I’m providing links to reviews of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Read them at your leisure:

• The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani
• Salon.com, Roland Kelts
• The Christian Science Monitor, Elizabeth Owuor
• Entertainment Weekly, Jennifer Reese
• The Boston Globe, Adam Mansbach
• The New York Observer, Emily Bobrow
• USA Today, Carol Memmott
• The San Francisco Chronicle, Oscar Villalon
• The Washington Post, Jabari Asim
• Newsweek, David Gates

Also, while I was looking for reviews, I stumbled on a short story written by Junot Díaz titled “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” from The New Yorker. It was published in 2000, so I suppose Oscar has been with Mr. Díaz for quite some time. Link to the story here.

I’m just about 1/3 through the book, and the one thing that has hit me is amazement that this book is as popular as it is (my UPS guy was telling me how he loved it!) with language so dense with allusion. Between the DR stuff and the nerd stuff, it’s kind of difficult even for me, a nerd who’s been to the DR to catch up. So I thought I’d put up this post to ask what sorts of things you maybe didn’t understand, to see if someone else can come back and explain – I figure between us we have the knowledge to parse it all out.

Despite this concern, I’ve been loving it – I find the narrative voice really fun to read. Can’t wait for a full discussion!

Just one more thing, because I just have to say this one more time, I can’t believe they used Minas Tirith (a city in LOTR) as an ADJECTIVE. Favorite thing ever?

My first post!  So exciting!

Anyway, I just bought my copy of the book, and I found myself wondering, as Grace did in a recent comment, what our timeline is on this book.  Since we are coming up on the holidays, I’m thinking on a shorter deadline.  How does January 1 sound to everyone?  I’m being completely arbitrary, so feel free to object.  But I know that I will be on vacation December 23-January 3, and this gives me some break to read, and a little break left to discuss.

Also, William and I, as he mentioned before, are book club veterans.  And in my experience, when it takes too long to finish a selection, it might never happen.  That’s usually when activity peters out.  So let’s keep up the pace and try to read a book a month-ish!  At least to start.

I know that I invited a lot of people to this club, and William has been inviting people recently as well.  All of you – please don’t lurk!  Comment and let us know you’re here.  The more activity this gets, the more fun it will be.  Post comments in the middle of the book.  Post interesting links.  Post whatever you like.  Probably don’t post huge spoilers.  Like William said, we’re winging this to start, so if you think something might be fun, or better, or whatever, let us know.

After much thought, it has been decided that Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is the first selection for our book club.

I bought my copy this past Friday and am looking forward to this epic tale of Oscar Wao and his ancestors. I know close to zero about the history of the Dominican Republic, not to mention Dungeons & Dragons, but I’m willing to learn ^^

The next section of the book talks about Oscar’s High School life. It says he gained a lot of weight at this time and become the neighborhood parigüayo. Díaz goes onto include a footnote that explains parigüayo to be a “party watcher.” He goes on to talk about the American occupation of the Dominican Republic and says it as if the reader didn’t previously know it. This sort of demeaning attitude especially regarding the historical footnotes may wear out their welcome . Regardless, they seem sort of excess especially the one on 19 that continues to 20.  Other parts of this section go into further details regarding his nerd nature. On page 21, Díaz mentions that he couldn’t hide his otakuness. Otaku is someone who specifically loves Japanese culture – usually, manga, anime, and video games. Otakus usually take Japanese in college to get closer the Japanese culture.  I found a picture below of some Otakus so i believe. Their poses are mostly references Manga and Anime so they probably are otakus.

The actual book starts on page 9 and describes the early life of Oscar as a Casanova.  “because in those days he was (still) a ‘normal’ Dominican boy…”(9). This idea of a what a normal Dominican boy shape the way Oscar feels about himself later in life as the stereotypes that he doesn’t possess will allow people to make fun of him instead of allowing him to be unique. The section goes on to describe Oscar’s golden age where he has two girlfriends in one week. This section really sets up his later failures in his life. He never quite has the same female prowess as demonstrated here. He says the moment his life went down the tubes is when Martiza dumped him. Early Adolescence wasn’t kind to Oscar. Girls started to ignore him.

