The Brief, Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

I had never thought much about the Dominican Republic. I knew a Dominican girl or two back when I worked in Akron, and I always thought they were a little too intense, you know? Like they had a chip on their shoulder that no amount of "killing 'em with kindness" could remove. Turns out they probably had a reason to be that tough.

The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is one of those books that surprised me. It wasn't about what I thought it was going to be about. (To be honest, I thought it was going to be another "gay lit" book until I took in the first chapter. Sorry, but The Hours scarred me.) It had the presence of mind to be entertaining while it was somewhat educational - shining a spotlight on what went down in the DR during the first half of the last century. Not good, and to be honest, Junot Diaz glosses over or doesn't mention some of "El Hefe" Rafael Trujillo's more heinous activities, ostensibly to keep the reader's focus on Oscar and his family.

Although a curious footnote in history, and nothing at all to do with this book, except to display how racially motivated Trujillo was, is that in 1938, he went against the popular grain at the time and accepted up to 100,000 Jewish refugees into the DR, eventually setting aside some 26,000 acres of his property for settlements. Turns out, the Jewish were white enough to accept, but the Haitians who lived next door (and a good number of dark-skinned Dominicans) weren't good enough, and as many as 20,000-30,000 were killed in the "Paisley Massacres" in 1937.

If you ever start to lose faith in the life you lead in the United States, though, (or wherever you might hail from) Take a minute to read about the failed cattle thief. That'll snap you right out of it and get you back to singing "Stars and Stripes Forever" again, that's for sure.

Surprisingly, "Wao" was a quick read for me, briefly dipping into my wife's territory of polishing off a book in three days. (yea. She actually does that a lot.) I just couldn't put it down, and to be honest, I might have been able to digest it in two if I hadn't been finishing up reading "Cell" at the same time. (Another that was practically impossible to put down, thank you, Mr. Stephen King!)

Some of the books on my list have been a bit of a curiosity as to why they ended up getting chosen, but others definitely deserve the honor. Oscar's Brief, Wondrous life is one such story. Great from beginning to end and leaving me feeling a bit more enlightened when I finished, I can honestly say that I loved it, and will look for Junot Diaz's other work. Eventually. Once this list is done, and my wife has been soundly spanked.

 Wait. That sounded bad, didn't it?