![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Oscar-Wao.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao<\/em>\nJunot D\u00c3\u00adaz<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
Yes.<\/em> That is the first thought that comes to mind when I think of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao<\/em>. The second thought?\u00c2\u00a0 F**K yes .<\/em> I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it was the cursing in the book, the overdose of attitude, or the look into a family that makes you scared as s**t, but boy did I feel saucy after reading this.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written with a flare that could light the book itself on fire; Junot D\u00c3\u00adaz knows what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing.\u00c2\u00a0 The story will make you want to kiss someone when things go well, and drink a few shots of whiskey (and find a weapon) when they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even properly give this book a teaser, because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m terrified of revealing something.\u00c2\u00a0 What I can tell you is that from the beginning we are pushed into the life of Oscar Wao, an overweight nerd who is obsessed with science fiction and falling in love.\u00c2\u00a0 The introduction to the book warns us of the power of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fuku\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (a terrible curse) and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zafa\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (its cure).\u00c2\u00a0 Though we constantly want happiness for Oscar, we are pretty aware of the futile nature of that hope.\u00c2\u00a0 The dialogue is fast, witty, and oftentimes full of f-bombs and name-calling.\u00c2\u00a0 From past to present, we delve into Oscar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, wanting to hold him close when things are rough, and wanting to slap him over the head when he does something stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 Though, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the title fool you \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the novel is<\/em> about Oscar, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also about Oscar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life and the people in it.\u00c2\u00a0 I was very confused for a few minutes when reading; I started thinking Oscar had had a sex-change or something, before I realized we were now hearing from his sister, Lola.\u00c2\u00a0 So, the narrative changes and flows differently, and despite my minute of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what the f?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I found myself rather intrigued to be spending time with other characters and following through on their anecdotes.<\/p>\n The book provides footnotes here and there to help us understand some important historical points for the Dominican Republic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the conflict, the hate, and the infamous dictator Trujillo.\u00c2\u00a0 The footnotes often read just like the novel, and you may not even notice you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve left the story to read more about \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwhat actually happened\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 For those with any background in Spanish, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have your fair share of profanity spewing out in many chapters \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sometimes delightful and other times making your head spin.\u00c2\u00a0 There are also \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thanks\u00c2\u00a0 to Oscar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obsession with anime \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some Japanese gems.\u00c2\u00a0 It feels like being let in on a secret when you can understand them, as most of them won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come translated in the book;\u00c2\u00a0 you may want to brush up on your Spaingo and Japonese.<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a must read.\u00c2\u00a0 Seriously.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean, how can you not get engrossed in a novel that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first chapter is titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ghettonerd at the End of the World\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?\u00c2\u00a0 Right?\u00c2\u00a0 Right.\u00c2\u00a0 Though, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t plan to sit back and relax \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to want a place to hide and a few shots of booze with this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yes. That is the first thought that comes to mind when I think of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The second thought? F**K yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[98,9,110],"tags":[125],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Oscar-Wao.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}