There are a few nerd culture references in this section but one that actually gave me a chuckle was on page 15. Díaz is saying how Oscar has lacked aggressiveness and then says ” Oscar has like a zero combat rating” (15). This could just be a reference to nerd culture in general or more specifically a reference to Dungeons and Dragons.

The start of the novel has a sort of introduction that introduces a key theme that shapes the rest of the novel. This one word theme is called Fukú.  Basically as he explains it, it is “generally a curse or a doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the New World”.(1)  It is thought that the arrival of the Europeans on the new world brought this curse and the world has been “shit” ever since. Latin Americans especially believe in this curse as he said in his parents day the Fukú curse was regularly mentioned.

In a footnote of his, he mentions Trujillo who was an evil dictator of the Dominican Republic and that Fukú and Trujillo were tight together. He compares Trujillo to three nerd references – Sauron, Arawn, and Darkseid. Sauron is the main evil from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Darkseid is an evil DC comic book character who often fought with superman. I wasn’t quite sure who Arawn was so I looked it up and found that Arawn is a Welsh god, but also the main antagonist in The Chronicles of Prydain. Throughout  this blog I will try to catch and explain as many of his nerd culture references as possible as they are interesting and I know a great deal of them (being nerdy enough myself.)

The Brief Wondrous Life  of Oscar Wao is Junot Díaz’s first novel. It was first published in 2007 and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize. He previously wrote Drown which was a collection of short stories. For more information on Díaz, visit his website located Here!

Before the novel even begins, there are two quotations that really set up the novel’s tone. The first is from the Fantastic Four comic book about a being named Galactus. In the Marvel world,  Galactus (pictured) is a cosmic being that eats worlds.  This sets up the amount of nerdy references there are in the novel and how Oscar is so involved with comic books, sci-fi, and fantasy genres (a word often used to describe these nerdy things throughout the novel.) This reference could also be pointed at Oscar himself since he is a very large individual and an eater of many things.

The second quote is from Derek Walcott. With some internet research I have found out that he is a Caribbean poet who is in the frame of magic realism. He probably had a great influence on Diaz, and that is why the quote is there. The way the poem goes is very much like Diaz’s prose with use of the N word and harsh realism with references to the slums.

Díaz’s novel seems like a combination of these two things. 1. Nerd reference and 2. Harsh realism about slums and other topics.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE’s) annual convention is over! I got back from Philly last Sunday with a lot of work and a turkey waiting for me. Now that I have made a dent in the work, carved up the turkey and braved Black Friday for a little holiday shopping, here are some of the presentations I went to and some of the things I learned. I’ll start with Thursday’s sessions and write another post later about the rest of the weekend.

Books and Readers: And Ladders? by Teri Lesesne: This was a great presentation where Mrs. Lesesne, (the goddess of YA literature), discussed how kids make meaning from text and begin to enjoy reading. The process should be like climbing a ladder, where one book leads to another world of discovery. Twenty-first century skills include: meaning, play, empathy, symphony, story and design. It is only when all of these are present that kids will truly engage with literature. She then recommended some great YA titles; you can access her ppt. presentation here.

Secondary Section Meeting: Nancy Pearl: Yes, THE Nancy Pearl, the notorious “lusty librarian” who has her own action figure and has written a few books recommending her favorite titles, one of which is Book Lust . Her presentation was witty, enlightening, funny, and honest. Best of all, she believes reading should first be fun before it can be anything else. Everyone should read what they want to read instead of feeling that literature is imposed on them. She also said: “we have one life to live; it’s through books and reading we can have any number of lives”. When asked what she thought about e-books and e-readers like the Kindle, she said she honestly does not care about the delivery; she is more interested in what is inside the book. She would love for Amazon.com to send a Kindle her way and a book allowance! However, she enjoys chatting with the delivery man and would miss the books sent by publishers for her to review. By the way, her favorite vampire book? —-> It’s Sunshine by Robin McKinley.

