The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Oscar Wao is not your average Dominican kid. First of all he's fat. He can't get a girl no matter how hard he tries. He reads a lot, especially fantasy, sci-fi and comics. He uses erudite words when he speaks, such as I'm embarking on a new cycle of my life. We writes. He plays at dungeon and dragons. There's only one word for him. Nerd.
The book, though, it's not just about his life. It's about his parents and grandparents, who lived their lives in a country ruled by the super dictator Trujillo, and who suffered what some people call fukù, a curse. Once you get the fukù, there's no coming back, your life is doomed. So you pretty much know from the start that this is not going to be a happy story.

What I didn't know is that there was so little about Oscar. Or at least not enough. I enjoyed the harsh, colloquial style, I didn't mind the footnotes, because being footnotes they can be ignored when necessary, the Spanish wasn't too hard to guess and for the rest there's the internet, and the fantasy/sci-fi references were ice-cream for the eyes. I flew through the first part thinking this was the best book ever. THEN, it skipped few years and went to talk about his mother, and then his grand-parents, and then his aunt. Only then it goes back to talk about Oscar. There's also a brief chapter told through Oscar's big sister Lola, which I also enjoyed. But I was eager to get to know Oscar more, to be with him a bit more, and there wasn't much time. You know, his life is brief.
So, this is not to say I was bored reading about his family. I 'd actually love to re-read it knowing that the story is a much broader one, but on the first round I was too impatient to get back to the Oscar bits to fully enjoy the rest of the characters stories.

Now, having said that...I was happy to learn more about the Dominican history. I'm one of those who never even heard of Trujillo, nor of the Haitians persecutions. It wasn't easy to read about all the violence, but at least it was realistic and informative.
What I was more uncomfortable with was the role of women in the stories. Not the violence against them, but the way they reacted to it. I get it that that's the way it was back then, and it is still, in some ways. But I would have wished that, at least, some of them would react against it.
Lola's character is a good one, strong-minded and ass-kicking. But she also is guilty of some acts I couldn't defend. So there was definitely a lack of really good female characters.
Still, I finished the book thinking it was awesome, despite of its flaws.
Oscar is the ultimate anti-hero, and is utterly charming. I loved the way he talked, how he put all his energies and passion in everything he did. I wish I could read his books. I can't believe none of the women that crossed his roads managed to see that. Well, except one, maybe.

I could have read about him for ever. . I'm sure we would have been friends:)

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