The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar
Wao
by
Junot Diaz
Created by:
Book Club Classics
May 7, 2008
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Fast Facts
Author – Junot Diaz
Pages – 335 (Penguin: Riverhead Books hard cover edition)
Date Published – 2007
Setting – Paterson, New Jersey; Dominican Republic
Point of view – First person (narrator: Yunior)
Genre – Fiction; Coming of Age
Issues/Conflicts – Family; Identity; Repressive government; multigenerational conflicts
Awards – Pulitzer Prize, 2008
National Book Critics Circle Award, 2007
Morning News Tournament of Books winner, 2008
Interesting Links!
 Interview with Junot Diaz
 Comprehensive overview of the novel from The New Yorker
 Background on Trujillo
 Background on the Dominican Republic
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Setting
Important Places:
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Bani
Azua
Cibao
Los Minos
El Buey
La Vega
Santiago
Santo Domingo
Samana
Nigua
Barahona
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Structure
Part I
 One: Ghetto Nerd at the End of the World: 1974-1987
o The Golden Age
pp. 11 – 19
o The Moronic Inferno
pp. 19-28
o Oscar is Brave
pp. 28-33
o Oscar Comes Close
pp. 33-36
o Amor de Pendejo
pp. 36-40
o Oscar in Love
pp. 40-49
 Two: Wildwood: 1982-1985
 Three: Three Heartbreaks of Belicia Cabral: 1955-1962
o Look at the Princess
p. 77
o Under the Sea
pp. 77-82
o La Chica de mi Escuela
pp. 82-89
o Kimota
p. 89
o Numero Uno
pp. 89-94
o Hunt, the Light Knight
pp. 95-99
o Amor!
pp. 99-115
o El Hollywood
pp. 114-118
o The Ganster We’re All Looking For
pp. 119-136
o Revelation
pp. 136-137
o Upon Further Reflection
pp. 137
o Name Game
pp. 137-138
o Truth and Consequences
p. 138
o Truth and Consequences 2
p. 138-140
o In the Shadow of the Jacaranda
pp. 140-142
o Hesitation
pp. 142-143
o La Inca, the Divine
pp. 143-145
o Choice and Consequence
pp. 145-152
o Fuku vs. Zafa
p. 152
o Back Among the Living
pp. 152-155
o La Inca, in decline
pp. 155-160
o The Last Days of the Republic
pp. 160-165
 Four: Sentimental Education: 1988-1992
Part II
 Five: Poor Abelard: 1944-1946
o The Famous Doctor
pp. 211-223
o And So
p. 223
o Santo Domingo Confidential
pp. 224-227
o The Bad Thing
pp. 227-233
o Chiste Apocalyptus
pp. 233-235
o In My Humble Opinion
p. 235
o The Fall
pp. 235-237
o Abelard in Chains
pp. 237-246
o The Sentence
pp. 247-248
o Fallout
pp. 248-251
o The Third and Final Daughter
pp. 251-254
o The Burning
pp. 254-258
o Forget-Me-Naut
pp. 258-259
o Sanctuary
pp. 259-261
 Six: Land of the Lost: 1992-1995
o The Dark Age
pp. 263-270
o Oscar Takes A Vacation
pp. 270-272
o The Condensed Notebook of a Return to a Nativeland
pp. 272-275
o Evidence of a Brother’s Past
p. 275
o Oscar Goes Native
pp. 276-279
o La Beba
pp. 279-284
o A Note From Your Author
pp. 284-285
o The Girl From Sabana Iglesia
pp. 285-289
o La Inca Speaks
p. 289
o Ybon, As Recorded by Oscar
p. 289
o What Never Changes
pp. 290-291
o Oscar at the Rubicon
pp. 291-292
o Last Chance
pp. 292-293
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o
Oscar Gets Beat
pp. 293-299
Clives to the Rescue
pp. 299-301
Close Encounter of the Caribbean Kind pp. 301
Dead or Alive
p. 301
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
p. 302
Alive
pp. 302-306
Some Advice
p. 306
Paterson, Again
pp. 306-307
Part III
 Seven: The Final Voyage
o Curse of the Caribbean
o The Last Days of Oscar Wao
 Eight: The End of the Story
o As For Us
o On A Super Final Note
o The Dreams
o As For Me
o As For Us
pp. 317-319
pp. 319-322
p. 324
pp. 324-325
p. 325
p. 326
pp. 326-327
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Vocabulary
(with over 300 Spanish words and phrases, this is only a sampling…):
word / definition
Tainos – a member of an extinct Native Central American people who lived on the