General Session – Junot Diaz: He is the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer prize for fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. You can learn more about him here. Ah, how to describe this session…There is an expression in Spanish that describes him well: “No tiene pelos en la lengua”. Translated literally, it says “he has no hairs in his tongue”, which makes no sense in English, but it basically means that Mr. Diaz says what’s on his mind without editing. Someone commented he cursed at least three times in as many minutes. I wasn’t counting. There were shocked stares, murmurs, titters, applause and laughter throughout his talk. That aside, he made some good points about education today and the importance of reading. Mr. Diaz argued that literacy kills reading. The current educational climate encourages a journey of approval instead of a journey of discovery, which makes kids see reading as a necessary evil instead as part of their lives. Also, instead of education, universities are now focused on accreditation.

He argued that reading has to be part of our lives because it is where we practice deep compassion. In a society that pedals myths, reading puts you in contact with the human being instead of these myths. However, there are still many people in society that remain invisible. It is important for all youth from all backgrounds to find a reflection of themselves in literature; otherwise we continue to create monsters.

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Last Thursday was quite an enlightening and entertaining day! More on NCTE 2009 in another post. Stay tuned!

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POSTS:

Week 1- Geekdom Cannot Mask Our Blissful Ignorance

Week 2- “What is it about sisters that makes them behave so hideously toward one another?”

Week 3- When Does Artistic License Turn Fact Into Fiction?

Week 4- Let’s get LOST in the morally gray space.

Week 5- “Destroying the Status Quo because the Status is not Quo.”

Week 6- Who else is enjoying this so far? Anyone but me? Bueller?

Week 7- “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” (KLV Bible- Rev. 6:8)

Week 8- Everything I need to know, I’ve learned from TV!

Week 9- The End!

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COMMENTS:

OW Week 1- Caitlin & Jen & My Own Blog (Responses to Miz & Kira)

UoE Week 2- Danielle & Randy

Zodiac Week 3- Christine

LOST Week 4- Sean & Kira & My Own Blog (Response to Ryan)

DH Week 5- Jen & Caitlin & My Own Blog (Response to Jen)

IJ1 Week 6- Jen & Sean & My Own Blog (Response to Jen)

IJ2 Week 7- Cait

IJ3 Week 8- Cait & Danielle

IJ4? Week 9- Danielle & Kira

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EXPERTISE ASSIGNMENT:

The Complexity of Appropriation (with Jen)

“Because, in truth, I didn’t become a writer the first time I put pen to paper or when I finished my first book (easy) or my second one (hard). You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. Wasn’t until that night when I was faced with all those lousy pages that I realized, really realized, what it was exactly that I am.”

- Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” featured in Oprah.com

Generational novels that span one family’s history can go one of two ways; they can be intriguing and provoking as a reader draws parallels between each family member’s story, or they can be incredibly, horrendously dull.

Which was my main concern when I picked up The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. There’s only so many different relatives a person can read about before they’re skipping through to the end of the book. But Díaz is a master of his craft. Though this story is not just about Oscar Wao, the stories about his other family members all play into one explanation for why Oscar is the way he is.

And what is Oscar? According to narrator Yunior de las Casas, a boy who dates Oscar’s older sister and becomes inexplicably tied up with in her family’s life, Oscar is the square of all squares. Oscar is an obese nerd who lives for RPGs and writing hundreds of pages of sci-fi novels full of chiseled heroes and galactic battle. He can write and speak Tolkien’s made-up Elvish language, and is constantly making allusions to protagonists from fantasy novels.

Oscar, in addition to holding infinite geekdom, is a Dominican with no game. Which, Yunior insists, is completely unheard of.  No game is an understatement; picture yourself at the height of puberty, burning with a crush on the girl who sits next to you in history class and all you can do is stutter and stare at your shoelaces.

That is Oscar’s love life, perpetually. And try as he might to break out of this cycle of rejection and self-loathing, he never seems to be able to do so.

But readers come to learn that this unfortunate helplessness to change may not be Oscar’s fault. In fact, Oscar’s whole family seems riddled with the worst of luck, a fact that the more superstitious Dominicans attribute to a fukú, or curse, that was put on Oscar’s grandfather and has followed the family from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey.

Readers learn about the life of Oscar’s older sister Lola, and how she must overcome her hatred of her aggressive, browbeating mother to take care of Oscar and persevere with her life. They read about Oscar and Lola’s mother, Belicia Cabral and her rugged childhood in the Dominican Republic from her abusive early years to her growth into a woman under the watchful eye of her aunt during an era of tyranny under the Dominican military dictator Rafael Trujillo.

