This chapter-by-chapter summary contains plot spoilers!

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Navigate the Summary Parts: Part 1: Oscar's childhood Part 2: Sister Lola's story Part 3: Mom Beli's story Part 4: Narrator Yunior's story Part 5: Grandpa Abelard's story Part 6: Oscar in love Part 7: Conclusion

Summary of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
Pages 167 - 210:

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Chapter 4. Sentimental Education 1988-1992. (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Our narrator Yunior remembers getting beaten up by some thugs on the street and Lola coming over to take care of him even though he already has a girlfriend. He and Lola met during their first days at college and had a fling during their sophomore year, but she disliked his cheating ways and dumped him.  When Lola is about to go study abroad in Spain, Yunior agrees to move in with Oscar and keep an eye on him – mainly to secure a place for himself in the dorms so he doesn't have to be homeless.

When Yunior gets dumped by both his girlfriends for two-timing them, he distracts himself by taking on Oscar as a rehabilitation project.  For several days, he bullies Oscar into going out running with him. Finally Oscar refuses to do it, and they get into a shoving match. After that, their pretense at friendship ends. Yunior's friends start harassing Oscar mercilessly. For Halloween, Oscar tries to dress up like Dr. Who and Yunior remarks that he looks like "that fat homo" Oscar Wilde. After that, everyone calls Oscar "Oscar Wao" – hence the title of the book.

Oscar falls in love with a beautiful Puerto Rican "Goth" girl named Jenni who turns down Yunior and all his obnoxious friends who frantically try to hit on her.  Oscar pursues her as well and she tolerates him, chatting with him for a few weeks.  Then she ignores him to talk to another guy.  Oscar is crushed and gets very depressed. Then Jenni has sex with her new guy in her room, timing it so Oscar will stumble across them. He goes nuts and makes a scene.

On the last night of classes that year, Oscar gets drunk, walks out on the elevated train tracks, and – after a brief vision of the Mongoose spirit – jumps, leaving behind suicide notes for Yunior and his family members. He survives his suicide attempt and goes home to live with his sick mother and frantic sister. Yunior is so busy chasing the girls that summer that he only makes time to visit Oscar once. Oscar tells Yunior that the family curse made him try to commit suicide, but Yunior shrugs it off as nonsense.

In the fall semester of their senior year, Oscar seeks out Yunior and tries to share his writing and his anime movies.  Yunior is too busy chasing girls to give him much attention. Then Yunior runs across Lola on the bus; she tells him she's saving up to go to Japan to teach English. Probably against her better judgment, they go back to her apartment and have sex.  That spring Yunior surprises everyone by moving back into the dorms to room with Oscar.  Later, Yunior reads in Oscar's private journals that Oscar is borderline suicidal, taking long aimless drives all over New Jersey and almost falling asleep at the wheel.

Book II, Pages 205 – 210
These five pages pick up with Lola back in the Dominican Republic, finishing high school after Chapter 2. After 14 months, La Inca tells her she has to return to her mother in New Jersey.  Lola protests, but La Inca stands firm. In her rage, Lola quits the track team, ditches her girlfriends, and breaks up harshly with her harmless little boyfriend Max.

Then Lola accepts a proposition from the father of one of her friends, has sex with him nine times over a handful of days, and demands that he pay her two thousand American dollars, which he does. Lola stashes the money under her bed at home, intending to use it to travel to some exotic location that isn't New Jersey. Meanwhile La Inca starts closing down the house, intending to go to the campo.

Oscar calls, and finally Beli travels to Santo Domingo to bring back her daughter. Lola goes home with her two thousand dollars, intending to run away.  But then she hears that her ex-boyfriend Max got killed in a traffic accident.  She gives the money to Max's mother.
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