Entertainment - Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:00 - 4 Comments

“Oscar Wao” Is For You, You and Yunior

Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has been the biggest critical success of the year, but if you’re into reading books for the sheer fun of it, that shouldn’t stop you from picking it up. If you were only going to read one book that came out in 2008, Oscar has my recommendation and a good portion of the NYU Local administration’s as well. As Lily Q put it to me, “I would have that man’s babies… and I don’t even like baldies.”

Díaz’s prose is keen and flexible, erudite but down to earth. As you may have gathered from his recent interview with Stephen Colbert, Díaz is unassuming, and the book reflects the philosophy of writing he explained to the LAist. “Being against a language form is just as absurd as Canute the Beast trying to order or command the sea.” He’s an all inclusive writer “looking for excuses to deploy all sorts of language.” He employs a compelling array of characters to fit the bill. Continue…