The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Written by Junot Díaz

Narrated by Jonathan Davis

Winner of:
The Pulitzer Prize
The National Book Critics Circle Award
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
The Jon Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize
A Time Magazine #1 Fiction Book of the Year

One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

One of the best books of 2007 according to: The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, People, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Salon, Baltimore City Paper, The Christian Science Monitor, Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, New York Public Library, and many more...

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read and named one of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Sep 6, 2007
• ISBN: 9781429587150

Junot Díaz

Junot Díaz nació en Santo Domingo (República Dominicana) en 1968. A los seis años de edad se mudó con sus padres a Nueva Jersey. Se licenció en la Rutgers University e hizo un máster en bellas artes en la Cornell University. Actualmente imparte escritura creativa en el Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Su primer libro,Drown (1996), es una colección de diez cuentos que fue traducida al español bajo el título Los boys y que trata sobre la vida urbana de los dominicano-estadounidenses en las urbes de Estados Unidos. Su primera novela, La maravillosa vida breve de Óscar Wao (2007), fue galardonada con el Premio Pulitzer 2008 y el National Books Critics Circle Award. En 2012 publicó el libro de relatos Así es como la pierdes.

[brianinbuffalo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

[3.25] My hope is that before it becomes my time to retrieve my library card at that vast book collection in the clouds I’ll finally figure out why so many titles that have snared coveted national awards simply don’t resonate with me.

Don’t get me wrong. Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel is well-written and showcases on themes that often hook me — including an exploration of cultures I’m unfamiliar with. But my interest in this acclaimed novel waned to such an extent that I had to force myself to continue reading even before the midpoint.

True, Diaz provides insightful perspectives on the history of the Dominican Republic. He sprinkles magical realism and sci-fi fascination into a multigenerational saga that is perhaps s tad too ambitious for its own good.

Having said that, I did come to like the geeky protagonist and the narrator. In an interview, Diaz said the book was an “awesome space for me because I had a closeted nerd writing about an absolutely out nerd, and using their shared mutual language to tell the story.”
But Oscar’s vulnerable charm couldn’t save the day. This was yet another prize-winning tome that I found neither brief nor particularly wonderful.

[benjaminthelibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Initially, I didn't get into the stories or the characters. But by the end of the book, I was really enjoying everything. I loved how Díaz weaved together three generations of a family with the history of the Dominican Republic. I will definitely be reading this one again.

[jodiebc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very different style from my usual. The story of a geek, his sister, and his mother. Demonstrates how our mothers had lives (and in this case a very interesting one...), before we showed up. Really enjoyed the story, very deep and interesting characters. Language...dont read this if you are offended by sailors.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Weaving the history of politics in the Dominican Republic over the 20th century with the story of a family over three generations and writing with such flair and intelligence, Junot Díaz created a masterful book here. He’s so fearless, never worrying about political correctness, bluntly assessing the brutal regimes of Trujillo and Balaguer, and letting it rip from beginning to end, freely dropping in references to works of fantasy, untranslated Spanish, and little snippets of the supernatural. The result is a work containing a history lesson, a drama, and comedy, one that kept this reader on his toes and engaged from beginning to end.

The book tells of the fall from grace of an affluent family, starting in the present with the nerdy, obese titular character, his strong, rebellious sister, their sometimes overbearing mother, who we find was once rebellious and in love herself, and finally getting to their grandparents, whose lives were gradually destroyed by Trujillo. The immigrant experience is often written about, but it has such vitality here, and elements like the chapter on Oscar returning to the D.R. (“Oscar Goes Native”) were among my favorite in a book full of great chapters. Because of all its references and ideas this is a book that takes active effort to read, but I found it rewarding, and well worth it.

[therebelprince · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

My feelings on this book are complicated but also super easy to explain: I think it's probably brilliant for a lot of readers, I think Diaz is a fantastic writer, and I completely understand all of his techniques, and I think they are used masterfully... but I didn't enjoy it at all.

Which is just to say, this book and I are not compatible. I think it is very good if it suits.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't love this. I really wanted to focus solely on Oscar, so the jumping around to other people in his life left me a bit lost. The writing is great, but the plot is held together in Spanglish so I feel like I had to keep adjusting to where we were after I caught up from not understanding.

