MADreads

Cross-pollination of genres with prize winning results

May 22nd, 2008 Katharine - Sequoya

I’m not talking about a new type of flower for spring planting, but the recent Pulitizer Prize winning book The Brief Wondorous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.  Diaz’ style blends together a work that is part literary, part historical fiction and part street literature with spanish slang added to the mix.  This mash up of writing genres and styles somehow works; one sentence may be a two page description of Oscar’s unrequited love and the next a caustic remark by a drug dealing uncle.  The style is unique and makes for an excellent novel.

Oscar Wao is an overweight Dominican comic-book reading nerd virgin, quite a contrast to most of the strapping young men in his New York neighborhood and certainly in contrast to the way his mother grew up in the D.R.  The plot of this book weaves back and forth from the U.S. and the D.R, explaining how Oscar’s family ended up here and following his tumultous life as an outsider.  Oscar’s family has deep scars and the book uncovers what makes a dsyfunctional one stay together through it all.  The narrator of Oscar’s life isn’t made clear to the reader until about two thirds of the way through the book which keeps you guessing who’s telling the story at first, which makes the read all the more engaging.

Diaz’s groundbreaking style received rave reviews from the New York Times and other well known critics.  It gets a thumbs up from this part-time novice reviewer also.  Even if you don’t normally venture into “literary prize winning books”, this just might be the one to change your mind.

Entry Filed under: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction