The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved:

The nerd culture. Of course. All the LotR references pulling right back into the Dominican Republic horrorshow. The space opera, the Role-Playing fun, the excellent Homage to Akira. With one exception: DUDE, DON'T DISS DUNE.

I loved just how amazing the characters are. Not just Oscar, but all the PoVs, the clever national history lesson, the epic family history, and not just New Jersey, but DR with Trujillo as Sauron. :) Totally brilliant.

I didn't love the tragedy.

Come on. I knew it was a tragedy before I started this. It's in the title. But like all tragedies, we have to hold onto just ONE THING. One thing to keep us going.

In this case, it's fat and obsessive Oscar finally living up the Dominican Republican tradition of: "Dude must get laid." You know, one time before he dies.

Just... damn.

Still, the rest of the novel is pretty awesome from start to finish as long as I'm just there to enjoy the hell out of the nerdy ride. And I did. :)

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