Caribbean islands of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas
Fuku Americanus – curse of the Americans
caudillo – a military or political leader, especially a dictator
Dios – God
fua – ugly
jabao – light-skinned man of mixed race
corajito – damn
abuelo/a – grandfather / grandmother
Tu eres guapa – You are attractive
Muchacho del diablo – The boy is the devil
Ogun energy – warrior energy
Tu ta llorando por una muchacha – You are crying like a girl
puta – prostitute
moreno/a – dark person
jamas – never
gordo asqueroso – fat and disgusting
puerca – pig
paliza – beating
guapa – pretty or handsome
fea – ugly; unsightly
hijo – son
verguenza –shame
bochinche – light-hearted gossip; noise of a party
guapas – pretty girls
platano – banana
un maldito hombre – a damned man
cuidate mucho, mi hijo – take much care, my son
gordita – fat girl
Amor de Pendejo – long distance love is the love of idiots
Bruja – witch
Qui muchacha tan fea – what an ugly girl
El cuco – pretty
Chanclas – flip-flop shoes
Bochincheras – blabbermouth
Pagina en blanco – blank page
Oya – soul
Novio – fiance
Guapo – lady’s man
Hija – daughter
Guapa – handsome
Culo – ass
Tertulia – social gathering
Helados – ice cream
Una prieta -- dark
Cibaenos – northern Domincans
Caracaracol – sickness
pendeja – asshole
gordo azaroso – risky, fat woman
Prietas – dark
Viejos – old
Chulo – insolent
Cochinos – pigs
Maricon -- fag
Ciguapa – Legendary women who live high in the mountain regions of the Dominican
Republic
Estoy sola, estoy sola – I am single, I am single
Mujeres – women
Hermanas – sisters
Boricua – Purto Ricans
La Jablesse – the female witch with one hoofed foot who captures children.
Jibara – mountain
La Fea -- ugly
Milagro -- miracle
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Author
Information
Junot Diaz was born on December 31, 1968 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the 3rd
of 5 children. He immigrated to New Jersey at the age of six. In an interview with Amazon,
he described his childhood in the following way:
I didn't have an easy childhood (who ever does?). I grew up super-poor, welfare,
section 8 and food stamps all the way, in a community where us boys worried all the
time about getting jumped and where mad people got recruited by the military. My
mother was raising five kids on an income that didn't break ten grand a couple of
years. She cleaned houses for people a lot better off than us and I still have this
image of her on her hands and knees cleaning bathrooms. I'm as nerdy as they
come, a deep lover of books, but those long hard years marked me as deeply as that
river marked Conrad and maybe that's what the writer means when they say that I'm
"from the street." If that's what the writer's getting at then I'll take it, I've no interest
in erasing my particular version of the "American Experience." But if this is some
hollow ghetto glorification... I didn't think I was so cool when I only had three shirts
in high school and had to repeat twice a week. I didn't feel too "street" then. I felt
like a goddamn loser.
Diaz received his B.A. in English from Rutgers University in 1992 and his MFA from
Cornell University in 1995. His first work, Drown, was a collection of short stories,
published in 1995. He currently teaches creative writing at M.I.T. and is the fiction editor of
the Boston Review.
More information:
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Read about his reaction to winning the Pulitzer
View a podcast of Diaz reading from Oscar Wao
Interview of Junot Diaz
Another interview of Junot Diaz
Check out what Diaz is working on now…
Printable Bookmark! Please print and then cut to use as a reference as you read!!
Only basic information has been provided to avoid “spoilers.” Enjoy!
