Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz
2007
Riverhead Books
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award

First line:
They say it came from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles.

Quick non-spoilery summary:
Oscar de Leon is a nerd, a sweet, overweight Dominican kid who likes sci-fi and fantasy and dreams of becoming the Dominican Tolkien. The book opens with a history of the fuku curse of the Caribbean and Oscar. Oscar, it would seem, was a victim of the fuku. Despite some early success with the ladies around the age of 7, things changed for Oscar, and the little Planet of the Apes lunchbox-toting boy lost his swagger. But Oscar never lost his love for the ladies. In fact his loves are what shape him. But it's not just the story of Oscar. The book also has sections on Lola, his sister, and a very long section on his mother, Belicia, and her life in the DR under Trujillo before she escaped to Nueva York.

My thoughts:
Wow. That was my first reaction when finishing this book. I'm having a hard time pinning my thoughts down, so I'm going to start with the recent controversy. A school district in New Jersey came under fire recently because The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was included on the syllabus of a tenth grade English class and some people felt it was "pornographic". Clearly, these people have no idea what pornography is. There is some language, and it's about a teenage boy, who thinks and feels in a manner appropriate for a teenage boy (or girl for that matter). In terms of this kind of content it was similar to some YA titles that I have read recently, including the also challenged The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Winger by Andrew Smith. Oscar Wao does not describe sex acts. The idea that it is pornographic strikes me as ludicrous.
Anyway, it's great. It's sad;  it's funny. It has this great voice. The writing is vibrant and jumps off the page. The narrator is Lola's ex-boyfriend and Oscar's friend Yunior, and you can hear the text as you read. He sets the scene. You root for Oscar in his quest for love. He is like an epic hero of yore--only instead of dragons, there are dictators and high school and societal norms. Instead of a tall, swaggering hero, there is a fat Dominican boy with a heart and a dream.

Rating: Relish

If you like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, try The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie or Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I personally look forward to reading Diaz's short story collection, This Is How You Lose Her, which also features Yunior.

Review: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
Jean-Dominique Bauby
1998

First line: Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day. My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible diving bell holds my whole body prisoner. 

Quick summary: 
Jean-Dominique was the editor of French Elle. Then, when he was 43, he had a massive stroke that left him unable to move anything other than a few muscles in his face but with his mind intact, a condition known as Locked In Syndrome. Over the course of several months, by blinking just his left eyelid, he wrote this book. The book offers readers a rare glimpse into a mind that still works in a body that doesn't, a helpless bystander to his medical care, and a man who had lived fully who is now barely living. 

My thoughts:
Wow. This is really a slim volume. It took me a while to read, but I think that's more of a reflection of the fact that it begs not to be rushed. If you rush, you miss it. So much of the book is quiet moments, moments in which his mind takes flight in memory or imagination. 
I think one of the things that impressed me most, other than the sheer tediousness of his mode of communication and that he was able to communicate the book to someone, was how little time he spent dwelling on his condition. It is more lyrical flights of fancy. A painting that transports him to another place. A memory. He did not want to die. He wanted to heal and live.
I can't wait to watch the movie. I'm curious how they did it. 
It's interesting because I don't know that I would have liked Jean-Dominique Bauby had I met him pre-stroke, but I bet he was a great storyteller, the kind of person people gathered around at social gatherings, and he probably knew all the best restaurants and shops.

Rating: Relish

If you like this, you might also like 84, Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff.

Some quotes: 

"Want to play hangman?" asks Theophile, and I ache to tell him that I have enough on my plate playing quadriplegic. But my communication system disqualifies repartee: the keenest rapier grows dull and falls flat when it takes several minutes to thrust it home. By the time you strike, even you no longer understand what had seemed so witty before you started to dictate it, letter by letter. So the rule is to avoid impulsive sallies. It deprives conversation of its sparkle, all those gems you bat back and forth like a ball--and I count this forced lack of humor one of the great drawbacks of my condition. (p.70-1)

Does the cosmos contain keys for opening my diving bell? A subway line with no terminus? A currency strong enough to buy my freedom back? We must keep looking. (p.131-2)