And Díaz introduces Abelard Cabral, Belicia’s father who dared to hide his daughters from Trujillo’s hungry gaze and kicked off the fukú that ruined his family.

This isn’t just the story of a family’s history. This is a history lesson about an entire country during the era of a brutal dictator. The Dominican Republic spent from 1930 to 1961 under the reign of Rafael Trujillo, a President turned military dictator who was best known, as described by this story, for his numerous spies and his reign of violent killings throughout the nation.

Trujillo’s reign takes a central role in the lives of Belicia and Abelard, and it is through these stories that a reader comes to see the horrors of living under a dictatorship years after Hitler was brought down. Throughout the story Yunior compares Trujillo’s associates with the evil beings associated with Sauron’s reign in The Lord of the Rings.

And through Yunior’s narration his own motives are revealed. How, despite his promiscuous tendencies, he remains in love with Lola for years as Oscar’s life unfolds.  Yunior reaches out to Oscar as a favor to Lola, but even after he has thrown in the towel on trying to salvage her younger brother, his feelings for her never diminish.

Things seem hopeless for young Oscar Wao. But a fukú can always be overcome. And after a trip back to the Dominican Republic Oscar begins to understand that he may need to make his own last stand to finally find love and break his family’s curse.

From the descriptions of life in New Jersey to the intricately crafted expositions of the Dominican Republic over 60 years of change to the biting narration of Yunior complete with nerdy literary references to the completely startling but reticently persuasive idea of a family curse, Diaz has created a novel that will keep you on your toes and rooting for the underdog. But don’t just take my word for it. I mean, he did win the Pulitzer.

–Liz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Junot Diaz

Successful authors, it seems to me, figure out what they know and what they’re good at–and then they keep writing it. Over and over again. It’s the same story every time, but you keep coming back to it because they’re so good at this one story. Milan Kundera has one story (post-communist Czech couples have love affairs and try to piece together their lives), Jhumpa Lahiri has one story (Indian immigrants feel misunderstood), even my beloved Virginia Woolf has one story (Can people, isolated as they are, ever find unity?). Junot Diaz has his one story, too: Tortured family sagas of Dominican immigrants.

But he’s great at it. He writes with charm and humor and you keep coming back, even though you’ve read it all before. I was enchanted by Diaz after reading Drown, his celebrated collection of short stories; he blew me away. But when I started The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I began to get the uncanny sense that I’d met these people before.

Even if you haven’t read Drown, you have at least met Oscar before. He was that socially inept, fat kid who lurked in the hallways of our high schools and sat alone at a table in our American History class at our universities. He always ate alone. He was always reading books with galaxies on the covers and playing games on his computer. We gravitate to Oscar and his plight because we recognize it. Diaz’s craftiness lies in his ability to lure you to care about Oscar, and hope desperately for his lot to improve. But it doesn’t. Diaz was never one for sugar-coating reality.

I wasn’t initially sure what to make of the device of footnotes throughout the novel. I’ll admit I expected to be annoyed by them, but they were often the most amusing paragraphs in the book, and it’s Diaz’s way of giving you the background of Dominican history that he wants you to have without being pedantic.

Oddly enough, Drown felt more whole to me than this novel. But it did, after all, win the Pulitzer Prize. And I don’t regret reading it; meeting the troubled Wao family, harking from a long line of family unluckiness (or was it Trujillo’s curse?), worth it.

READ IF: You love a good, tortured family saga about immigrants in America.

A personal note: Finally revived this blog. I am going to try to post every Friday, and perhaps give it broader focus on media happenings, as well as what I’ve been learning in my time at UNC Press.

by Francy Henao

It’s taken me a while to actually sit down and write my thoughts about this book for several reasons, one of which is the fact that this book hits so close to home. I am not Dominican, but I am a Latina and I can relate to so many things that Diaz writes about in this book. It’s funny because even when you chat with your friends about similarities with your childhoods and all the crazy things that you experienced, it never fails to bring me right back to the heart of my childhood when I read a book by/about a Latino family.

