I sat down in the corner of a Boarders recently with Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Breif Life of Oscar Wilde. I didn’t stand back up until a few hours later, and it was worth it. The book is funny at times, while enlightening, touching, and troubling in others. Diaz incorporates a vivid story of the Domincan Republic’s under the rule of the dictator Trujillo with a modern story of adolescent life in New York. Although knowledge of Spanish will definitely help, I didn’t have any, but by the end that wasn’t the case (although I don’t think the Spanish I learned would be suitable for public encounters…). In addition, the book touches on many DR cultural idiosyncrasies, and I always find cultural idiosynchrasies interesting.
I highly recommend this book to anyone in need of a refreshing dose of fiction infused with rich history and deep characters, but don’t expect a “full” story; all of the characters have a one to tell, but they are also all broken, beyond repair. In the end, after digesting the book for a few days, it was a pretty troubling read, with no clear message besides how horrible life can be, but I guess this is what “modern” literature is, especially when on the subject of the DR : )
No comments:
Post a Comment