Wednesday, July 5, 2017

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Author: Junot Diaz
Stars: 5
Review by: FF

The writing is compelling; you feel like Diaz is talking to you. You also get a deep history of the Trujillo years and fears; although the story is fiction, it portrays with intensity the experiences of Dominicans during that period. It particularly highlights the scary prospects of pretty young women and their families if Trujillo became aware of them. Dominicans who settled in America are vividly described. You have to accept the crude sexual references and the violence, but they are an intrinsic part of the story, and necessary to understanding the characters' experience and motivations. Many of the Spanish phrases felt daunting to a non-Spanish speaker at first (I tried looking up single words on my phone), but eventually I figured out the meaning from the context.

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