Posts Tagged ‘the brief wondrous life of oscar wao’

Book five!  Finished!  Finally!  Well, okay.  I didn’t mean to write it that way, as if it were a chore to finish the last book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  But I certainly did slow down the momentum a bit.  In any case, I had no idea what to expect from this book when I first picked it up.  I read the back, which simply said that Oscar was an obese super-nerd who has a rough love life.

But that’s just scratching the surface.

I wasn’t too keen on the beginning at first, mostly because I didn’t understand what the author’s point was.  As I continued on, I came to appreciate the different character voices and the way he unravels the story through the eyes of Lola, Oscar, and Yunior.  The three of them tell the tale of the unspoken hidden curse of the family, and it ties together historical events that occurred in the Dominican Republic.  Quite honestly, before this book I really never gave the Dominican Republic another thought.  Afterward, it really opened my eyes to some things, not all.  The horror of the regime, the way people lived, the harsh brutality and violence.

This book does a great job of taking you through the emotional wringer.  I felt, so many times throughout, absolutely sad and horrified at what occurred.  Likewise, I cheered for the small victories and mourned the losses, and grimaced at some depictions and scenes.  In the end, I felt hopeful. Why? I can’t explain without giving it away.

One complaint is that he goes into great detail in his footnotes, sometimes to where I don’t even have the patience to sift through it.  His footnotes are quite anecdotal as well.  Truth be told, I ended up skipping big chunks of them to move on with the story.  Another small issue of mine is that … well, despite taking AP Spanish, I could not understand most of the Spanish interlaced throughout the book.

So is this book recommended?  Um, yes and no.  It’s recommended if you’re curious, have an open mind, and all around just like to read interesting prose.  Probably not if you’re a die-hard “I only read Tom Clancy or Dan Brown” type.  Yup.

Next on the list?  The first book in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.  This is horrendous to admit but…I’ve never read anything by Stephen King.  Other than his book On Writing, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Except for the part where he hates on adverbs…but that’s another rant entirely.