The thing that this book made me most nostalgic about is a topic that is not really spoken about superficially but I think most people that understand the Latino culture can appreciate. We Latinos do not appreciate one another enough. I mean why is it that I can read a book about a Dominican family and be brought nearly to tears understanding not only the tough love that they feel they must give but also the amount of family loyalty that you can’t put words to??? AND YET, ask a Colombian if they are Dominican and before you can even finish your sentence they are telling you they are not. That goes for any country in Latin America being confused for another. Why? Why is it that we cannot just say, well if you mean, am I Latino(a)? Yes I am! We swear by our traditions and culture but yet we won’t join together to be the universal power and influence that we can be – thoughts????

Back to the actual book. It was amazing, I haven’t read a novel in a very long time that touched my heart the way this one did. As I mentioned already, many of the things Diaz speaks about I experienced in my own life. Not particular events, but things like fuku’s. We just referred to it as brujeria (witchcraft). I don’t think there wasn’t a thing that went “wrong” in my house without someone blaming a “spell” being put on them. I know this may sound wild to someone who was not raised like this, but I swear, ask any Latin American and they will tell you all about the brujeria that existed in their life.

One final random thought from the book- Latino/a or not, did you ever have to endure selling pencils or anything of this caliber for your parent(s) because they had a “brilliant” idea about how to make millions??? (Yes, I was expected to sell PENCILS and was even punished when I couldn’t).

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Jeff Sypeck spends some quality time with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and finds it stirring up Central Jersey memories and stories. I’m always astonished to hear how many other people have taken that scary trek along the railroad bridge spanning the Raritan River.

Cuando acabé la semana pasada “La maravillosa vida breve de Oscar Wao” de Junot Díaz, sin tiempo para hacer una reseña en condiciones, hice tres apuntes para recordar cómo encarar el comentario cuando tuviera tiempo. Eran estos:

Oscar Wao, ¿el nuevo Ignatius? efectivamente, tan pronto apareció el personaje en la novela me vino a la cabeza el clásico Ignatius J .Reilly, protagonista de la magnífica “La conjura de los necios” de John Kennedy Toole. ¿Por qué? bueno está claro que tienen semejanzas: grandotes, nerds (aunque Ignatius fuera un nerd cuando todavía no existían los nerds), especiales, personajes únicos de los que nos encariñamos sin remedio a pesar de sus defectos y que nos dejan una huella imborrable.

Cien años de Soledad en dominicano moderno. Quizás es una comparación demasiado atrevida, pero es innegable que la historia de una familia a lo largo de tres generaciones en América (en este caso entre la República Dominicana y los Estados Unidos) tiene algo que ver con el clásico de García Marquez. Lo del domincano moderno es obvio cuando se lee, en unas páginas ya solo ves jevitas, fokins y nerds.

Un libro fokin bueno. Pues eso, la novela de Junot Díaz es buena de verdad. Un libro que se convertirá en clásico, que ya ha ganado el Pulitzer y que es una lectura divertida, amena e interesante. “La maravillosa vida breve de Oscar Wao” consigue dar una amplia idea de lo que fue el régimen de Trujillo (especialmente a través de las irónicas notas a pié de página que nos aclaran momentos no muy conocidos por los no-dominicanos y en las que compara al dictador con… ¡Sauron!), de cómo viven los Dominicanos que emigraron a los Estado Unidos (la llegada a Jersey, la universidad, los problemas de integración…) o de cuan difícil puede ser la vida de un “nerd” (o peor, de un nerd constantemente enamorado). Además está trufado de referencias nerdies desde “El Señor de los Anillos” a ” La dimensión desconocida” pasando por “Watchmen” o “Los cuatro fantásticos” (el libro se abre con una cita de Stan Lee).

Solo me queda recomendarlo encarecidamente a todo aquel que quiera pasar unas horas divertidas e instructivas a la vez, y acabar con el consabido: fockin bueno.

La maravillosa vida breve de Óscar Wao
Junot Díaz
Mondadori – 06/2008
Temática: Novela
ISBN: 9788439720942
Rango edad: ADULTOS
Formato: TAPA DURA
Páginas: 320
Precio 22,90 €
Aquí lo recomendaron y me decidí a leerlo. El blog de Portnoy es de lo mejor en literatura.