Character
Description
Oscar (de Leon) Wao – narrator
Lola de Leon – Oscar’s sister
Mari Colon – neighbor of de Leons
Nena Inca / La Inca / Myotis Altagracias Toribio
Cabral – Oscar’s great aunt
Maritza Chacon – one of Oscar’s first loves
Olga Polanco – one of Oscar’s first loves
Moms de Leon / Hypatia Belicia Cabral / Beli –
Oscar’s mother
Nelson Pardo – Maritza’s boyfriend
Alok (Al) – Oscar’s friend
Miggs – Oscar’s friend
Tio Rudolfo (Fofo) – Oscar’s uncle; drug addict
Marisol, Gladys, and Leticia – Lola’s friends
Ana Obregon – one of Oscar’s loves
Manny – Ana’s ex-boyfriend
Tia Rubleka – Oscar’s aunt
Tomoko – Lola’s 8 years old penpal
Bobby Santos – Lola’s 6th grade boyfriend
Laura Saenz – Lola’s friend
Karen Cepeda – Lola’s friend
Aldo – Lola’s boyfriend
Aldo Sr. – Aldo’s father
Carlos Moya – Lola’s uncle
Rosio – Lola’s friend of Los Minos
Coach Cortes – Lola’s track coach in DR
Max Sanchez – Lola’s boyfriend in DR
Jack Pujols – Beli’s lover
Wei – Chinese classmate of Lola
Dorca – daughter of La Inca’s cleaning woman
Mauricio Ledesme – Beli’s classmate
Rebecca Brito – Jack Pujol’s fiancee
Juan and Jose Then – Two brothers in DR; Beli’s bosses
Lillian – fellow waitress
Indian Benny – fellow waiter
Marco Antonio – cook
Constantina – fellow waitress
Gangster (Dionisio) – Beli’s love
La Fea – Trujillo’s sister
Elvis one and two – Two of Trujillo’s henchmen
Momona – La Inca’s neighbor
Melvin – beats Yunior
Yunior – Narrator; dates Lola
Suriyan – Yunior’s girlfriend
Jenni Munoz – One of Oscar’s crushes
Lily – dates Yunior
Maxim – Max’s brother
Abelard Luis Cabral – Beli’s father
Jacquelyn and Astrid – Beli’s sisters
Socorro Hernandez Batista – Beli’s mother
Senora Lydia Abenader – Abelard’s mistress
Marcus Applegate Roman – Cabral’s neighbor
Zoila – cares for Beli
Nataly – Oscar’s coworker
Stan the Can – Nataly’s boyfriend
Pedro Pablo – Oscar’s cousin; lives in DR
Ybon Pimentel – love of Oscar’s life
Dolores – La Inca’s servant
Sterling and Perfecto – Ybon’s children
Fito – Ybon’s boyfriend
Cuban Ruban – Lola’s husband
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Menu Ideas
http://www.thedominicanrepublic.net/free_recipes_Pollo_Loco.html
Dominican Sun Rice or Arroz Del Sol Dominicano
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.
INGREDIENTS:
1½ Cups of rice (washed with water)
½ can of sweet corn
1 whole carrot - grated
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cold butter
2 tablespoons of corn oil
½ cup of chicken consommé
1½ cups of water
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PREPARATION:
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.
In a saucepan or deep frying pan, add 2 tablespoon of oil, salt, and grated carrots.
Sauté over a medium flame until the carrot changes its coloration from a less bright color.
Next add the ½ cup of chicken consommé and 1½ cup of water. Wait for the contents to
come to a boil.
.
Add the washed raw rice, and blend together on the stove for 1 minute. Cover the saucepan
with a lid, reduce the flame- allowing the contents to simmer for about 10 minutes. After this
time you will add ½ can of sweet corn, blending it together with the rice and other contents.
Replace your lid and return to the stove with a low flame for an additional 18 minutes.
.
Add 1 Tablespoon of cold butter, blend and your Arroz del Sol Dominicano is ready.
Chicken - Crazy Dominican Chicken ~ Pollo
Loco
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INGREDIENTS:
.
