Jul
30
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. (With parentheticals.)
July 30, 2008 |
So I think I have a little crush on Junot Diaz. (Possible signs you’re a little dorky: infatuation based on words.)
(Brief note of frustration: I started this book Friday night and only just finished it this evening. Where has my focus gone? Towards the end of spring semester there was a night where Stephanie was napping on the empty bed in my room and I was sitting on my bed reading The Habit of Being for three, almost four hours. Same deal first summer session (I read four books a week, I kinda had to), slightly less second session… And now I can read for not quite an hour before I just sort of fizzle out. I hope this ends soon.)
But anyway, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: I really liked it, and I want to re-read it as soon as I get my focus back so it doesn’t get chopped up so much. And I felt like a total nerd for catching as many references as I caught (Captain Trips and triffids being my two favorite). I’m not at all surprised the book won the Pulitzer. Toward the beginning, I was a little frustrated with the narrator and his footnotes; I’m on a big sincerity-and-authenticity kick recently, and it had a tinge of postmodernism about it. But the narrator is eventually brought into better perspective, and the book has a very real heart. (It may be only my opinion, but I find that postmodern or texts that get too ‘meta’ tend to lose their heart or their humanness. This is probably a continuation of my preference for sincerity and something I need to just get over.) I guess I don’t have a whole lot to say about the book yet, but I can recommend it. I’m probably too sleepy right now to really think right, but I want to make a start at writing something up here every book I finish, so there it is. Next up, The Bluest Eye.
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