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Whistle Stopper - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
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List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $14.62
Your Save: $ 10.33 ( 41% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781594489587
ISBN: 1594489580
Label: Riverhead Hardcover
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2007-09-06
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Studio: Riverhead Hardcover
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: turned off completely
Comment: From the first few pages I was turned off by the "f" word being continually used. If I had known more about this book I would not have spent the money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So...this is Pulitzer Prize-winning material?
Comment: I actually bought this book before it won the Pulitzer but just now got around to reading it. It's not horrible, but I did not compelling, either. It's just sort of "there". I would read during lunch, or before bedtime, and could have shelved it or taken it to the used bookstore at any point. The only reason I finished reading this book is because I started reading it in the first place.
Numerous people have commented about the use of Spanish, Spanglish, hip-hop, or street language in the book. Admittedly, I probably missed some nuances because I didn't take the time to translate every non-English phrase. But, again, it wasn't compelling enough to me to make the effort. Which begat which, apathy or disinterest?
I also didn't find the "multiperspectival view" as compelling as did Publisher's Weekly. To me, it fragmented the story's flow, although provided some interesting background info. As some have mentioned, one is left to wonder, is this a story about its titular character, or his sister, or his mother, or a sadistic Dominican dictator, or his grandmother, or......
The writing is edgy, witty, sometimes funny, and, Diaz can certainly take an interesting turn with a sentence or phrase, but for me the style could not overcome the substance. It's as if this book is avant jazz being played at the Nebraska State Fair (no offense intended to any Nebrakans out there). Maybe it's great & I simply lack the degree in literary criticism that would allow me to enjoy it, but give me Cormac McCarthy any day instead.
A more accurate title would be "The Brief Somewhat Interesting but Certainly not Wondrous Life of a Fat Nerd and his Entire Family Tree, Plus a History of the Dominican Republic." So, if you're into that, dig it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: trying too hard
Comment: Based on the reviews, my book group was expecting a funny book. Other than a few Mona Lisa's, we did not find it terribly funny. I think if the author had selected 2 or 3 themes, instead of the never ending collection (coming of age, revolution, I forget the rest; I'm repressing), the book would have better held my interest. As it was, I forced myself to read the first 200 pages and could stand no more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An unsummarized life
Comment: Anyone can build a single character. This book is less a character and more an entire world built around a character. These characters are literary real people, not real-real people. Oscar is the quintessential sterotype of a "living in his mom's basement at 30" nerd. The narrator, Oscar's sister, and his mother all have pieces of their lives laid out for the reader because this is a book about the LIFE of Oscar Wao, not about Oscar Wao. And the life, of course, includes the people who are part of his existence.
Occassionally the narrator's voice feels a little forced -- it distracted me at points but not beyond measure. Overall though, I think it has a good chance of ending up as required high school reading in an AP American Lit class -- for the first 50 pages I couldn't stop thinking that this was a book I would have been told to read in school.
After the first 50 pages, I was engaged and stopped caring. I'm not exactly sure what criteria defines a school book. I think for this its something along the lines of:
"The immigrant/second generation experience"
"recurring themes that are easy to spot, foreshadowing that is easy to spot"
mmmm ... and something like that. I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing for a book to read that way, but there you have it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Learned a lot about the DR, but disliked this book overall
Comment: Perhaps if I were a depressed twentysomething who thinks that life is meaningless I might have liked this book.
I stuck with it to the end, though I wanted to quit reading it several times. I was hoping that there would be a really good payoff at the end that would bring some meaning to the whole thing, but there wasn't.
The Lord of the Rings references get boring after awhile also.
The constant use of Spanish phrases, without translation, also become annoying. The little Spanish that I do know let me know that they had relevance to the story and to the character development, but without knowing what the hell is being said you lose a lot.
I've read nihilistic lit, which is what the author wants this book to be and makes several references to. But the end of this book just pissed me off. I will move on quickly to something else to read and try to forget that I ever read this.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: It's been 11 years since Junot Díaz's critically acclaimed story collection, Drown, landed on bookshelves and from page one of his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, any worries of a sophomore jinx disappear. The titular Oscar is a 300-pound-plus "lovesick ghetto nerd" with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is also the story of a multi-generational family curse that courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake. This was the most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I've read in a long time. My head is still buzzing with the memory of dozens of killer passages that I dog-eared throughout the book. The rope-a-dope narrative is funny, hip, tragic, soulful, and bursting with desire. Make some room for Oscar Wao on your bookshelf--you won't be disappointed. --Brad Thomas Parsons
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