6 chicken breasts (cook as per instructions and cut into
½ inch portions)
½ chicken broth cube
1 teaspoon of seasoning (Use complete season or what
you like)
3 Tablespoons of Corn oil
¼ cup of Raisins
½ Cups of Mayonnaise
1 small onion (chopped)
2 teaspoons of powdered curry
1 Tablespoon of tomato paste
½ cup of red wine
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons of fresh lime juice
¼ teaspoon of thyme
¼ teaspoon of oregano
Salt and ground pepper to taste.
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PREPARATION:
.
Prepare a hot frying pan for frying the chicken breast.
Place 2 Tablespoons of corn oil In the frying pan over
a medium to high flame.
.
Coat or Dress the chicken breast with powdered
seasoning (not bread-crumbs). You can use Maggi
complete seasoning, Adobo or similar powdered “all
season”.
.
Fry the chicken breasts for about 3 minutes each side.
Add ½ cup of water and the ½ chicken broth cube by
breaking it into a powder with your fingers over the
pan. Place a lid over you pan and cook on a low to
medium flame for an additional 8 minutes. Turn off
and remove chicken breasts (save the broth or liquid
contents that is in the pan for later use). You may
want to place the chicken on a paper towel covered
plate to drain off the oil. Cut the breasts into portions
or ½ inch cubes / strips.
.
In a new frying pan add the other Tablespoon of Corn
oil and place over a low flame.
.
Fry the chopped onions for 2 to 3 minutes. Now add
the curry, thyme, oregano and the liquid you have
reserved from when you fried the chicken breasts.
Also add an additional ¾ cup of water, red wine and 1
teaspoon of fresh lime-juice. Cook or simmer on a low
flame for a few minutes, sufficient to blend and
integrate everything in the pan and evaporate some of
the water. Turn off and allow to cool down.
.
In a mixing bowl, add the ½ cup of mayonnaise, 1
teaspoon of lime juice, raisins and salt & pepper to
taste.
.
Strain off the liquid from the frying pan. If it is more
than ½ cup, then use about ½ cup only. Add this
broth or liquid to the mayonnaise mixture in your bowl
(just the broth and not the onions). Add your chicken
to the bowl containing the mayonnaise-raisins and toss
together with the other ingredients.
.
Your crazy Dominican chicken is ready.
Black Bean Soup
http://www.recipeisland.com/dom2.htm
Ingredients:
1 pound of white rice
.5 bunch of fresh Cilantro
1 ounce clean diced garlic
4 ounces cof elery (chopped)
1 pound of white onions (diced)
2 pounds of black beans (washed)
.5 pounds of Anaheim Peppers
-or cuban
Directions:
First you must wash black beans
well and then soak it overnight.
Lightly saute the garlic, onions
with the celery along with Cuban
Peppers. Note: This is referred
to as Sofrito.
Bring black beans to a boil, then
add "sofrito", fresh cilantro and
gently let it simmer for at least
4 hours.
In order to make a cream of black
bean soup you have to puree until
its a nice and smooth texture.
Serve this soup with boiled white
rice along with diced onions.
Serves 10 People
Corn Pudding
Ingredients:
1 vanilla bean
2 quarts of milk
2 ounces of cornstarch
-cream of coconut for milk
.5 pounds of granulated sugar
2 to 15 ounces cans creamed Corn
2 ounces of ground cinammon
-optional: Substitute .5 can
-(10 oz.)
Directions:
In a blender combine the cream corn,
cream coconut then half of the milk.
Add the rest of the milk, sugar with
vanilla bean and pass the ingredients
through a medium strainer then bring
to a boil.
Next reduce to a simmer, and add the
cinnamon then cook gently for 10 min.
In a little bit of water dissolve
the corn starch.
Turn off heat at once when pudding has
thickened, remove the vanilla bean and
fill into the individual cups.
Or use serving bowl with pudding, dust
with ground cinnamon. Don't put in the
fridge before serving.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Setting the
Mood!
Here are some ideas to set the mood and get the conversation started to help you appreciate
Diaz’s masterpiece. Enjoy!
Introductory Game Ideas:
Recently a work was published entitled: Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word
Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure
Examples from the book:
Nobody comes, but I still cook.
