Winner of both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the most talked about--and praised--smash hit of 2007 follows the adventures of a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd plagued by a family curse.
Industry Reviews
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is a book that speaks in tongues. This long-awaited novel by Junot Daz is a masterpiece about our New World, its myths, curses, and bewitching women. Set in America's navel, New Jersey, and haunted by the vision of Trujillo's brutal reign over the Dominican Republic, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is radiant with the hard lives of those who leave and also those who stay behind-it is a rousing hymn about the struggle to defy bone-cracking history with ordinary, and extraordinary, love. (Walter Mosley, author of "Devil in a Blue Dress" and "Cinammon Kiss") "Funny, street-smart and keenly observed.... An extraordinarily vibrant book that's fueled by adrenaline-powered prose.... A book that decisively establishes [Daz] as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." -Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" "Terrific... Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references - to "Dune", Julia Alvarez, "The Sound of Music" - as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread." -Jennifer Reese, "Entertainment Weekly" "Astoundingly great.... You could call "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn't really be fair. It's an immigrant-family saga for people who don't read immigrant-family sagas." -Lev Grossman, "Time " "Now that Daz's second book, a novel called "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", has finally arrived, younger writers will find that the bar. And some older writers - we know who we are - might want to think about stepping up their game. Oscar Wao shows a novelist engaged with the culture, high and low, and its polyglot language." -David Gates, "Newsweek" "In the imagination of many writers it is the untold stories that propel-those vibrant, colorful, magical, historical swirls of humanity that make up our knowing. Junot Daz's wondrous first novel offers that and more, enchanting us with energetic poetry and offering us a splendid portrait of ordinary folks set against the extraordinary cruel history of the Dominican Republic in the 20th century. Those of us who have for years known and marveled at Mr. Daz's stories will not be disappointed." -Edward P. Jones aFunny, street-smart and keenly observeda]An extraordinarily vibrant book thatas fueled by adrenaline-powered prose.a
aMichiko Kakutani, "New York Times"
aDA-az finds a miraculous balance. He cuts his barnburning comic-book plots (escape, ruin, redemption) with honest, messy realism, and his narrator speaks in a dazzling hash of Spanish, English, slang, literary flourishes, and pure virginal dorkiness.a
aSam Anderson, "New York Magazine"
aGenius...a story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That DA-azas novel is also full of ideas, that [the narratoras] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Rothas Zuckermanain short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is the just word for it) work of modern fictionaall make "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.a
aOscar Villalon, "San Francisco Chronicle"
aAstoundingly great.a
aLev Grossman, "Time"
aTerrific...High-energy...It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.a
aJennifer Reese, "Entertainment Weekly"
