For the next week or so, we will be exploring The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. Oscar Wao, published just this past year, is Diaz's first novel; he published his award-winning book of short stories, Drown, almost ten years ago. Since its publication, Diaz's novel has gone on to win a bevy of prizes, including the vaunted Pulitzer.
Diaz's novel introduces a number of questions we will focus on during this portion of the quarter. Most prominently, the novel asks us to think about the American novel outside of the continental United States. Diaz is Dominican-American and his novel moves smoothly between the Dominican Republic and the U.S., the past and the present, with ease. Diaz's novel represents a move toward a different concept of the nation and citizenship in the nation. It also asks us to think a lot about the form of the novel--as we have been doing thus far in class. Oscar Wao is littered with footnotes that threaten to take over the novel and texts that interweave with Diaz's main narrative. Like Mao II, Diaz's book also asks us to think about the intersection of history and literature; Diaz provides us with a graphic, politicized history of the Dominican Republic at the same time as he gives us a fable about a fat, nerdy Dominican boy in the U.S. who can't get a girl to date him.
Junot Diaz will be reading at Miami University in the Spring, so stay tuned!
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4 comments:
(this note has no real relevance so stop reading it if you are interested in something relevant)
Wow, what a change of pace.
I have to say many allusions in this book (Galactus, the Watcher, Space Ghost, Dr. Xaius, the list goes on) have made me want to cry "oooh, snap!" This books makes me happy...
I second the part about enjoying this book. There are not only all the allusions, but so many important words and phrases in Spanish. Freetranslation.com has been getting heavy usage from me in the first eighty pages. It is a little more time consuming to translate the words, but it feels pretty rewarding too.
I will third the part of enjoying this book. I like this book so much better than the past two. I can not wait to keep reading!
I'm not sure why everyone is 'hating' on Mao II so much, but I do find Oscar Wao an easier read, perhaps more so because I am taking Spanish at U.C., right now. I also find it interesting to read this along with The Dewbreaker (I am writing on this blog in retrospect), because I have lived in the Republic of Panama, and so I can relate to the extreme contrast brought to the table by the cornucopia of American Life, and the plight throughout the developing Third World nations of Latin America.
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