[rknickme · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I could see on an intellectually level what was being done. The contrast that's drawn between Oscar, the decidedly irregular Dominican man, and Yunior, the clear authorial stand-in and ultimate player is engaging at times. Clearly there's a lot to uncover there about masculinity, stereotypes and expectations, but I just wasn't that into the language and the voice, particularly the chapters narrated by Yunior.

Glad I finally read it though, it is interesting even if I didn't necessarily enjoy it all the way through.

[tytania-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first section is about Oscar as a young boy - Dominican immigrant, nerdy, overweight, cannot attract a girlfriend. This is the story that grabbed me.

The second section is about his sister Lola - tough, raped at the age of eight and nobody cared, steely, strong, mother hates her, they fight, she rebels. Now I was REALLY into it.

The third section is about the mother's backstory in the Dominican Republic. It's all about how the mother has big tits. She has an affair with a general. I couldn't wait for this section to end, and was starting to feel bait-and-switched. The footnotes were growing thicker and harder to read.

Thankfully, we do come back to Oscar, from the perspective of his erstwhile college roommate and erstwhile boyfriend of Lola. I really liked this character. From here, we bounced around the various characters until the big climax that led to Oscar's life being so brief.

There was a great deal of violence. I hated how men treated women and how women treated themselves. It did not end up being the book I signed up for and I would not recommend it.

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Historical fiction about the life of Oscar, an intelligent and eccentric social misfit, told primarily by his so-called “friend” (and sister’s ex-boyfriend), Yunior. The narrator uses the colloquial manner of one who speaks both English and Spanish fluently, inserting phrases that are sometimes discernable from the context, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep a translation tool (that includes slang) at hand. I’m guessing this is the author’s attempt to show the reader what it feels like to be an outsider. The narrator does not endear himself to the reader. He appears narcissistic and misogynistic. He uses racial slurs, objectifies women, and indulges in numerous infidelities with no signs of remorse. I could go on but suffice it to say I found him highly unpleasant. The narrator provides background on Oscar and his family members, with a significant portion covering the barbarism of Trujillo and his devastation of the culture of the Dominican Republic.

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the positive side, the story shows the lasting impact of violence on a family through multiple generations. I thought the author did a good job of conveying the timeless themes of longing for love and acceptance through the character of Oscar. Pop cultural and literary references abound, which can either add to or detract from the narrative depending on the reader’s viewpoint. The magical realism element of this book centers around a curse on the family (called a fukú). It can be read as a superstitious belief if one is not inclined to believe in curses. On the negative side, I did not particularly enjoy spending time in a world where there is so much hate. I disliked the misogynistic tone and the relentless pessimism.

Contains graphic violence, brutal beatings, sexual violence including rape, politically-based murder, child abuse, abuse of power, racism, sexism, bullying, street slang, and profanity in several languages. Definitely not for the faint-hearted.

[thisisstephenbetts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Didn't really engage with this.

[decaturmamaof2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

¡Fantástico! Sad, exuberant, funny, poignant - this tale spans the gamut of emotions. A big useful dose of history, meaty family drama, and a coming of age tale.... Highly recommend!

[secondhandrose_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Close to 5 stars but some of the violence put me off. A great read though.

[dogboi-715739 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While I liked this book, I found it too long. It's not a long book, but it's not edited well. It is clearly a wonderful novella wrapped in an okay novel. I'd have liked to see this cut down more; down to its essential core. In the end though, the true test of a book is whether I would recommend it to others, and I certainly would recommend this book to everyone. It has broad appeal, despite its geeky references and Dominican Spanish. I gave it 4 stars, but that's only because I can't give it 3 1/2.

[eavans-914612 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Oh Mr. Días... I wanted to like this...

It wasn't a bad book, let's get that out of the way. The way the author played with the multiple narratives and somewhat stream of consciousnesses to elaborate on characters was interesting and illustrated his message perfectly. The seamlessness of the 4?5? narratives to bring to life one family was interesting and fresh, and I respect that. I wanted to like this book, desperately, but on a level of personal preference, it's definitely something I will not be rereading.

