I also found this book in a second-hand book sale. After looking thoroughly I was ready to give up...
Ok, maybe I need to elaborate more on this.
There is this second-hand EVERYTHING store I normally go to (normally as in once a week).
I find it soothes my soul to go treasure hunting. I've bought old liquor bottles, furniture, plates, pots and well even clothes. But they never had books. Until one day...there were tons. As if I needed one more excuse to keep going now they sold books, normally at 2$ sometimes at .50 cents.
Since I got my Kindle I've been reading on my electronic BFF but I do miss -oh how I miss- flipping a page and going back and forth and folding the corners and the smell...that smell of yellow pages and dusty words. It is my go-to-place.
End of the elaboration part.
I was ready to give up on the search. That day in particular I hadn't found anything worth spending .50 cents on but as I was searching the last pile I found Junot.
Junot! I'll dare to say that I don't think his books are available here. Well, in the two bookstores we have in this country that is and also, how many copies of Twilight and the Hunger Games does one country need!
I'd heard about Junot and his Pulitzer Price which of course is something that always makes heads turn. I saw him on an interview on "Página 2" (only my second favorite TV-show ever....right after Here Comes Honey boo boo). This Spanish TV show is exclusively and totally about books. And books turned into movies. So some movies too.
This and "Días de Cine" are the only two Spanish shows that we keep watching after we moved back to El Salvador.
So back to Junot. I saw him on an interview and he seemed pretty nice. Which is always a plus when it comes to writers. He made it to my Kindle wishlist but there.are.so.many.titles on my waiting list that it would have been a while before I read one of his books.
But life and its magical ways gave me POSER and then Junot through The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
How I've loved and laughed with him. The book is about a Dominican family and the story, just as the family, goes back and forth between New York and the Dominican Republic.
If I would have to describe the book in two words I would say it was: freaking awesome! that's what I would say.
From the very start he manages to give each of the characters their own voice. I could hear each of them out loud. Oscar, Lola, Beli, La Inca.
Oscar speaks slowly, his voice is deep and he thinks way more than what he says.
Lola, she has a dry voice and sharp and proud tone.
Beli...I'm just scared of her.
La Inca has a wise, old and slow voice.
It took me a lot of chapters to figure out it was Junior the one who was narrating the story.
Junior makes me think of Junot but I can't dare say there is any real life resemblance between the two.
As I read, one question kept popping into my head: how will a non-spanish-speaking reader read it?
The book has sooooo many words in Spanish and they make so much sense. They're not uber complicated words and they are sporadic -think spanglish- but they're crucial! So this is an official shout out for help. Will anyone out there discuss this with me? Anyone? Junot?
The book is simply exquisite. I had never read anything like it and this goes for both the story and the story telling.
The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz was not a brief read but it was definitely wondrous.
(Links are affiliate, opinions are my own.)
