woman who would love him back.

All I knew about the book prior to reading it was that it could be compared to The Great Gatsby; and I didn't really understand why till I had almost finished. The narrator, much like Nick Carroway, is more of an observer than a part of the conflict, one who is chronicaling something far more important than his own pitiful existence. I say pitiful because Nick Carroway is reprehensible. Similarly, Yunior (the narrator of Diaz's novel) is a contemptible creation: a cocky womanizer with minimal vision outside of his own sphere of existence. I wondered then, and continue to wonder now, if Yunior is actually named "Junior" but due to Oscar's DR accent, Yunior has no choice but to appropriate Oscar's pronunciation in the dialogue. Interesting, but more of a side note than actual thought about the novel.

At first, I was very turned off by Yunior's voice. I was reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with my English class at the same time, and while I consider the use of the "n word" absolutely essential to the time period of Finn, I thought Diaz was using it excessively. That, mixed with heavy DR slang and historical footnotes made the book very difficult to understand at first. I truly enjoyed reading it once I had grappled enough with the language and had covered enough of the plot to understand the dynamic of the story.

I enjoyed the chronology of the story... by going back through the family's past, I felt very connected to Oscar, and also understood the reverence placed on the curse that Yunior describes. But, as the story progressed, I began to really enjoy the similarities with One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez. The two definitely have the magical realism elements, and it seems to me that Diaz clearly evokes the same style of story-telling by going on long side tangents and footnotes that seem to deviate from the plot, but provide extensive backstory and character motivation that enrich and enliven the story.

Enough of the literary critique. As a read, I found the book enjoyable and informative. I had no understanding of the history of the DR prior to the read... afterwards, I was surprised to find that such horrible travesties had been committed so close to our country. The book has some intense scenes that truly show the cruelty of Trujillo's regime (and even typing this now makes me wonder if I'm bringing the curse on myself).

I also really liked the story of Oscar's search for love. But, to some extent, Yunior's voice clouded the more noble search for fulfilling love with the less noble search for sex. This made me a little sad because it seemed like turning a positive goal into a more base hormonal craze, but is realistic. To some extent, most American males are obsessed with sex. So, while I thought this took away from Oscar's character, I guess it also is just another way that Yunior is affecting the story he chronicals.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. I would definitely recommend it to many (namely my brother), and thanks Mike for passing it my way. I think I'll need to re-read it at some point to understand more of the inner-workings of the novel.

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The next few posts are going to be the journals I wrote on Tisa's and my bike adventure. We made it 125-130 miles, and it was MUCH more difficult than I anticipated. Not sure if we actually enjoyed ourselves, but it was an awesome trip.

Also, I'm reading a Nicolas Sparks book, and I'm quite embarrassed about it right now (plus, it's actually pretty good).