Hype can really change the way you perceive a book. Although the buzz for 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' has been steadily building since it was released almost a year ago, the book I picked up at the bookstore had a big, gold starburst attached to it reading 'WINNER - 2008 Pulitzer Prize', and had been brandished 'THE BEST BOOK I EVER READ' by no less authority than my friend Kevin right here on this very website.

It's almost not fair, the way we build up these books, or movies, or other pop-culture phenomenon as the new best thing ever, because we set up a culture of expectations to which nothing could ever live up. But, at the same time, when something strikes such a profound chord in our hearts, souls, and psyches, it's hard not to want to climb up to the mountaintops (or perhaps our laptops, rather) and let the whole world in on our discoveries. The drawback, of course, is that every person who encounters these things are expecting some sort of transcendent, perspective-altering experience, and when a merely very good or even great book or film comes along instead, we find ourselves a little let down.

Such was the case with ' The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao', a great book that I enjoyed immensely, but left my world-view more or less intact.

The book's title is a misleading, because although it does encompass the relatively brief life of a young man named Oscar, it is really about a great deal more, detailing the heritage and history of the de Leon family, from their cursed beginnings in Santo Domingo to the miseries and triumphs that followed them to the States, all the while providing a great deal of background on the history of the Dominican Republic as well, especially the horrid era of Rafael Trujillo, a dictator who ruled the island with an iron fist for over 30 years. The writing is rich and the stories engaging, and the characters have a great deal of depth.

At times, however, the book can be a bit frustrating. My biggest gripe is the extensive use of 'spanglish' throughout the novel. I don't speak much Spanish, and contextual clues can only take you so far. I do most of my reading as far from a computer as I can, which meant going online later on and trying to decipher certain words or phrases that had thrown me for a loop, often to no avail, as online translations aren't very good (for proof, I'd refer you to my grades in Spanish class in college). It's also unclear who is narrating the book until around halfway through, when I was surprised to learn that it wasn't a typical omniscient entity narrating the story, but actually a real person who all of a sudden would break into first person and become a character in the story. This bothered me, as it sort of altered my interpretation of the story up to that point and going forward.

In the end though, these are small gripes, and the book is beautiful, affecting, and heartbreaking, because we've all known someone like Oscar, who just doesn't quite fit in, but wants to so badly, but not at the expense of being himself. There's so much muted heartbreak in the character of Oscar, it's almost physically painful. Here's Oscar watching his equally nerdy friends get girlfriends while he remains alone. Here's Oscar being the intellectual whore to some horrible college girl. Here's Oscar waiting patiently with his perfectly arranged sci-fi books, the books that mean everything in the world to him, before packing them up and leaving after none of his students show up to his after-school science fiction and fantasy club. Here's Oscar wanting to die because he fears he will never be loved.

And, finally, a sliver of redemption through all the sadness, like a brief, small smile or laugh at the end of a long crying jag. You root for Oscar, just like you root for that friend in high school or college (or maybe it's you?) who you know is never going to get the girl and will always fall into the friend trap, but you still hope against hope that maybe tonight is the night everything works out for him. It's the quiet desperation of emerging manhood, and Junot Diaz perfectly captures it, and he and Oscar break your heart in doing so.