Alcoholic father, disappointed mother, funny daughter.
I’m my mother and I’m fine.
Love the men. Hate the commitment.
Since this novel is the narrator’s attempt to explain and understand his past and
present, you could ask members write their own 6 Word Memoirs – focused on how
the past has led to the future! If you know each other well, you could each write a
memoir anonymously, and then try to guess which memoir goes with which
member.
Another idea:
You could ask each member to bring an object that represents his/her ancestors and country
of origin.
Then, begin your discussion by explaining what the object symbolizes and how each
member is affected by their past relatives.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Discussion
Questions
The following questions approach the novel from a number of different angles, i.e., how the
novel functions as a work of art, how it reflects the time period, how it addresses
fundamental questions of humanity, and how it engages the reader.
A good discussion tends to start with our “heads” and end with our “hearts.” So you may
want to save subjective opinions of taste until after you have discussed the more objective
elements of the work’s merits. It is tempting to begin with, “What did everyone think?” But
if a number of people really didn’t like the novel, their opinions may derail a discussion of
the novel’s merits.
On the other hand, I recommend starting with a few accessible questions and asking every
member to respond to ensure that all voices are present and heard from the beginning. Just
a few suggestions! Enjoy…
Warm up questions:
 Normally we tend to empathize with a first person narrator, but Yunior wants us to
empathize more with Oscar. Did you empathize with Oscar? With Lola? With
Beli? Yunior? Which characters did you dislike the most and why?
 Which section did you find most compelling? Why?
 Did any sections drag?
1)Reread the first few sentences:
“They say is came first 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. Fuku americanus, or more colloquially, fuku –
generally a curse or doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the
New World... No matter what its name or provenance, it is believed that the arrival of
Europeans on Hispaniola unleashed the fuku on the world, and we’ve all been in the
shit ever since.” (1)
The concept of “fuku” is pervasive and very important to this novel. At the start of part II,
Lola states “That’s life for you. All the happiness you gather to yourself, it will sweep away
like it’s nothing. If you ask me I don’t think there are any such things as curses. I think
there is only life. That’s enough.” (205)Do you believe in curses or bad luck? Why does
Yunior believe the Europeans brought the curse? How could the de Leons – or anyone –
escape or move past their “fuku”?
2) Although the novel begins and ends with the present generation of Oscar and Lola, the
sections in the middle flash back to the past – from Beli’s story to her parents’ story. How
did Diaz’s organization of the narrative affect your enjoyment? Would you have enjoyed it
more if he told the story chronologically?
3) We do not learn the narrator’s name – Yunior – until page 169. Why do you think Diaz
chose to have an “outsider” tell the story of the de Leons? Did you like Yunior? Would you
have preferred that Oscar or Lola – or Beli or La Inca tell the story? How did you react to
Yunior’s footnotes – helpful? Intrusive?
4) Before reading the novel, were you aware of the atrocities of Trujillo’s regime? Did Diaz
include the history of the Dominican Republic effectively? In what ways did the history add
to the story? In what ways did it detract?
5) Diaz begins his novel with a quote from the Fantastic Four: “Of what import are brief,
nameless lives…to Galactus??” He included many allusions to contemporary cultural
phenomenon – from Jennifer Lopez to Dungeons and Dragons – and used colloquial
language. This is unusual for a Pulitzer prize winner – how did you react to his allusions and
language? Did they add to or detract from your enjoyment and why? Do you think the ties
to contemporary culture diminish the universal nature of the novel? Will it be appreciated as
much in 50 years? Or in 100 years?
6) Although Diaz does not include a table of contents, he does include many subtitles – how
did the structure and subtitles affect your enjoyment? Was it distracting not to have a table
of contents?
7) Oscar’s story follows the classic Greek hero’s journey – including a descent into darkness
and a triumphant sacrifice at the end. Do you consider Oscar’s ending “happy”? The title
foreshadowed his death – should his life have been described as “wondrous”? Why does
Diaz make Oscar the title character?
8) On page 209, Lola states “But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can
never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in. And I guess that’s what I guess these
stories are all about.” How do these statements lead us to the theme of the novel?
