After This is How You Lose Her, I decided it was time to read my original Diaz book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Well more precisely, I tried to read another book but couldn't get out of the Diaz fog long enough to get past the first four pages. THEN I decided to start Oscar Wao, and it did not disappoint.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is, you guessed it, the story of Oscar de Leon: a.k.a Oscar Wilde a.k.a. Oscar Wao. As a kid, Oscar is handsome, charming, and good with the ladies. But when puberty hits, his looks, charm and ladies disappear. Now covered in acne and 200 lbs of fat, Oscar spends his life in his comic books and video games. Desperate to not die a virgin, he remains a hopeless romantic, falling in love with beautiful girl after beautiful girl only to remain unnoticed. Finally, after years of struggling with his weight, his heartaches, and endless bullying, Oscar discovers his true destiny.
I thought that this book was great. In addition to the life of Oscar, we learn the lives and histories of generations of de Leons. They are brilliant stories of strength, bravery, and survival all tied in with Dominican history. There is a wonderful relationship between Oscar and his sister, as well as a complicated one between mother and child. It is a heartbreaking story of bullying and redemption, told with the same vulgar wit of This is How You Lose Her.
The wondrous thing about Oscar Wao is that in spite of the teasing, in spite of the heart break, he is unapologetically himself. In spite of everyone telling him to change, he remains true to who he is, and in my mind that makes him incredibly admirable and brave.
I recommend The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao to anyone that has ever felt that they don't fit in. I recommend it to anyone that has ever been bullied, been a bully, or witnessed bullying. And I recommend it to anyone that has always dreamt of living a life that is worthwhile.
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