This book was, in a word, different. It broke a lot of unspoken rules that apply to most types of books. The author spoke in slang and used words like "nigger" frequently. The F-word was used without restraint, which is a word that even today is strictly forbidden. The sexual themes were also much stronger than usual.
I also noticed that the names of games like Dungeons & Dragons were used instead of creating a similar but copyright free substitute. As a general rule copyrighted names are NEVER used in a fictional book, this book breaks that rule without hesitation with multiple games.
All in all the book was enjoyable, but unfortunately there did not seem to be any moral or philosophical points that would make good blog post material. I'm not sure what makes this book a "must read" out of the thousands of books that could have been put on the list. It may be well written and enjoyable, but I'm just not seeing the "must read" title being applied to it.
So, apart from the breaking of many unspoken rules of writing, there really isn't much else to say about this book. I got more material out of this book than some other books, so I think I will wrap things up here rather than type a bunch of meaningless filler. The next few books should yield better posts, up next is "Things Fall Apart," which has plenty of moral ideas to consider and write about.
"Did the presence of so much Spanish frustrate you? Did you look up words and try to translate sentences, or did you just skip over them? Did it add to, or take away, from your reading experience?
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts on the narrator? Was it frustrating to you to not know who he was for so much of the novel? Why do you think Diaz waited so long to reveal Yunior? Did you like Yunior as a person? Did you like his voice?
Were the footnotes helpful to you? Why do you think the author chose to give us that information via footnotes instead of the main narrative?
What do you think was in the 2nd unreceived package that Oscar told his family about?
Is there hope at the end of the story? Is there reason to believe Lola's daughter might escape the curse of the de Leons?
Did Oscar make the right decision going back to the Dominican Republic? Knowing what awaited him, he still believed it was the right decision. His family and Yunior did not. What do you think?
Who was your favorite character? Which character did you like least (other than Trujillo)?
Were you familiar with the Dominican Republic history presented in Oscar Wao? Does reading historical fiction make you want learn more on the subject, or at least entice you to look up what's fact and what's fiction?
What is the mongoose with golden eyes? The man without a face? Did they represent something? Were they literal?"
I borrowed these questions from About.com since your first post gave me nothing to work with.
The Spanish was rather irritating at times, I tried to translate what I could using what I learned when studying Spanish, apart from that I skipped the Spanish parts. Since I do not know what those parts are I don't know how much it detracted from the experience, but the annoyance of having to translate or skip certainly detracted from my enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator was not a real issue for me, It didn't become clear that he was a character in the story until he appeared, so it didn't bother me that I was unaware of who he was. Yunior's voice, as I said, was odd because it used words that would never appear in a book, I wouldn't say I liked or disliked it, I just found it strange. As a person I dislike Yunior, he seems like he was a decent guy in some regards, but I don't like how he repeatedly cheats on Oscar's sister, and then acts like it's not his fault. If he didn't go out to bars or wherever he was meeting girls to cheat with then he wouldn't be able to do so. Which answers another question, the person I liked the least is Yunior.
While I'm on that question, I may as well state that Oscar was my favorite character, if only because of his avid D&D playing.
The footnotes were not all that helpful, when I was still in public school we were taught about all the Dominican Republic history, particularly about the dreadful conditions under Trujillo and how they lasted until the people revolted and the mighty and glorious USA came to lend a hand. So there was no crucial information in the footnotes that hadn't already been provided by government propaganda. As for why the footnotes were footnotes, I would assume they were made footnotes because the story was about Oscar's life and the lives of his family, not about the history of the Domican Republic, even if said history played a role in the actual story.
The 2nd package may have been another one of Oscar's books, but other than that I don't know. That just seems like the most likely possibility.
The question of whether or not Oscar made the right choice in going back to the Dominican Republic really can be answered with a yes or a no, depending on how you look at it. From a romantic standpoint it was the right decision, Oscar went back and sacrificed himself for the woman he loved, an idealistic ending. From a practical perspective Oscar must have been insane to go back. Considering that he "loved" practically every woman he saw, he probably would've gotten over his lost love the moment a more attractive female who didn't hate fat people came along. Add that to the fact that his crush probably also got killed because of him and Oscar's decision seems selfish, impulsive, and dead wrong, no pun intended.
The mongoose with golden eyes and the man without a face were both clearly meant to represent fate or god, or possibly the "fuku" and "zafa" respectively. Either way they were meant to represent supernatural forces influencing the life of the characters.
I believe that answers all your borrowed questions, hopefully future books will provide enough blog material so that you do not have to borrow again.