9) The New York Times review published the following:
Díaz’s novel also has a wild, capacious spirit, making it feel much larger than it is.
Within its relatively compact span, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”
contains an unruly multitude of styles and genres. The tale of Oscar’s coming-of-age
is in some ways the book’s thinnest layer, a young-adult melodrama draped over a
multigenerational immigrant family chronicle that dabbles in tropical magic realism,
punk-rock feminism, hip-hop machismo, post-postmodern pyrotechnics and enough
polymorphous multiculturalism to fill up an Introduction to Cultural Studies
syllabus.
Which of the above layers (tropical magic realism, punk-rock feminism, hip-hop machismo,
post-postmodern pyrotechnics, polymorphous multiculturalism) did you enjoy the most?
Which layers were least interesting to you?
10) Matthew Sharpe in the Signature Review wrote:
A reader might at first be surprised by how many chapters of a book entitled The
Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are devoted not to its sci fi — and — fantasygobbling nerd-hero but to his sister, his mother and his grandfather. However, Junot
Diaz's dark and exuberant first novel makes a compelling case for the
multiperspectival view of a life, wherein an individual cannot be known or
understood in isolation from the history of his family and his nation. Oscar being a
first-generation Dominican-American, the nation in question is really two nations.
And Dominicans in this novel being explicitly of mixed Tano, African and Spanish
descent, the very ideas of nationhood and nationality are thoughtfully, subtly
complicated.
Do you agree that “an individual cannot be known or understood in isolation from the
history of his family and his nation”? How much of your identity is affected by your family
and nation?
11) Washington Post’s Jabari Asim wrote:
Nowadays, there may be Hmong in Madison and Somalis in St. Paul, but some of us
still have trouble keeping up with all the intense cultural mixing and melting going
on amid our purple-mountained majesty. For example, mention the Dominicans
among us to the average Tom, Dick or Andy Rooney, and he's liable to speak of a
mythical Shortstop Island from which wing-footed infielders plot their takeover of
America's pastime. As for the Dominican Republic's history, imports, exports, that
sort of thing? Well, its national baseball team is one of the best in the world, right?
Or is that Venezuela?
Junot Diaz has the cure for such woeful myopia. The Dominican Republic he
portrays in 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' is a wild, beautiful, dangerous
and contradictory place, both hopelessly impoverished and impossibly rich. Not so
different, perhaps, from anyone else's ancestral homeland, but Diaz's weirdly
wonderful novel illustrates the island's uniquely powerful hold on Dominicans
wherever they may wander — a borderless anxiety zone that James Baldwin would
describe as 'the anguished diaspora.'
How can we avoid “woeful myopia” (myopia – a narrow view of something; a lack of
discernment)? Do you understand the Dominican Republic better after reading this novel?
Do you understand the experience of immigrants better?
Wrap up Questions!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Would you recommend the book to others? (Why/not)
If you could change anything, what would it be?
Do you believe this novel was effective for book club discussion?
Would you read a sequel of this novel?
Would you see this novel if made into a movie?
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Reviews
Reviews! (Click on the links for full reviews)
From the New York Times
Without the horrors and superstitions of the old country, without the tropical sweetness that inflects
Díaz’s prose even at moments of great cruelty, Oscar Wao would be just another geek with an Akira
poster on his dorm-room wall and a long string of desperate, unconsummated sexual obsessions. The
incongruity between Oscar’s circumstances and his background — a disjunction Díaz solves violently
and unconvincingly in the book’s final section — is the real subject of “The Brief Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wao.” This is, almost in spite of itself, a novel of assimilation, a fractured chronicle of the
ambivalent, inexorable movement of the children of immigrants toward the American middle class,
where the terrible, incredible stories of what parents and grandparents endured in the old country
have become a genre in their own right.
From the New York Times
It is Mr. Díaz’s achievement in this galvanic novel that he’s fashioned both a big picture
window that opens out on the sorrows of Dominican history, and a small, intimate window
that reveals one family’s life and loves. In doing so, he’s written a book that decisively
establishes him as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.
