The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
My review
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I guess I just don’t get the hype for this book. Ostensibly about the life of Oscar Wao, Oscar himself is absent for much too much of the book, as the author flashes back to the life of his mother and of his mother’s parents for the majority of the text. While I understand the importance of their stories to the overarching theme of fukú, I struggled to get through them, much as I struggled with the Spanglish interjections, as I don’t speak Spanish. I was most entertained when reading of Oscar’s lonesome geeky life, which is what drew me to the book in the first place, but that account was too sparse for me, even if it was an interesting story.
Next up is Slam by Nick Hornby.