http://readmorebooks.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/worth-reading-the-brief-wondrous-life-of-oscar-wao/

This was a sort of crazy Spanglish roller-coaster, a political satire perhaps, vitriol instead, maybe?

The characters, though painted broadly, came through loud and clear, and the resignation that I’ve often seen in those who lived in Latin America during times of similar crises to that of Trujillo…

I am not sure what to think of this book, but enjoyed the process of reading it.

… that Oscar’s life had been briefer and/or more wondrous?

With all the jumping around and various historical footnotes, I’d say this barely qualifies as a novel. (I know, I like the footnotes when Terry Pratchett does them – these weren’t fun.)

Of the various family members whose arcs we traced, I found only two of them to be the least bit interesting – Oscar and Abelard. The women did nothing for me, although La Inca seemed very nice.

Being a one time humongous geek myself (and I flatter myself that I’m now only a large geek), I noticed that Díaz really had the voice down – Oscar sounded exactly like he should, and when the narrator got into it, he was credible as well. This was perhaps the best thing about the book.

Otherwise, I did not like the narrator’s voice. In particular, I felt uncomfortable being called negro all the time (I’m sure this is a perfectly acceptable Dominican practise, but I still didn’t like it). My enjoyment was lessened by the fact that I don’t have anything approaching a working knowledge of Spanish, so I couldn’t tell what I was being told parts of the time.

All of this combined so that I was barely enjoying the book, zipping through the Abelard and Oscar parts, and dragging myself to read the others, so the book probably would’ve rated a low “worth consuming”, but the lack of quotation  marks pushed it over the edge.

I thought The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was good, but not great. Still, plenty of people rave about it, and it won a Pulitzer, so there must be something to it. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I spoke more (any?) Spanish.