The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz recounts the unhappy life of 300-plus-pound Oscar De Leon and of the tragic history his family’s three-generation curse – from Dominican Republic, under the evil government of Trujillo, to the ghettos of New Jersey.
That the style adopted by the author, whatever it’s called, is fresh is one thing I have no problem with. And, while the novel has been considered by many as inventive and phenomenal in that aspect, it has left me a feeling that is somewhat cold to lukewarm. The way it was written hasn’t effectively worked for me. Maybe because of the characters who have been described with constant reference to those of The Lord of The Rings’, or maybe because I couldn’t refrain from being reminded of the genius of both One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and Feast of the Goat (Mario Vargas Llosa), which are both way better than this novel, in my humble opinion. Sometimes, I just couldn’t completely comprehend some sentences which used as subjects characters from science fiction books or films or even games as the author would attempt to use them as allusion. This book is not bad. It just fell short of my expectations; it was last year’s winner of Pulitzer Prize for fiction, after all. Actually, I may still recommend it for others to read. They will surely have varied views and I will not argue with them.
That the style adopted by the author, whatever it’s called, is fresh is one thing I have no problem with. And, while the novel has been considered by many as inventive and phenomenal in that aspect, it has left me a feeling that is somewhat cold to lukewarm. The way it was written hasn’t effectively worked for me. Maybe because of the characters who have been described with constant reference to those of The Lord of The Rings’, or maybe because I couldn’t refrain from being reminded of the genius of both One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and Feast of the Goat (Mario Vargas Llosa), which are both way better than this novel, in my humble opinion. Sometimes, I just couldn’t completely comprehend some sentences which used as subjects characters from science fiction books or films or even games as the author would attempt to use them as allusion. This book is not bad. It just fell short of my expectations; it was last year’s winner of Pulitzer Prize for fiction, after all. Actually, I may still recommend it for others to read. They will surely have varied views and I will not argue with them.
{April 21, 2009)
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