false 44 69 58 true 5642406 read 1 true 545949 currently-reading 10 true 545948 to-read 12 false 546619 popculture 11 false 546459 postcoloniallit 6 false 546698 zrussians 4 false 546494 fantasy 4 false 546509 magicalrealism 2 false 1998490 american-lit 0 false 793119 drama 0 false 3362224 nonfiction http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32613679 to: The Elephant Vanishes: Stories (Paperback) by Haruki Murakami
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32613673 to: South of the Border, West of the Sun (Paperback) by Haruki Murakami
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32613647 to: Dance, Dance, Dance (Paperback) by Haruki Murakami
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32612429 to: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Hardcover) by Junot Díaz
bookshelves: popculture, postcoloniallit
When I began the novel, I was put off by some of the language when I first started to read the novel but by the time I reached the end I was certain that this is the author's intention. It's a small way of letting you interpret the grittiness and discomfort of a world you can not begin to understand but can more easily imagine after emotions of your own have been invoked.

What made this book wonderful was not only the story the author had to tell, but the clever way he interwove cultural and historic facts (albeit biased ones) with fiction.

He presumed his audience would be unfamiliar with the basic facts that would make the story understandable. (In my case this was true- I don't know much about the the history of the Dominican Republic aside from the fact that it was violent, bloody, and full of power struggles.) Unfamiliarity with basic historical facts would've made the fiction unapproachable to a large number of people. Diaz sidesteps this problem by footnoting the novel, but not in the average way: all footnotes are written from the point of view of the original narrator, a young man speaking in the slang language of both the east coast and the DR (nice demonstration of using language and words for both showing and bridging of the cultural gap while also showing and bridging the alienation as a result of that gap.) The footnotes are fabulous and make a sublevel that could almost be a novel all its own. I wont state the events but I wil say, if you were thinking about reading this novel, stop thinking about it and do it. It's wonderful. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32612180 Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga... (Paperback) by B.K.S. Iyengar
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17251702 to: The Joy Luck Club (Paperback) by Amy Tan
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17251588 to: The Kitchen God's Wife (Paperback) by Amy Tan
bookshelves: postcoloniallit
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17251434 to: The Hundred Secret Senses (Hardcover) by Amy Tan
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17251372 to: The Bonesetter's Daughter (Paperback) by Amy Tan
bookshelves: postcoloniallit
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