Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ironic verdict on the Dominican Republic, 2 April 2008
This is a good book. I'm English, not merely old but "old school", so a full-length novel written in "hip" American ghetto slang and liberally peppered with Spanish terms and phrases unknown to my large Collins Spanish Dictionary, and with a heavy reliance on references to science and fantasy fiction and comic books (all of which I despise), I would not usually touch with a barge-pole, but I loved this one and neglected my other duties until I had finished it.
I have read most of the ninety-odd reviews of the book on Amazon UK and US and I think that many readers miss the point when they complain that the title is a misnomer because only a small part of the book describes Oscar's "life" and that while he may be a physically well-rounded person his character is flat and clichéd. The title surely is ironic. Oscar has really neither a life or a personality to speak of. He is just a peg on which to hang an analysis of Dominican society on the island and in New York, which the author perceives to be generally nasty. It is Dominican "culture" itself which is the "fukú" and bad things and bad people will inevitably surface because the whole fabric is built on rotten foundations of ignorance, greed and racism. You could almost say that the heart of the book is in its historic footnotes.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Wondrous Book That Ought Not to Work, 19 Mar 2009
On the surface, 'Oscar Wao' has little going for it. One of its main characters is an overweight Sci-Fi-Fantasy Nerd, there are numerous quotes from the 'Lord of The Rings', the author takes liberties with conventional grammar, the text has Spanish words sprayed through it with alarming regularity and there are endless footnotes on a country I knew almost nothing about. It just shouldn't work as a novel, but it does; extremely well.
The novel is narrated by a family friend and focuses on three generations of San Dominican immigrants, who now live in New Jersey. Being an overweight fantasy nerd myself, I particularly enjoyed the tragi-comedy of the sections that dealt with Oscar, but all of the narratives have much to recommend them.
The stories of 'Beli', Oscar's mother and grandfather Abelard, are really an examination of despotic cruelty. I had never heard Rafeal Trujillo; he may have been a relatively small player in World history but as Diaz reveals, Trujillo and his henchmen cast a dark shadow over the Dominican Republic for thirty years. The stories of Oscar and sister Lola, deal with the aftermath of a dictatorship, and the reality of life as an immigrant, in even the most cosmopolitan of melting pots. All four stories are well balanced and beautifully drawn.
This novel is not without its flaws. The repeated references to fantasy and comic book fiction, I imagine would grate on a reader not familiar with the genre. The unusual use of punctuation, particularly around dialogue, seemed entirely gratuitous and was occasionally confusing. My main gripe though, was the repeated use (mainly in Lola's tale) of colloquial Spanish. This was not only off-putting but also meant I often lost the sense of an entire sentence. All of these factors together ought to have made for a terrible novel, and it is testment to the quality of Diaz's writing, the strength of his story and his vivid characters that all times 'Oscar Wao' remains a compelling read.
Above all this is a novel about fate; were Oscar's family cursed or were they the architects of their own downfall? According to Diaz the San Dominicans are great believers in destiny, but his novel artfully shows, that for the oppressed, a difficult life often offers very few alternatives. This novel may have its flaws but it is powerful, important and above all, well worth reading.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Did not match the hype, 19 April 2008
I bought this book because all three critics on Newsnight Review raved and said it was brilliant. I did find the first chapter on Oscar Wao brilliant, but unlike the critics, I did not think that Junot Diaz got inside a woman's mind with the next two chapters about Oscar's sister and mother and by the time the novel returned again to Oscar in the final chapter, I'd become distanced from his story to the degree that I no longer felt compelled by it. In any case, the vengeance and violence in the fields was repeated one too many times. Indeed, there is no let-up to the violence and this, in the end for me, spoiled the novel.
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