Novel Summary and Response

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is told mostly from the point of view of Oscar’s college roommate, Yunior, who also happens to be an on-again, off-again flame of Oscar’s sister Lola’s.  Oscar de León is a Dominican-American boy living in New York.  When he was little, he was a big flirt, like most Dominican boys—according to Yunior.  He had numerous “girlfriends,” and danced well too.

But Oscar’s family is under a curse—a fukú—which dates back to the time of the grandfather he never met, back to a time when El Jefe (Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina) kept the citizens of Santo Domingo under the thumb of his dictatorial regime.  Oscar’s maternal grandfather, Abelard Luis Cabral, said “something bad” about El Jefe, and so Oscar is destined for an unhappy life; periodically, he finds moments of happiness, but they are cruelly taken from him time and time again.

It all starts when Oscar becomes interested in Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Japanese animation, and other geeky pursuits.  He is ostracized by his peers; the other boys make fun of him, and the girls avoid him.  Throughout his adolescence and into his adult years, Oscar does not have a single date.  He falls in love quite easily with numerous classmates, but none of them return his feelings.

Oscar takes refuge in writing.  From Yunior’s comments on the subject, Oscar’s work is mostly science-fiction or fantasy, but is also quite good.  “Wasn’t my cup of tea—” Yunior says, “—but even I could tell he had chops” (Diaz 173).

The first two parts of the book are partly about Oscar’s life, and partly flashback.  In the flashback chapters, Yunior tells about the de León family history—how La Inca, a relative of Abelard Cabral’s, and Oscar’s nominal grandmother, saved Oscar’s mother from burning oil and took care of her after Abelard and the rest of her family were either jailed or killed.  Oscar’s mother, Hypatía Belicia Cabral (Belí, for short), was Abelard and his wife’s only surviving daughter.  Her sisters Jacquelyn and Astrid had eventually been hunted down and killed by the Trujillo regime after their father was jailed and their mother, Socorro Hernández Batista Cabral, committed suicide by ammunition truck.

All these flashbacks illustrate the de León family curse, and how Oscar’s life parallels that of his mother.  One particular flashback details the beating his mother suffered at the hands of a couple of Trujillo’s minions.  Belí had become pregnant by El Jefe’s brother-in-law, and would not stop bragging about the pregnancy.  She dreamed and proclaimed that her lover would divorce his wife and marry her, and did not care who heard her speak.

One Halloween in college, Oscar dresses up as Oscar Wilde, and one of the boys at the school who has an Asian accent pronounces it “Oscar Wao,” and the nickname sticks to Oscar de León for the rest of his life.  He does not seem to understand that the other boys are making fun of him when they call him that, and even signs his final letter to Yunior, “Your Compa~nero, Oscar Wao” (Diaz 191).

Oscar, despite his non-existent love life, goes through life not believing in fukú.  He eventually does fall in love with a girl who seems to share his feelings, but the relationship does not work out—she has a very abusive boyfriend who eventually scares her into never seeing Oscar again, even though she liked being friends with him.

The loss of this girl’s friendship devastates Oscar, and he attempts suicide, jumping off of a bridge.  He spends weeks in the hospital, and then gives up on writing for a long time.  Yunior tries to help Oscar out of his depression, but just does not know how.

Eventually, the decision is made for Oscar to go visit La Inca in Santo Domingo.  He starts writing again, and meets (and inevitably falls in love with) the woman who moves in next door to his grandmother.  This woman, Ybón, is a high-priced escort—a hooker much older than Oscar.  Yet, she does fall in love with him.  Ybón does not give up her lifestyle—or her three boyfriends—however, and one of those boyfriends is a captain in the Santo Domingo police.  He’s not a very nice policeman either, and he scares Oscar’s family so much, having Oscar beaten in the process, that they eventually force Oscar to leave Santo Domingo—under extreme protest.

Oscar is not to be deterred from being with his love—or from finally losing his virginity—and tricks Yunior into lending him some money.  He uses the money to go back to Santo Domingo and stalks Ybón—who is now married to the police captain—until she agrees to see him.  The lovers are caught, and Oscar is beaten again, this time to his death.  Yunior, he says, writes this book as zafa—the only “surefire counterspell that would keep you and your family safe” from fukú (Diaz 7).

I have to say that I am sort of on the fence about this book.  The description I read on Amazon.com made it seem like more of a love story than a tragedy, despite the book’s title.  It was an interesting read, though.

I saw a lot of myself in Oscar, although I have a strong belief that suicide is never the answer.  I play Dungeons and Dragons, I’ve read The Lord of the Rings and The Lensman, as well as many other science fiction and fantasy series, and I enjoy gaming.  Two things I do not have in common with Oscar is that he likes Japanese anime and I don’t really know much about it, while I like to play Magic: The Gathering and he hates the premise of the entire game.

While my love life has not been nearly as disastrous as Oscar’s, I can still relate to his woes.  I was not allowed to date until I was sixteen, and in the twelve years since I have not had many boyfriends.  I am also, like Oscar, a virgin—although that is more by choice on my part than it is on Oscar’s.

The author uses a lot of Spanish phrases throughout the novel.  While it is somewhat easy to decipher the shorter phrases that share roots with either French or English, the longer phrases are mystifying to me.  I do not really like stories which don’t stick to one language, unless each phrase in the unfamiliar language is translated—either inside the story itself, or in an appendix.  Not translating foreign phrases in a story meant for people to read who may not be familiar with the secondary language takes the readers out of the story, and can be extremely distracting.  I highlighted each Spanish phrase inside the Kindle version of the novel, and meant to look up the translations online when I could, but by the time I finished the novel, there were so many different phrases highlighted it would have taken days to translate them all—assuming the online translators could translate even the most idiomatic of phrases.

I also do not like novels with annotations.  The annotations in this novel were, in some instances, long-winded bits of history which—in my opinion—could have just as well been included in the story itself so that readers would not have to keep flipping back and forth from the plot to the annotations.  Some of the information given in those notes was not even necessary, and could have either been summed up within the story itself or left out.

Over all, even though—like science fiction for Yunior—it was not my cup of tea, I can still appreciate The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as a good book.

Teacher's Comments and Grade:

(Summary) You had done a very effective summary. Watch punctuation . You may want to review comma rules. 23 (out of 25).

(Response) Thoughtful response 25 (also out of 25).