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Quotable

“Always tearing you down and splitting your dreams straight down the seams.”  Page 56

“She was sprawled on the ground, her wig had fallen out of reach, her poor bald head out in the day like something private and shameful, and she was bawling like a lost calf, Hija, hija.” Page 70

“Respectability so dense in la grande that you’d need a blow torch to cut it.” Page 70

I am sure my friends can find numerous more quotes from this book, since everyone I know who has read this book adores it.  If you want to read more of Mr. Diaz’s razor sharp descriptions check out his book here.

A link to his appearance on the Colbert Show.

At Google:

I was talking to a colleague recently about Latino fiction, and he reminded me that Oscar Hijuelos’s The Mambo Kings Sing Songs of Love was the first work by a Latino writer to be honored with a Pulitzer Prize.  Although that prize is certainly a milestone, I find it much less monumental than the awarding of the Pulitzer to Junot Diaz last year.

According to many studies of the novel, the novel required a certain kind of readership, one that was largely bourgeois and had leisure time to indulge reading.  The psychology of the reader was unified and could experience herself or himself as a universal being.  Cuban Americans have often been portrayed in these terms, at least within Latino studies.  I don’t mean to ignore the radical energies that come from several zones in the Cuban American community, but novels like those written by Hijuelos and Christina Garcia seem like novels that express and pressuppose the traditional subject positions associated with the form.  Therefore, it is not surprising that such a novel would be awarded a major prize first: it most closely mirrors what’s already been recognized.  I don’t mean to denigrate Hijuelos’s writing, as it is accomplished, if uncontroversial.

Diaz, on the other hand, represents a different and more hostile engagement with the form.  His forms represents in both content and forms all of the contradicitons and messiness faced by immigrants, Latinos, and the poor.  Because his work opens new narrative and artistic horizons that are closely affiliated with Latino life in the US now, I find his novel to be the more impressive of the two, and still am amazed that that the Pulitzer committee had the wisdom to recognize its brilliance.

You remember that show? Back in the day? Reading Rainbow had the most awesome intro and theme song.. ever! Thank god I watched that show as a kid and not as an adult. Imagine that shit, I would be trippin’ haha. But anywho, I’ve decided that since I’ve had this blog for a couple months now I should probably use it. And being that all I have done this week was read some books, I shall share them with you.

Let me start off by saying that I get most of my books from the local library AKA my cousin’s room. My cousin is a movie fanatic that only reads books that will be eventually made into movies so in turn, that is basically all I read.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Back of the book reads:

“When Henry meets Clare, he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. He is a hip librarian; she is a beautiful art student. Henry has never met Clare before; Clare has known Henry since she was six…”

And that’s when the WTF? comes in.

Basically Henry has this disease that causes him to time travel spontaneously and he always ends up butt ass naked where ever/when ever in time he is and has to fend for himself by stealing, B&E, mugging people, yadiyadiyada. But the story is about a love that is so different from everyone else they know, but so intense. Strong enough to keep Clare’s ass there, waiting around until Henry comes back from wherever he is. And they are like the only nymphs. They fuck like, no lie, a bazillion times in the book. I hope im like that when I’m married. But in my opinion, book was effing AWESOME. It’s confusing at first, but once you get a hang of the time traveling, you’re good. The movie is said to come out in August of this year but I doubt that because a trailer has yet to exist for it. It’s starring Eric Bana as Henry and Rachel McAdams as Clare. Very good choices. Fits the characters well. Overall, great book.. can’t wait for the movie!

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Ok being that I just finished reading The Time Traveler’s Wife like a half hour ago, I’m only on the first 20 pages of this book but I’m already in love with it and I decided to mention it because the only person that will probably ever read this is Chris and I feel like he needs to read this book even though I’m not quite sure what it’s about yet but you’ll see why. (BTW.. made it to my 3rd post so do what you gotta do SUCKKAAAA!!)