Many more reviews from Powell’s Books
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Literary
Terms
Exposition – the introduction of the setting, characters, and conflict(s) at the beginning of a
novel. Our first impressions are greatly influenced by our enjoyment and impressions of the
first chapter, so after finishing a novel, consider skimming the first few paragraphs again to
see how the author shaped and influenced your first impressions. Notice how Diaz’s first
person narrator affects our impressions of the characters – and how relatively unimportant
the narrator is.
Diction – word choice. Notice how Diaz uses colloquial language – including curse words
– as well as integrating over 300 Spanish words and phrases. Consider how this affected
your enjoyment of the novel.
Syntax – style of sentence structure. Notice how the author’s crafting of syntax affects your
engagement as a reader. Complexity of syntax does not determine literary merit – the
pairing of syntax to meaning does.
Tone – author’s attitude toward subject. Think “tone of voice.” Tone is created through
diction and can be very subtle, but is extremely important. If you misinterpret the tone, you
most likely misinterpret the meaning or theme of the narrative. Yunior’s scorn of Trujillo’s
reign is palpable.
Mood – emotional atmosphere of novel. Mood is considered an aspect of the setting (time,
place, atmosphere). When we read a novel, we “read ourselves,” so think about what type of
mood your favorite novels tend to have and how different moods may influence your
enjoyment level. Notice how the mood shifts as the narration unfolds.
Theme – main idea that runs throughout and unifies the novel. Theme should be stated as
a complete thought and not one word, which would instead be a topic of the novel: instead
of “friendship” or “family” consider what the author is saying about the nature of
friendship or family. In complex literature, themes are frequently not “morals” of the novel;
they may or may not represent the ideal.
Irony – the opposite of what is expected. Dramatic irony is when the reader has more
information than the character does, providing the reader with an all-knowing perspective.
Situational irony is when a situation turns out differently than expected. Verbal irony is
when the speaker means the opposite of what is said, so correctly interpreting tone becomes
crucial to the reader’s understanding of the events and particularly of the themes. An
example of situational irony in this novel occurs when Oscar’s true love is a prostitute??.
Symbolism – when an element of the story (object, character, color, etc.) is both literally
present in the novel and has significance or represents something beyond itself. The
characters refer to “the mongoose” throughout the novel – what does this animal seem to
represent to them?
Foil – when two characters contrast each other. The characters do not need to be enemies
– or even be aware of one another. Yunior and Oscar are foils in appearance, temperament,
and nature.
Imagery – the use of language that appeals to the senses:
“She is sixteen and her skin is the darkness before the black, the plum of the day’s
last light, her breasts like sunsets trapped beneath her skin…” (164)
Once an image symbolizes a deeper meaning, it becomes a metaphor or simile. For
example, when the day’s light is compared to a plum, it becomes a metaphor. The
description of her breasts compared to sunsets is an example of a simile.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Further
reading!
The following selections focus on female relationships, as well
as other cultures.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of
Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the
post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in
intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together
by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find
happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.
Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A
Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history
and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel
of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love—a stunning
accomplishment.
From KhaledHosseini.com
BookClubClassics kit available for this novel for only $15.00!
The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
"The trilogy recounts, with Tolstoyan assurance, the lives, marriages and disruptive
extramarital passions of a Muslim family of the middling merchant class.(...) For the
American reader, Mahfouz's writing produces a simultaneous double-reading. One gets
caught up in this Muslim family's concerns. Scandals produced by the sexual obsessions of
father and sons (...) threaten the private stability of the patriarchal household, the public
respectability all-important to its perilous social standing, indeed the stability of traditional
Muslim structures themselves. Mahfouz is so absorbed in each scene, so effortlessly able to
assume with the great story-tellers that the tale he is telling is the only tale worth hearing at
the moment, that the reader, as it were, must become a member of the family." - George
Kearns, The Hudson Review
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
From Publishers Weekly
Honey-sweet but never cloying, this debut by nonfiction author Kidd (The Dance of the
Dissident Daughter) features a hive's worth of appealing female characters, an offbeat plot
and a lovely style. It's 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act, in Sylvan, S.C. Fourteen-yearold Lily is on the lam with motherly servant Rosaleen, fleeing both Lily's abusive father T.
