By Stephen J MillerThis is another Pulitzer Prize winner that fills me with faith for that award. In Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, we meet the Cabral family, an upper class Domican family suffering under a terrible curse. For three generations, under the cruel regime of El Jefe and in their time in New York City, this curse – this fukú – replays itself over and over, waiting for the zafa that will cancel it out and break the chains of bad luck.
The unlikely hero who seems to hold the secret to this curse is Oscar. Oscar is an overweight, loveless and geeky virgin addicted to comics, rolle-playing games, and fantasy novels. His like is peppered with Spanglish and imagery from his fanboy life. And it's his obsessive love – her search for a woman – that fulfills him and holds the key to rescuing the family.
The story is organized and partially narrated by an apparent outsider who only later has his story permanently weaved into the cursed Cabral family's. There are four narrators, actually, throughout the book; together, they paint a pretty thorough picture of Dominican Republic history. In its unmistakeable style, Oscar Wao, of courses, mixes this history (mostly told in long footnotes throughout the book) witha Spanglish mix of Catholic superstition, political outrage, and language recalling Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, and Akira.
That this weird and energetic mix of language and reference works for this family history is really thrilling. There are three generations of history here, and the language still works! There is the 1940s doctor and his nurse wife who have their rich and privileged life threatened by dictator El Jefe's lust. There is the once-abandoned and then adopted mother Beli whose rebellion and subsequent punishment are grueling and heart-breaking, even for such a heartless-seeming character. Then, there is the third generation – Oscar and his stubborn sister Lola – who must also carry the weight of the Cabral family curse.
The book seems at once realistic and honest as well as distinctly and singularly-rendered. The Spanglish/fan-boy style takes a little time to get used to, but the thrill and the energy that this language infuses into each page is like literary lightening. (I don't use glowing language like this unless I really feel this way about a book, and I do.)
I ended up learning a LOT about the Dominican Republic. I was swept away by how Diaz really injected heart and soul into the story using fantasy mythology. And I really came to really feel and hope and fret for each of the characters – the fated doctor and his wife, the adopted grandma La Inca, the fiery bitch-mother Beli, and the sweet and stubborn children in Lola and Oscar. I would sincerely suggest this book to anyone who can handle the dense, rich and unique language - it's simply a thrilling experience.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
340 pages
ISBN-10: 1594489580
ISBN-13: 978-1594489587
Riverhead Books, September 6, 2007
$24.95 on Amazon
Stephen J Miller is a playwright living in Orlando, Florida.