I genuinely feel the title is misleading. Call it marketing, call it a theme that brushed me by– I wasn't convinced Oscar had lived a "wondrous" life. In fact, the passages that described his overeating and compliant in gluttony made me want to throttle him, and I know depression, but if that was a cause, why wasn't that explored more?

The namedropping of science-fiction and "nerd" media grated on me. I've never been a fan of that in any work (I like my stuff a bit more timeless), and this wasn't an exception. At a certain point it didn't aide the plot; it just showed to me how much Mr. Días knows about old sci-fi/fantasy pop culture, and I couldn't give a shit about that.

I was most drawn into the world of narrator and Oscar. The moments they shared together really sucker punched me into caring a lot about them, and a part of me almost thought they'd end up together (I blame the gratuitously welcome Oscar Wilde nicknaming and the forever haunting line "But then Oscar, the dumb-ass, decided to fall in love. And instead of getting him for a year, I got the motherfucker for the rest of my life".) What can I say, I'm used to having to survive on subtext. The idea of a man spending every waking second trying to get a girl, only to end up with a boy was hilarious and fitting to me.

But alas that was not the case, and I could take that. Really, there were some moments I genuinely felt connected to the characters, but they were few and far between to care to look up much of the translations or read any of the footnotes after 20 pages.


The treatment of Oscar's suicide attempt was fine. Of course, I'd want more on that, but it almost felt wrong not to, and exactly why things went so bad for him. Depression is sprinkled in like a second ingredient to his life that's that. I don't know, I'm probably overthinking the damn story, but between his disinterest to better himself in any way or address the deeper issues made him such a stagnant character to me, and it truly infuriated me not having a hero to root for.

And maybe it's just me (actually, it's most likely, definitely me), but having the main character practically go on some kamikaze mission to woo a girl before dying horribly neither seemed worth it nor make me feel anything. I have a huge heart, inside texts and out, but the little we seemed to get of Oscar to begin with just made me feel like I'd wasted the last two days reading it.


I'm not going to mention the storyline of his mother or grandfather because if I'm being honest, I checked out of those real quick. I understand it's part of the family curse theme, but I just didn't have enough in me to care at that point.

I don't know, this book has something, and I can see why it's so loved, but it just wasn't for me. I think I'm drawn to more formal writings and texts I can relate to more, and it's a literary fault I need to work on. I won't bash on it besides that; if you've written a book that wins a Pulitzer Prize, you're obviously doing something right. It's just going to be one of those things I shelve, unfortunately.

[kslade-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Hard to know what to think. Makes you appreciate Dominican Republic history and racism. Lots of vulgarity though. Mix of pop culture and magical realism and brutality. May be interesting for you.

[bibliophageoncoffee · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I felt a little guilty for reading this book due to the recent accusations against Junot Diaz, but at least I don't have to feel guilty about liking it! I really don't understand why this book has received so much praise over the years. Diaz is a great writer, but a terrible storyteller. This one was a real slog for me.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Award winning, highly praised - so you get beautifully written tragedy and suffering.
A lot of untranslated Spanish. Too much to figure out by the context with my non-existent Spanish. Since I was listening to it, it wasn't practical to stop and look things up.
It is not only Oscar's life, it is his sister, mother, and grandfather.

[akbouterse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book. It was a book for school, it did take me a bit of time to finish it, and it isn't a book I would normally read on my own time, I did get something out of reading this story. There were many times that I was frustrated at the characters but I really enjoyed reading about them. Oscar in the first part of the book drove me crazy because all he was doing was complaining about how no one would ever date him because he liked nerdy things like Sci-Fi movies, fantasy books, and role-playing games( all things that many girls like) However when more of his family members stories I started to warm up to him and really enjoyed reading about everyone in his family stories and how they were interrelated. I liked the footnotes in this story and the way history of the Dominican Republic is woven into them. I thought all the characters were really well crafted. They all have realistic fatal flaws and I very much felt like I was reading about real people. There were many sentences in this book written in Spanish. I have been taking Spanish in school for a while (I'm not saying I'm great at Spanish or fluent by any means) and that did help a lot when reading the parts in Spanish. I'm sure you could look up a translation but it is something to keep in mind when picking up this book. There was a lot of emotional weight in this book and you really felt for all the characters and for me, that is a sign of a good book. By the end of the book, I found myself really caring about every character and wanting to know more about their back stories. Speaking of backstory, I thought the author did a really good job of teasing the stories of the characters and then picking a really good time to tell the reader the whole story. As soon as I found myself really wondering about a character's backstory, within a few chapters I found out what had happened to the characters in the past and I found all the histories of the characters to be fascinating. Overall this is not the type of book I would normally pick up but I'm glad I did and I really enjoyed it