Ray and the police who battered Rosaleen for defending her new right to vote. Lily is also
fleeing memories, particularly her jumbled recollection of how, as a frightened four-year-old,
she accidentally shot and killed her mother during a fight with T. Ray. Among her mother's
possessions, Lily finds a picture of a black Virgin Mary with "Tiburon, S.C." on the back so,
blindly, she and Rosaleen head there. It turns out that the town is headquarters of Black
Madonna Honey, produced by three middle-aged black sisters, August, June and May
Boatwright. The "Calendar sisters" take in the fugitives, putting Lily to work in the honey
house, where for the first time in years she's happy. But August, clearly the queen bee of the
Boatwrights, keeps asking Lily searching questions. Faced with so ideally maternal a figure as
August, most girls would babble uncontrollably. But Lily is a budding writer, desperate to
connect yet fiercely protective of her secret interior life. Kidd's success at capturing the
moody adolescent girl's voice makes her ambivalence comprehensible and charming. And it's
deeply satisfying when August teaches Lily to "find the mother in (herself)" a soothing
lesson that should charm female readers of all ages. (Jan. 28)Forecast: Blurbs from an
impressive lineup of women writers Anita Shreve, Susan Isaacs, Ursula Hegi pitch this book
straight at its intended readership. It's hard to say whether confusion with the similarly titled
Bee Season will hurt or help sales, but a 10-city author tour should help distinguish Kidd.
Film rights have been optioned and foreign rights sold in England and France.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
The Country Girls trilogy by Edna O’Brien
The Country Girls is the first book of a trilogy, and it leaves the reader panting for the next installment in the
tragicomic life of Caithleen and her somehow sometimes friend Baba Brennan.
Baba is a vain, grasping girl who needs friend like Caithleen, someone who broods about
the feelings of others and gets good grades as well. Each time Baba hurts or betrays
Kate, you want our heroine to get finally angry, but they are locked in a dance much like
the one depicted on the front cover of this pretty little book. Baba is the more
sophisticated, her mother an acknowledged town slut, and Caithleen is the child of a
noted drunkard and a mother who drowned mysteriously in a tragic scene with the merest hint of debauchery:
“I knew that Mama would never have a grave for me to put flowers on. Somehow she was more dead than
anyone I had ever heard of.”
Baba manages to lead naïve Caithleen into all sorts of devilment, including a final break from the convent
school where Caithleen’s won a scholarship (and Baba’s followed not by cleverness but with her parent’s
money). They disgrace themselves utterly by dropping a filthy note scrawled on a religious card where the nuns
are sure to find it -- Baba’s idea, though it is the easily-led Caithleen who takes the brunt of it, being told by the
Reverend Mother, “Your mind is so despicable that I cannot conceive how you have gone unnoticed all these
years.”. Together then, the girls go to Dublin where they begin life, in their late teens, as free women learning
the world.
Caithleen seeks to please and has longings for a married man known as “Mr. Gentleman” who is clearly
determined to seduce her. Baba seeks to exploit others and steals cakes, tomatoes and anything she can get her
claws on while trysting with unromantic middle-aged men because “Young men have no bloody money.”
When they go out on a double date she admonishes Kate, “Will you, for Chrissake, stop asking fellers if they’ve
read James Joyce’s Dubliners?”
Kate nourishes a yen for true romance, which she’s sure she’ll find with the mysterious Mr. Gentleman with his
French airs, while Baba, ever the pragmatist, says of their boring escorts, “Think of the dinner…lamb and mint
sauce.”
When we are forced to leave these delightful young women, Baba has begun a six-month stay at a tuberculosis
sanatorium. “She left the blue necklace on my bed with a note. It said: To Caithleen in remembrance of all the
good times we had together. You’re a right-looking eejit.” Four years to the day after the death of her mother,
Caithleen is preparing to meet Mr. Gentleman in Dublin from whence they will sail to Venice for a proper
romance, she in a lilac-colored nighty borrowed from the landlady and smelling of camphor. He does not show
up. http://www.curledup.com/countryg.htm