I finally got a chance to start reading the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. As I mentioned earlier, there was quite the waiting list for this at the library. It was a pleasant surprise when I went to the library and found out it had arrived. :) So far, swoon. It’s one of those rare books that almost immediately sucks you in. (Although apparently some critics disagree with me on that point.) It was met with critical acclaim, winning the National Critics Circle Award for fiction and was number one on Time’s Top 10 Fiction Books. (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/article/0,30583,1686204_1686244_1691840,00.html)
Oscar is an overweight nerd, who role plays, cries watching anime, has Star Trek figurines, and dreams of finding love.
“Everybody else was going through the terror and joy of their first crushes, their first dates their first kisses while Oscar sat in the back of the class, behind his DM’s screen, and watched his adolescence stream by. Sucks to be left out of adolescence, sort of like getting locked in the closet on Venus when the sun appears for the first time in a hundred years.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130350
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article3485935.ece
2 comments:
Anne, this sounds great! Your "review" definitely whet my appetite.
I read at least four books on my honeymoon, and I feel like I have to keep up the flow, so I'll check out Oscar Wao.
Hmm. I read about half of it then got tired of the style; the over-use of "street talk," the p-word in particular. It just seemed like he was trying to hard to achieve something hip and bad. I intend to get back to it and soldier on, but not sure when I will feel so inspired.
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