It took me a while to write this blog post because after I finished reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the only thing I had to say was that Junot Diaz's novel is absolutely, 100% amazing. But now I think I'm ready to explain why I think this book is one of the best books I have ever read.
Firstly, there is the narrative voice. From time to time there are shifts in the narrative voice but the story is written mostly from Yunior's perspective. I fell in love with Yunior's glib, devil-may-care tone when I read a short story, Fiesta 1980, from Diaz's debut, Drown (an anthology of short stories) and I appreciated it a lot more in Oscar Wao. Not only does this humourous narration make the book a highly entertaining read, it also allows for the reader to relate to the characters because, due to Yunior's slick and informal tone, they seem a lot more colourful and realistic even though the events these characters experience are quite extraordinary.
Furthermore, Diaz illustrates and opens up a world that is either familiar or unknown depending on who the reader is and what culture he/she comes from. I am not Dominican so I can't say anything for sure, but I feel as if Diaz is successful in explaining certain aspects of Dominican or Dominican-American culture without being "textbook" about it - and I'm not talking about the footnotes that are on certain pages - I am talking about Yunior's sly inputs during the course of the story.
I also found Diaz's continuous references to Lord of the Rings highly entertaining and surprisingly highly relevant. In fact I watched The Two Towers immediately after finishing the book. I also enjoyed the postmodern aspect of Oscar Wao and finally, throughout the book I found various passages and quotes that will add to my list of "favourite quotes" on facebook (I just HAD to bring facebook into one of my posts, I know).
In the end, I am absolutely in love with the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I find Junot Diaz to be an author of extremely high calibre and I look forward to reading whatever novel he writes next.
