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Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
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ISBN13: 9781594489587
ISBN10: 1594489580
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Awards

2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction

The Rooster 2008 Morning News Tournament of Books Winner

The Rooster 2008 Morning News Tournament of Books Nominee

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz’s first book, Drown, established him as a major new writer with “the dispassionate eye of a journalist and the tongue of a poet” (Newsweek). His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was named #1 Fiction Book of the Year” by Time magazine and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, establishing itself – with more than a million copies in print – as a modern classic. In addition to the Pulitzer, Díaz has won a host of major awards and prizes, including the National Book Critic’s Circle Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the PEN/O. Henry Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Award. Now Díaz turns his remarkable talent to the haunting, impossible power of love – obsessive love, illicit love, fading love, maternal love. On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in the New York Times-Bestselling This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”

Review

"A rich, impassioned vision of the Dominican Republic and its diaspora, filtered through the destiny of a single family.... Díaz's reverse family saga, crossed with withering political satire, makes for a compelling, sex-fueled, 21st-century tragi-comedy with a magical twist." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Review

"It's been 11 years since Junot Di­az published his acclaimed story collection, Drown, and he has spent the time well, honing the sharp, slangy voice that propels his terrific first novel....A joy to read, and every bit as exhilerating to reread. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly

Review

"Writing in a combustible mix of slang and lyricism, Diaz loops back and forth in time and place, generating sly and lascivious humor in counterpoint to tyranny and sorrow." Booklist

Review

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a book that speaks in tongues. This long-awaited novel by Junot Diaz is a masterpiece about our New World, its myths, curses, and bewitching women. Set in America's navel, New Jersey, and haunted by the vision of Trujillo's brutal reign over the Dominican Republic, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is radiant with the hard lives of those who leave and also those who stay behind — it is a rousing hymn about the struggle to defy bone-cracking history with ordinary, and extraordinary, love." Walter Mosley

Review

"Told in blinkingly kinetic prose, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz's dazzling debut novel, fulfills the promise of this writer's short story collection (Drown) and fully reveals a powerful presence in moden American fiction." Cathleen Medwick, O: The Oprah Magazine

Review

"A book so astoundingly great that in a fall crowded with heavyweights — Richard Russo, Philip Roth, Nick Hornby, Tom Perotta — Diaz is a good bet to run away with the field." Lev Grossman, Critical Mass

Review

"[A] wondrous, not-so-brief first novel that is so original it can only be described as Mario Vargas Llosa meets 'Star Trek' meets David Foster Wallace meets Kanye West. It is funny, street-smart and keenly observed.... [Diaz has] written a book that decisively establishes him as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Review

"[W]ill burn its way into your heart and sizzle your senses." USA Today

Review

"[A] colorful and complex portrait of mad love, old-world superstition, and the continual strivings of a diaspora." Christian Science Monitor

Review

"Díaz writes invigorating and evocative prose, and his sentences sizzle even as he mixes phrases of Spanish, New Jersey slang and references to Oscar's beloved science fiction." Cleveland Plain Dealer

Review

"[A] hell of a book." Los Angeles Times

Review

"[O]ne of the best first novels of the past few decades." Dallas Morning News

Synopsis

This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today.

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuk — the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

Synopsis

Winner of:
The Pulitzer Prize
The National Book Critics Circle Award
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
The Jon Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize
ATimeMagazine #1 Fiction Book of the Year

One of the best books of 2007 according to: The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, People, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Salon, Baltimore City Paper, The Christian Science Monitor, Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, New York Public Library, and many more...
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
Diazimmerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diazas one of the best and most exciting voices of our time."

Synopsis

The long-awaited — and thrillingly satisfying, genuinely original — first novel from the unmistakable voice behind the story collection Drown.

Synopsis

The long-awaited--and thrillingly satisfying, genuinely original--first novel from the unmistakable voice behind the story collection "Drown."

Synopsis

Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.

Listen to Junot Díaz’s interview on iTunes “Meet the Author” here.

Download iTunes here.

Synopsis

This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today.

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

D’az immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

Synopsis

The long-awaited-and thrillingly satisfying, genuinely original- first novel from the unmistakable voice behind the story collection Drown.

Synopsis

A must-have collector's edition of Junot Dand#237;azand#8217;s bestseller and National Book Award finalist, brilliantly illustrated

A major New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award, This Is How You Lose Her is Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Dand#237;azand#8217;s celebration of love in all its facetsand#151;obsessive love, illicit love, fading love, maternal love. For this gorgeous new edition, Jaime Hernandezand#151;deemed and#147;one of the twentieth centuryand#8217;s most significant comic creatorsand#8221;and#151;has crafted stunning full-page illustrations, one for each story, that brilliantly capture the love-haunted spirit of the book and of the gutsy women whom irrepressible, irresistible Yunior loves and loses. A true work of art, inside and out, this is a keepsake that fans will treasure and new readers will delight in discovering.


About the Author

Junot Diaz's fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The Best American Short Stories. His debut story collection, Drown, was a publishing sensation of unprecedented acclaim, became a national bestseller, won numerous awards, and is now a landmark of contemporary literature. He was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and now lives in New York City and Boston, where he teaches at MIT.

