Review/Discussion

[Brevemike]

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was neither brief nor wondrous.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the narrative immensely.

Oscar (view spoiler)[ had he lived (hide spoiler)]would be just a couple of years younger than myself. I enjoyed the trip down memory lane to all the TV shows, pop culture references, and classic sci-fi I wallowed in during my younger years. Even the time he spent in his urban landscape brought back bitter and wistful memories.

Perhaps I remember my youth too vividly, but Oscar's struggles and suffering (view spoiler)[and ultimate demise (hide spoiler)] did not strike me as remarkable. Especially among that particular population subset.

His enduring naïveté did not feel wondrous, but rather frustrating.
I kept wanting to shout at Oscar "Grow Up!"

I found the segues into his sister's and mother's past interesting, but ultimately long winded and tangential to the main story. It explained some of why they were the way they were, but shed little light on Oscar's condition.

Unless the point was to merely reinforce the notion of fukú.

All in all an interesting read, but not one that would be re-read.

[Mutasem]

I loved this story in general. I was not familiar with the Dominican Republic before I read this book, and so it was all very fresh to me. All the talk of the supernatural was just fun, the fuku, the faceless man, and the Mongoose. It added a nice layer of mysticism.

I was disappointed in Oscar himself. The story was more than just Oscar, but I started reading it expecting Oscar’s life to be under the spotlight. And that's where I disagree with you.
Everyone in Oscar’s family had it worse than Oscar. His problem in most of the book is that he could not have sex, a much more trivial and less interesting affair than his mother getting burned as a kid.
The family’s curse seems to be mad ravaging love, except for Lola, who her mom protecting her by ironically not providing her with love. It was hard to understand the mother at first. I guess that’s the fun side of the chronological order. You get to understand why Beli dismissed Lola’s rape, for example.
I would definitely reread this.

[Joseph]

Definitely, the most interesting book we've read this year. And if you don't have a degree in the Dominican dialect of Spanish, the hardest to read.

My impression of this book was a perspective of destiny and hope but as it exists in this notion of fukú. I think this story was ultimately about Oscar destroying the fukú of his family by challenging it head on.

There were some constant themes in the book that I just didn't get: faceless man, the mongoose, golden eyes. But in the end, I kinda just took these as the proof that the fukú did exist for this family.

I'm really bummed that the group is all but dead. Without this group, I would NEVER have read this book.

[Kristen]

I agree, Joseph. I also think that I would not have finished it if not for this group. I had a really hard time in the beginning, but I thought, "Hey, if everyone else can stick it out, I will too." I'm glad I did.