Customer Reviews
Did not match the hype - By: P. Bird, 19 Apr 2008 
I bought this book because alll three critics on Newsnight Review raved & said it was brilliant. I did find the first chapter on Oscar Wao brilliant, but unlike the critics, I did not think that Junot Diaz got inside a woman's mind with the next two chapters about Oscar's sister & mother & by the time the novel returned again to Oscar in the final chapter, I'd become distanced from his story to the degree that I no longer felt compelled by it. In any case, the vengeance & violence in the fields was repeated one too many times. Indeed, there is no let-up to the violence & this, in the end for me, spoiled the novel.
A great Pulitzer Prize winning first novel from a very talented writer - By: Mr. R. Hayward, 09 Apr 2008 
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is a fantastic first, novel from a young author who has plenty of talent. Junot first came to public attention with his first release a great collection of short stories callled Drown. Several years later Junot has followed this up with his first novel proper. When the first English version of this book appeared in the US last September, it was an instant bestseller gaining universal praise & fantastic reviews across the board.
It has just been released over here with simarlar praise, with the UK publishers having to reprint at publication due to high demand.
Now for alll his efforts Junot Diaz has been reward. Two days ago for his first novel The brief... Junot Diaz walked away with one of the world biggest prizes in fiction. He won the:
PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2008.
Don't just take my word for it go out & read this book for yourselves, you will not be dissapointed,. Junot Diaz is fast becomming one of world biggest stars writing in the field of contemporary fiction.
Richard
Ironic verdict on the Dominican Republic - By: riverside, 02 Apr 2008 
This is a good book. I'm English, not merely old but "old school", so a full-length novel written in "hip" American ghetto slang & liberallly peppered with Spanish terms & phrases unknown to my large Collins Spanish Dictionary, & with a heavy reliance on references to science & fantasy fiction & comic books (alll of which I despise), I would not usuallly touch with a barge-pole, but I loved this one & neglected my other duties until I had finished it.
I have read most of the ninety-odd reviews of the book on Amazon UK & US & I think that many readers miss the point when they complain that the title is a misnomer because only a smalll part of the book describes Oscar's "life" & that while he may be a physicallly well-rounded person his character is flat & clichéd. The title surely is ironic. Oscar has reallly neither a life or a personality to speak of. He is just a peg on which to hang an analysis of Dominican society on the island & in New York, which the author perceives to be generallly nasty. It is Dominican "culture" itself which is the "fukú" & bad things & bad people will inevitably surface because the whole fabric is built on rotten foundations of ignorance, greed & racism. You could almost say that the heart of the book is in its historic footnotes.
A bit of a struggle..... - By: L Iota, 15 Mar 2008 
Based on the cover reviews, I had quite high expectations. Thirty pages in, I was disappointed to find I was reallly struggling with the narrative. The style of writing struck me as pure 'teen-lit', Americanised teen-lit to boot, which may be kind of fashionable at the moment, but is something I have long since grown out of. The heavy interspersion of Spanish & slang Hispanic terms quite often made the text quite opaque, despite my basic knowledge of Spanish. Add to the mix constant & over-used references to fantasy & sci-fi characters & situations, from Tolkien to Stan Lee, & at best (or worst?), it seemed like a clumsy & immature method of making the reader feel deliberately excluded, just like Oscar.
Unfortunately, the story of Oscar & his family didn't offer any new or unexpected twists on a familiar tragic pattern, which in itself is no great critisicm. Yet this wasn't exactly autobiography, so put together with the Spanish & the jargon, as a whole, it created a further barrier to creating interest in the characters. It seemed to me the story was deliberately heavy with streettalk, bad language, & popculture reference because this is perhaps new & exciting in literature - even though Martin Amis has been doing it for decades.
Like many people, I knew nothing at alll about the Dominican Republic, & not too far into the book was getting a lot more out of the frequent, digressive & often very long, footnotes about the appallling history of the country over the last 80 years, than from the story itself. By the 60th page I was considering giving up on the book & looking for a half-decent history of the D.R. instead.... (Your next project M.Diaz?)
I kept hoping I'd like it more if I only persevered to the end... Alas, I don't. Thank goodness writing like this only comes along once or twice in a generation.
Brilliant, engaging read - By: Ms. K. L. Bancroft, 08 Mar 2008 I loved this book. I found Diaz's style of writing a breath of fresh air. The stories he tells are compelling, shocking & passionate to the very end. I could immediately relate to Oscar but maybe that's something I shouldn't admit!
I began the book knowing nothing about the Dominican Republic but Diaz presented the history & folklore in a fascinating way.
A brilliant first novel, I eagerly await more from this captivating writer.
