The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Hey! What do you know? A new selection of books from Mom! I know! I thought I had finished that stack of books, too! To be honest, I have another stack of books from Bob Diller, too. That'll take me only a bit outside of my comfort zone.

I don't know how this book ended up on Mom's reading list. It's an 8 year old book. (Oh, I just looked it up, it was the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner - ha! and whoops. There we go.)

The book is about Oscar de León, a Dominican Republic kid raised in New Jersey (Hey! Just like the author! Write about what you know!). Oscar is overweight (based on the author's picture, maybe not about what you know) and cursed. Well, his family is cursed.

Being overweight and a nerd makes for a poor social life, so Oscar is pretty much an oddball. He loves writing, science fiction, fantasy, and, oh boy, can I relate to being unable to relate with women. I can't figure them out, either, and I am one.

The book tells the story about Oscar's family, heading backward, so we learn the histories of Oscar, Oscar's mother, his grandparents, along with the history of the Dominican Republic. I rather liked the history lessons, and looked up a bit more of it to understand the context of the storyline.

The title rather gives away the ending, being brief and all, but the story is engaging. Even knowing the ending that's coming, it still hurts a bit.

My favorite line of the book was when Oscar's sister, Lola, meets La Inca, his mother's cousin who raised Oscar and Lola's mom:

"She stood like she was her own best thing."

I want that. I want to be my own best thing. I want to know and feel this to my core.

I enjoyed the book. I'm glad Mom picked it out for us.

Aaaaaannnnnnnd, well shit, just read about the author. Egg on my face. He's an accomplished writer and successful person in general. Oops.