Ok, I'm gonna try to make this a habit. Since I've been making an effort to read more, why not write what I thought of the books on here.. Now I ain't Oprah or The NY Times so my reviews are pretty much gonna be off the cuff and informal on some what I felt type shit..
For This first one, I chose this book based on the simple fact the author was Dominican. I grew up a Puerto Rican/Costa Rican living on the border of Wash Heights and Harlem so the cultural influence of both Dominicans and African American friends was pretty strong.
The story is basically about three generations of one Dominican family. Its main character is Oscar, a fat, lazy, nerdy, uncool, always-will-be-a-virgin loser. Oscar is in search of true Love and is willing to risk everything to find it. The fictional story explores the history of a what seems to be a family cursed, and supports it with factual accounts of the evil and corrupt cultural history of Dominican dictators. The author, Junot Diaz does an excellent job of blending together ghetto spanglish slang, a number of odes to pop culture, and Dominican historiographical substance. Diaz's writing style is an excellent balance of comedic truth and blunt, cynical lyricism... Simply put, Oscar Wao pretty much made me want to read again..
*Junot Diaz had actually taught a class in Syracuse which I found out after the fact, so needless to say I didn't take it..
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