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This chapter-by-chapter summary contains plot spoilers!
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Summary of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Pages 293-335, the end.
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(Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Then one night in August, Oscar is driving Ybon home in her truck when they get pulled over by the local cops – the jealous boyfriend himself and two henchmen. Ybon is completely drunk and pulls Oscar to her and gives him the first kiss of his life. Oscar is overwhelmed. But the jealous boyfriend sees all this and his henchmen yank Oscar out of Ybon's truck. She passes out again. On the boyfriend's orders, the henchman drag terrified Oscar off to the cane fields and beat him almost to death. A taxi-driver acquaintance named Clives who has partially witnessed all this returns with help to get Oscar to the hospital.
Oscar has visions of the Mongoose. He tries to recover from his horrific injuries. Ybon comes over briefly, also with horrific injuries from the boyfriend beating her up, and informs Oscar curtly that she and the boyfriend are getting married. Oscar returns with his family to New Jersey. For the next six weeks he tells himself he should return to Santo Domingo and fight for Ybon, but he's filled with fear.
Book III. Oscar shows up at Yunior's apartment. Yunior and Lola have broken up because he can't seem to stop cheating on her. Yunior and Oscar, who has lost a lot of weight while recovering, talk. Oscar asks to borrow a lot of money, which is completely out of character for him. Yunior gives it to him, too distracted by guilt over Lola to think things through. Then Oscar says he has a date with a beautiful woman. Yunior thinks he's kidding and lets him go, but a few days later hears that Oscar has returned to Santa Domingo.
Chapter 7. The Final Voyage. Oscar returns to Santa Domingo and La Inca's house, and begs Ybon to leave her police-captain husband and run away with him. Ybon is terrified that her husband will kill her and Oscar both. Oscar follows Ybon for 28 days, declaring his love and trying to wear her down. Meanwhile his entire family from La Inca to Lola and Yunior who fly in from New Jersey do everything they can to get him to return to the U.S. In addition, the local cops are parking outside La Inca's house and blowing their car horns and trying to intimidate Oscar. Finally one night, the inevitable happens: the goons grab Oscar and take him to the cane fields where he makes a heroic speech about the power of love and how he'll be waiting for them on the other side. Then they shoot him.
Chapter 8. The End of the Story. Yunior and the grieving family hold Oscar's funeral back in New Jersey and no one attends. Apparently back in the Dominican Republic, Ybon's life continues as always. Beli's cancer returns and she dies a year later. Lola vows never to go back to the Dominican Republic. Yunior descends into a cocaine-fueled nightmare of promiscuous sex, but dreams of Oscar return him to the straight-and-narrow. Lola gets married to a Cuban guy and they have a daughter. Yunior gets married as well, and he and Lola maintain a friendship. Yunior puts aside all of Oscar's belongings for that inevitable day when Lola's daughter may show up with questions about her uncle. He's ready to tell her the entire story.
As a postscript, Yunior mentions that he received a posthumous letter from Oscar, sent during the last 28 days of his life, which got held up in the mail. Apparently Oscar and Ybon were able to slip away one weekend and have a brief affair. So poor Oscar not only got kissed again, but he got to do the deed with Ybon and not die a virgin after all. The End.
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