The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

I read this book for a challenge, Book Awards III Challenge. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008. I had heard of this author beforehand but never read him.

Here's the blurb:

Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister— dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.

Wow! I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised! I wasn't expecting on enjoying as much as I did.

I was hooked right at the beginning. Like the blurb says it's the story of a Dominican American boy who has a weight problem and who feels more at home with J.R.R. Tolkien than his own family. He has a desperate need to be in love and to be loved, but his shyness, awkwardness and his weight do not help. We get information on his family history, on his mother's heartache and bitterness, on his sister's strength and even on narrator's history with Oscar and his family.

It was a great read and I highly recommend it.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (4.5/5) Fiction; Published: Riverhead Hardcover (9/07); New Author; 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (111); Book Awards III Challenge (1);