4.6 9

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.6 (9 comments)

`
ctrtess , January 30, 2010 (view all comments by ctrtess)
I found the book riveting, yet uncomfortable at times. The language was stronger than I usually read, and it was a bit more graphic than suits me. I learned a lot about the Dominicas, and a very fascinating era in their history. The author brought the charcters to life in such a way that I felt their pain, while learning of the source of their angst. I found his writing style interesting, and yes, fun. At the end of the day, when I closed the book for the last time, I felt that reading it had been well worth any discomfort that I had felt. Not to give anything away, but Diaz does a marvelous job of 'wrapping it up'...

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Shoshana , August 08, 2008 (view all comments by Shoshana)
This ambitious first novel treats multiple themes of bridging identities, including Dominican/American cultures, Spanish/English languages, fiction and nonfiction writing conventions, individuals and families, personal and cultural history, and Latin American Magical Realism and science fiction. The voice of Oscar is only one of several telling this story. The resultant pastiche is lively and engaging, playful and yet deeply serious. This was not an easy book to read with outside distractions, but I kept feeling as though I should be reading it on a bus with conversations all around me.

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lsumner , July 03, 2008 (view all comments by lsumner)
Because I am not bilingual this book was difficult for me to read. Thankfully, I like a challenge. It would be awesome practice for anyone trying to learn Spanish. At times the author lost me as he switched between the perspectives of different characters, but each character was well thought out and their depth was enlightening. The format of the dialogue was strange. I felt like I had to read very carefully and take my time to get the full meaning of the text, which is an unusual change of pace for someone who is usually a speed reader.

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pinkdiamonds97007 , May 04, 2008 (view all comments by pinkdiamonds97007)
This book is sweet, trhuthful, interesting, heartbreaking, and grasps a part of life that is often hard to face. It makes you think, it makes you laugh, and it lets you hope, even in the event of a disaster. A very touching book.

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Julia Callahan , April 19, 2008 (view all comments by Julia Callahan)
Oscar is maybe the last true romantic left on the planet. He is a fierce lover of women, though his major problem lies in them loving him back, and he is a writer of Science Fiction, which may contribute to his solid role as the friend and confidante. But for Oscar Wao and his brief life, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and he may be the last person willing to give it all up for love. A wonderful and moving book about not fitting in, and finally having something to live and die for.

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Julia Callahan , February 19, 2008 (view all comments by Julia Callahan)
As I was reading this book I was skeptical that Junot Diaz would be able to end it in any way that wouldn't make me hate it. Much to my joy, he ended it in the only way it should have ended. Oscar is a great protagonist, you feel so much for him, but unlike most protagonists, it's not just that you're rooting for him. You feel sad, embarrassed, even angered by him, until the end when you realize that he may just be the most perfect person ever. What a pleasure this book was to read, I loved it.

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argonautika3 , January 31, 2008
With humorous imagination, Diaz tells the story of a nation and family gripped in the vise of an eternally recurring curse, the Dominican fukú. Serving as the narrative's lynchpin is Oscar, a grossly overweight and sexually inept teen, who struggles to find acceptance in a machismo Dominican-American culture. As he consistently fails, he takes refuge in science fiction, role-playing, and his own writing. But refuge is temporary and Oscar longs for true and requited love. Towards the end of Oscar’s life, after several failed relationships and a botched suicide, (just as you’re thinking what a fukú novel this is), zafa (luck) begins to escalate in a tightly controlled momentum, climaxing in the last few pages, leaving Oscar fully synthesized and the reader satisfied. And yet the novel is much more than the story of a culturally lost teen-ager – it is the story of an entire hemisphere grappling with the fukú left in the wake of Columbus, a fukú of self-fulfillment prophecy perpetuated by both ruler and ruled. Oscar, his family, and the Trujillidad regime merely serve as the lens through which we may all gaze upon a shared legacy of discovery, betrayal, and, for a few, reconciliation.

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Heather Houser , November 25, 2007 (view all comments by Heather Houser)
You'll breeze through this novel thanks to the fascinating melange of voices, the shifts in perspective, the contemporaneity of the prose and the interest of the plot. A unique take on the bildungsroman that changes the face of ethnic literature.

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ronn , September 03, 2007 (view all comments by ronn)
The decade-long wait for Junot's first novel was well worth it. The Times's Michiko Kakutani described it as "wondrous" and "Mario Vargas Llosa meets 'Star Trek' meets David Foster Wallace meets Kanye West." The comparisons could not have been more accurate. WAO is a melange of literary styles: at turns a memoir (like the protagonist, Diaz is a Dominican American who came of age in New Jersey and whiled away his time on Sci-Fi, anime and other nerdy endeavors), an urbane history of the Dominican Republic and a fantastical journey. Fans of his short fiction will be greatly rewarded, as will newbies. I'm sure many readers will finish this longish novel with few (if any!) interruptions.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9781594489587
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
09/06/2007
Publisher:
RIVERHEAD BOOKS/PENGUIN PUTNAM
Pages:
339
Height:
1.30IN
Width:
5.80IN
Thickness:
1.00
Age Range:
18 and up
Grade Range:
13 and up
Number of Units:
13
Copyright Year:
2007
UPC Code:
2801594489589
Author:
D
Author:
Junot az
Author:
Alaina Mauro
Author:
Junot Diaz
Author:
Junot Daz
Author:
Junot Diaz
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Subject:
Dominican Americans
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

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