Ok so, this book is not going to be made into a movie (or at least not anytime soon), but it won the Pulitzer Prize so I guess it’s worth reading. It’s written by a Dominican from Jersey who teaches writing at MIT. Good for him! .. OK .. for real though. So it’s about this dude, Oscar Wao, a Dominican fat nerd from Paterson, NJ and his life (I’m guessing from the title) and this curse his family has, called the “fukú”. That’s all I got from the first couple pages, BUT what I love about it is:

1. the way whoever is narrating talks is so real, so Dominican, which of course means its fucking HILARIOUS.

2. I know NOTHING about the history of the Dominican Republic and the narrator will say some shit that I have no clue what it means but lucky for me, the writer includes lovely little footnotes making me feel like I’m in history class (in a good way) and filling me in on my clulessness. I actually don’t feel crappy about reading another fiction book because I’m learning something new. Yay me!

So yeah, I plan on finishing the book sometime this week if I can fit it in and I shall let you know how awesome it is

This shit is long as fuck. I promise I won’t do this to you again Chase (haha).

“… but Lydia never stopped trying to convince him, in a low-intensity way, that love was love and for that reason it should be obeyed.”

The Fall (page 236) The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

One of the books I bought with my wonderful book store gift-certificate birthday present was “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, which I later discovered had been one of the books read in my Boston bookclub.  Boston Bookclub, we are in harmony even now.   How I miss you.

In other book-related news, I went crazy yesterday and ordered 3 books from Half.com.  Oh how I love Half.com, with its promise of $1.49 paperbacks, except that the price never includes shipping.

The books which are now headed my way are:

1)  “Dry”, by Augusten Burroughs.  I loved his first book, “Running With Scissors”.  I recently devoured his latest, “A Wolf at the Table”, about his life growing up with a sociopathic father.  It was terrifying but also reminded me how macabre and hilarious his writing is.

I recalled perusing “Dry” at the airport when it first came out several years ago, and deciding I couldn’t afford to buy it new just then.  So I was long overdue to read it.  (In airport news, the Raleigh airport has a used book store!  I KNOW!!  The last time I traveled by air in early May I bought and read “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton, because I somehow thought I had never read anything by Edith Wharton, except I have– “The Age of Innocense” and “The House of Mirth”, both of which I loved.  So oops.  Anyway “Ethan Frome” was absorbing but kind of a downer.)

2)  “Nightwood”, by Djuna Barnes.  Highly recommended to me by my friend Donn, I have been meaning to read this book for over a year, but every time I was at the library or the bookstore, it slipped my mind– kind of like how I can never remember to pick up milk at the grocery store, but I constantly buy packets of Taco Seasoning like there’s a great Taco Seasoning Famine sweeping the nation, even though we have a stack of such packets in the pantry at home.  So in conclusion, I’m excited to read “Nightwood”.

3) “The Stories of John Cheever”, by Guess Who.  I recently read a review of a new biography of Cheever by Blake Bailey entitled “Cheever: A Life”, and the review made me extremely curious to read the author’s work.  (Although currently I’m reading “Rabbit is Rich”, by John Updike, and it’s kind of depressing me with it’s ‘lives of quiet desperation in the suburbs’ theme.  And since Cheever is apparently known as the ‘Chekov of the suburbs’, I’m probably in for a fairly downbeat ride.  But we’ll see.)

John Updike is one of those authors (along with Hemingway and Faulkner) whose work I know I should have read, or read more of, but just never did.  So I’m trying to remedy this one book at a time, although the Garner public library branch is not helping me.  Each time I go in there looking for a particular book by an author, they have a different book by that author that is not the one I wanted.  So last month I went in looking for “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand (don’t even get me started on my hate-hate relationship with Ayn Rand) and came out with “Anthem”, which I probably won’t read.  I went in looking for one of the earlier books in Updike’s Rabbit collection, and came out with a later one which probably spoils all the twists in the earlier books and presents a fairly depressed protagonists in his early 50s who feels that his best days are behind him.  Another problem I have with the Garner library (and I hate to dis on libraries, because I loves me some libraries) is that it shelves romance novels in with regular fiction, which means that every third book on the shelves has some variation of the word ‘passion’ or ‘rogue’ in the title.  I can see why they are shelved in this way though, since shelving the romances separately would only highlight how many more romance novels there are than non-romance novels.  Dang it.
Anyway.  Sorry for the rambling.  What are you reading right now?