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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

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Description: A family friend narrates the story of Oscar, an obese science-fiction nerd from an unlucky Dominican-American family who risks all for love.  Pulitzer Prize 2008.

Objectionable Material: Medium amount. 
1. Much profanity and racist/sexist terms
2. Violence, but described from a distant perspective
3. Implied sex
4. Implied nonconsensual sex

Review: If you can ignore the narrator's hyper-machismo, it's a good, energetic, read.  Contains lots of Spanish that could frustrate non-Spanish speakers.

Theme: Better to love and lose than not to love at all.

Title: "Oscar Wao" is a joking variation on Oscar Wilde.  In college, Oscar dresses up as Dr. Who for Halloween and Yunior remarks that he looks like Oscar Wilde. Everyone begins calling him Oscar Wao.

Viewpoint: Third-person with some first-person when narrator describes himself

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Plot Summary with Spoilers:

Plot: (brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Dominican-American narrator Yunior tells us the story of Oscar, his college roommate, and the curse that haunts Oscar's Dominican-American family. First Yunior describes how Oscar, an obese and lovelorn science-fiction nerd, suffers humiliation and loneliness from childhood through high school graduation in New Jersey.

Next, Yunior tells the story of Oscar's sister Lola who escapes their cancer-stricken mother Beli to live with a worthless boyfriend near an amusement park. Beli then sends Lola to finish high school in the Dominican Republic under the watchful eye of Beli's adopted mother La Inca.

Yunior details Beli's early life in the Dominican Republic.  Beli gets pregnant by a gangster associate of the dictator Trujillo. Beaten and left for dead by the secret police, Beli loses the baby and immigrates to the United States to live in New Jersey.

Then Yunior describes his years as Oscar's exasperated college roommate. He is also the occasional boyfriend of Lola who breaks up with him due to his compulsive infidelity.  Meanwhile Oscar seeks love while suffering everyone's contempt for being an obese, awkward nerd.  Yunior tries briefly to bully Oscar into a fitness program.

Next Yunior describes Abelard, grandfather of Lola and Oscar.  A wealthy surgeon, Abelard tries to hide his beautiful daughters from dictator Trujillo's predatory advances.  This destroys everyone in Abelard's family except for newborn Beli.

Lastly, Yunior returns to Oscar's story. After graduating college and returning to his old high school to teach, Oscar continues to suffer loneliness and humiliation.  One summer while vacationing with family in the Dominican Republic, Oscar falls in love with Ybon, the fiancée of a sadistic police captain. She regards him more as a friend.

Their friendship causes the police captain to send his goons to beat Oscar almost to death. Broken in spirit and body, Oscar retreats to the USA.  However, he finds inner strength in his decision to win Ybon's love. Returning to the Dominican Republic, Oscar pursues Ybon, and they have a brief affair.  However, the police captain sends his goons to shoot and kill Oscar.

Lola remains friends with Yunior, but marries someone else and has a daughter. Yunior ends up the keeper of Oscar's belongings and story for the inevitable day when Lola's daughter has questions about her uncle Oscar.