Read while visiting Bumma. Good book. Gave to bookczuk. Will write more later if I can recall more about it.

Interesting book and very well written, though I found myself distracted by the copious footnotes and my really horrible ability to recall Spanish when I needed to do some translations, and my lack of encyclopedic knowledge of Tolkein. I don't know much about the Dominican Republic, so it was interesting to fill in the gaps by way of this book. And I'm rather simplistic, so the switching of narrators caught me off guard a couple of times (more a function of my sleepiness at bedtime than a ineffective brain, though>) But, despite those difficulties, the story of poor Oscar and his family, all on a quest for love was a good one. And despite the wordiness, and footnoteyness, there were some gems that fell in the reader's path...enough to make the most serious of us smile (for instance : "If it hadn't been for the courage of his sphincter, Oscar's lunch and his dinner and his breakfast would have whooshed straight out of him.") I've asked javaczuk if he was interested in reading this book, since there has been so much talk about it. After I shouted the title up the stairs to him, he shouted down, "But Oscar Wilde's life wasn't brief, though it was glorious." Inside joke to readers of the book confirmed.

From the Publisher

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 fukú – 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.

Guyczuk is interested in reading this some day, so I shall hold it for him (unless I find another copy to hold and to release this one so it can travel.)

Left at Muddy Waters on James Island.

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