[PabloBandin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book!!!! Recommended for any reader; a wonderfully written universal story. It’s long but reads very quickly. (Translated from Spanish)

[bdgamer-669415 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The language put me off quite a lot, keeping me from really enjoying the book. I understand that's the author's intention and style of the narrator, but I feel if it was dialed down a little, the story would've come through without the unnecessary force.

Belicia and her father's stories were the most remarkable. These were truly interesting characters, with blemishes and all. Born in the worst of times, but making for truly interesting reading, if not a good retrospective on what-not-to-do-when-living-in-a-Banana-Republic.

Oscar, meanwhile, came across as unlikeable for me. There's a limit to just how likeable a naïve character may be. His level was off the charts, especially the mistakes he kept on making throughout the story. I understand that's just the sort of person he's meant to be, but even idiots aren't that, well, idiotic.

If you're looking for an easy, light read and don't mind vulgar language and a stupendously idiotic titular character, then definitely dive right in.

[giovannigf · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The ridiculous sexual objectification of the female characters got to be too grating by the third chapter and I gave up. Sure, you can tell me it's the narrator and not the author, but Díaz still follows the same mysoginist route of writers like Phillip Roth and Norman Mailer without much to redeem it.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

fiction (Dominican immigrants dealing with a family curse). [pulitzer 24] I enjoyed the writing style but it wasn't terribly outstanding.

[librolindsay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just...I love Oscar. Even at the end when I wasn't sure because even I thought homeboy was crazy putting his life on the line for the puta, I loved him still. Part of me felt a little betrayed since the title implies the story is about Oscar when in fact his story made up less than half the book, but I loved learning about his family--all the love and cruelties. And Diaz's storytelling was so genuinely funny it made laugh out loud a whole lot and grin like a goofball all day. And I will forevermore wear my Lord of the Rings t-shirt proudly in honor of Oscar Wao. The end.

[amerynth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is no question that Junot Diaz has a strong and interesting voice. I really liked the structure of this novel and the way the interesting tidbits about the history of Trujillo and the Dominican Republic are woven throughout the story. I didn't love the way that Diaz writes women -- he writes like a man who is has a deep sexual interest in women, but doesn't really know their inner workings all that well. Despite that, the characters were interesting enough that it carried the story along nicely.

[siok-76276 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Luckily there is Google Translate, or I would not be able to make sense of the liberal Spanish littered throughout the text. But having understood the Spanish, I must say that it is cleverly used. Diaz also used footnotes to elaborate on the history of the Dominican Republic. You have a choice to read the footnotes, which can be lengthy and interrupts the story's flow. If you don't, it doesn't affect your understanding of the story. Oscar Wao leads a sad life. He is grossly fat, doesn't have friends, and has a job he doesn't like. But he is single-minded and eventually dies for the woman he loves. You have to feel a tad touched.

[kittycunningh-815148 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Just couldn't get into it. Tom loves it. I may try again when my head's in a different place.

[justchris_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I once heard Junot Diaz speak, and thought he was fantastic. And of course, I'd heard all the hoopla about his writing, both [This Is How You Lose Her] and [The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]. Then accusations came out in 2018 of Diaz harassing women and generally showing misogyny. Disappointing but not necessarily surprising in the years of #metoo. I found a copy of [This Is How You Lose Her] at the local thrift store (along with [Maus]). So I figured I'd pick it up and check out his writing for myself.

