Customer Reviews:
 I really liked it but it's not for everybody July 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book based on the Amazon reviews and I really liked it a lot. His writing style is different from what one is probably used to reading, but once I understood what he was doing, I really enjoyed it. The book is very conversational in the way the story is told.
I gave it to my husband to read as soon as I was finished and he could not get past page 30. He did not like it at all. He didn't like the "Spanglish" (however, that was one thing I loved about it, but I also speak Spanish so I'm sure that's why) or any of the characters. It's a lot funnier though if you do speak the language.
The book, while very funny, has a melancholy tone to it that is throughout (which I also like). He tells the story thru many different characters eyes, and you get all of their back stories so no matter how flawed the character is, you feel for them.
He does a great job of developing all the main characters which is almost everything in a story to me. It's definitely worth reading.
 excellent July 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
great book. incredibly entertaining. wonderful history of the dominican republic. the book is wild and sexy and you won't be disappointed.
Worthy of the Pulitzer July 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is beautifully written and contains a story with such a human touch. In the first 75 pages I wondered how it could have won a pulitzer prize. The rest of the book proved to be one of the finest I have ever read. I did need a Spanish dictionary next to me while I read, to interpret all the "Spanglish", but the author had his pulse on the dual nature of the soul of a modern immigrant. I wondered how autobiographical the book is. It stimulated me to read more about the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic. (I had previously read "In the Time of Butterflies", another great book about the DR under Trujillo, and I would also recommend that book.)
Excellent and Engaging July 7, 2008
This book deserves its Pulitzer. Junot Diaz really seems to GET his characters, and he describes them - their flaws and redeemable qualities - very well. The book brilliantly captures the lives of several family members, and Oscar's life resembles his mother's life, which resembles his sister's life, and everything in the book fits together. The book constantly met or exceeded my expectations; everything that happened in the story seemed right. The book went exactly where it should.
Several reviewers have suggested that, in order to enjoy this book, one needs to know Spanish. I know very little Spanish, but that never got in my way. Perhaps, if I knew Spanish, I would have looked at the book from a different vantage point, but I wholeheartedly appreciated the view I had.
It helped, I think, that I could appreciate and understand the book's geek references. The book makes numerous references to role-playing games, Tolkien, etc., and I suspect I would have been frustrated if I hadn't understood these references.
On a side note, I recently listened to a book talk that Junot Diaz gave at Google headquarters. I want to finish my review with two interesting, telling quotes:
1. "I'm interested in the gaps in stories, the places where there isn't a story . . . if there's a four or five month gap in someone's life, that's what really pulls me. If there's a period of history where there's no writing or no records about it, I'm like absolutely fascinated."
Thinking back, I realized that there are "gaps" all over this book! Gaps in people's lives - events that are skipped in a first telling and only returned to much later in the work, or events about which the characters don't talk. Gaps in what the characters say or don't say. Further, the book is about a period of Dominican history that is like a gap.
2. "What happens when you're a kid like me, who goes to Rutgers and basically runs around and chase chicks, and you visit a home where your parents were victims of a dictatorship? Do those histories ever meet, and do they actually ever influence each other? Does one speak to the other? . . . It is true that I always felt that even though I was living in a real contemporary Jersey . . . I always felt the shadow of that past history was on us."
The mother's history, as a victim in the reign of Trujillo, certainly affected her children! The different stories, though seemingly incongruous, certainly speak to each other!
 the weird life of Oscar Wao July 6, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
While I am sure this is an accurate portrayal of life under Trujillo it was hard to get past the obscenities that liberally sprinkled this book. The use of so much Spanish made part of the book incomprehensible to one who does not know the language.
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