[This Is How You Lose Her] is a series of 9 stories, mostly revolving around Yunior, the Dominican American protagonist. This book felt semiautobiographical in the sense that Yunior and Diaz were both born in the Dominican Republic, emigrated to New Jersey at a young age, became professors of writing, etc. Write what you know, I guess. The book felt a little experimental. Four stories were written in the first person (The Sun, the Moon, the Stars; The Pura Principle; Invierno; The Cheater's Guide to Love). One was written mostly in third person with occasional first person narrator commentary/reaction (Nilda). Three were written in second person--two directed inward--the narrator addressing himself (Alma, Miss Lora), and one directed outward--the narrator addressing the lover profiled in that particular story (Flaca). One bewilderingly was a first-person female narrator, and the story appeared to have nothing to do with any other story or character in the book (Otra Via, Otra Vez).

The stories move back and forth through time, from the childhood arrival to the United States (Invierno) to presumed present day as a university professor (The Cheater's Guide to Love) and various points in between. The prose is an evocative Spanglish blend that does a great job of expressing Yunior's inner life. The stories mostly center on Yunior's and his older brother Rafa's sexual exploits: the women they fuck, the personal consequences of infidelity, how these women came and went from Yunior's life. To a lesser degree, they explore the family dynamics between the brothers and with each of their parents, and neighborhood dynamics. Racism is present and referenced both directly and indirectly but not the focus of any of these stories, instead just peppering the scenes with some sociocultural context.

Frankly, this book is the most dehumanizing toward women that I can remember reading. The women are evoked in the most sexually objectifying terms and appreciated in the narrative pretty much for whatever sexual gratification they can offer the male characters. This is partly why the completely unrelated story from a woman's perspective is so bizarre. Like, why is that even in there? And that story raises more questions than it answers--the story centers on multiple women, and the one man in the story feels more like a cipher, plus it places the narrator in juxtaposition with her lover's wife left behind in the DR to what effect? I left that story with no sense of resolution at all. And yet for all that, the inner life of the women still feels opaque, though more visible than in any of the stories told by Yunior. The closing story focuses on the personal devastation of losing his fiancee as a result of his serial cheating and the feeble attempts to pick up the pieces. Clearly, the woman at the heart of this story is central, and yet this longest story in the collection never names her. It kinda reminds me of The Bride in Kill Bill. Not a single male character in any of the stories appears as anything other than a womanizer. Well, maybe the white boy neighbor in the story centering on the childhood arrival in New Jersey who makes brief appearances as part of the unobtainable Americanness. Basically, all the Dominican men are assholes, and most of the women are sluts ("sucias").

The misogyny goes beyond the sex, though. Yunior's mother is present in several stories. She is someone to be ignored, belittled, gone around. Diaz even has Yunior reference male privilege at one point. But damn, from his youngest appearance in these stories, he and his brother just completely dismiss or invalidate anything their mother has to say to them. I guess she's portrayed sympathetically, or at least as sympathetically as a deeply misogynist narrator can manage. Yikes.

Is Diaz a talented writer? Yes. Are these stories worth reading? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't regret the time spent, but I think I'll skip [The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]. I appreciated the colorful prose and engaging dialogue, but I could do without the exploitation of women as the vehicle for experiencing what Junot Diaz has to offer the reader.

[andorion-259107 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a strange book. The principal protagonist is not intriguing or interesting in the slightest. Frankly, I was indifferent to him after the first part.

What I did like was the history of the family under Trujillo. That felt raw, gritty and it was written extremely well.

But Oscar? Really? I had little to no sympathy for his immature attitude.

And I think it's interesting that whenever there is serious trouble, people flee to America, specifically New York, and when Oscar does go back to Saint Dominique, he gets in serious trouble. The realism of corruption and violence in the Caribbean is well-written, but what overall message does this convey?

[drfuriosa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A colorful, yet frustrating novel. Oscar and Yunior are *super* frustrating, but the family history fascinated me. I still like Julia Alvarez better.

[poppi81 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A novella that reflects the sexed and macho Dominican world, clearly written from a Spanish perspective. The best part is Óscar's redemption and the triumph of love against all superstition and superficiality. Fresh and bright in structure and narration, dark and tragic in the lives of the characters. I enjoyed it a lot. (Translated from Spanish)