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Brief Wonderous Life Of Oscar Wao Unabridged Compact Disc

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Brief Wonderous Life Of Oscar Wao Unabridged Compact Disc [Audiobook] (Audio CD)

by Junot Diaz (Author)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Price:	CDN$ 26.15 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Details

Audio CD
Publisher: Penguin Audio USA; Unabridged edition (Sep 11 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143142801
ISBN-13: 978-0143142805
Product Dimensions: 15 x 13.5 x 4.1 cm
Shipping Weight: 318 g

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #214,981 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. What a bargain to have Diaz's short story collection, Drown, included (on the last five CDs) with the talented, emerging Dominican-American writer's first novel. Davis reads both superbly. He captures not only the fat, virginal, impractical Oscar, but he also gives a sexy vigor to Yunior, who serves as narrator and Oscar's polar opposite. Davis also gives voice to Oscar's mother, Beli, whose fukú curse infects the entire family, except for Oscar's sister, Lola, performed in a flat voice by Snell, whose performance overlooks Lola's energy and resolve. Both Snell and Davis move easily from English to Spanish/Spanglish and back again, as easily as the characters emigrate from the Dominican Republic to Paterson, N.J., only to be drawn back inexorably to their native island. Listeners unfamiliar with Spanish may have difficulty following some of the dialogue. However, it's better to lose a few sentences than to miss Davis's riveting performance, perfect pace and rich voice, which are perfectly suited to Díaz's brilliant work.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile

Although the listener may be a bit confused at times, both Jonathan Davis and Staci Snell do well in narrating Diazs long-awaited novel in Spanglish, a difficult English and Spanish language mix that characterizes the culture presented. Diaz presents the impoverished side of the Dominican Republic with a no-holds-barred approach. Exposing both the raw, carnal explorations of young protagonists and the environments that molded them, Davis and Snell work hard at portraying the intentions of each character, as well as the snarling contempt of their world. The settings of the stories from Diazs first book, DROWN, include New Jersey and New York. They are well done and realistic. D.L.M. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost Than to Never Love at All, Feb 9 2008

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Hardcover)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a family saga about identity, love, loss, oppression, hexes, sexuality, and fate. Don't give up during the first 50 pages where Oscar, the fat science-fiction and fantasy aficionado Dominican-American in the ghetto, is introduced . . . it's the least interesting part of the book.

From there, you will be transported into the past and future lives of Oscar's sister, mother, aunts, grandparents, and college roommate. Those lives are, in part, shared to present the history of the evil, repressive regime of Trujillo and its heirs in the Dominican Republic. The stories shared in this book rival anything you've read about the disappeared ones in Argentina.

Any book with such a sad point needs a little levity to release the reader's emotions. Junot Diaz accomplishes that result by having Oscar be the most unRomeo-like Romeo you can imagine.

Beneath the story line, the book asks a classic question: How much should we suffer for love?

Oscar is in many ways a modern Don Quixote who is troubled by having sexual desires as well as platonic ones. The humor is more subdued, but the parallels are striking.

If all you know about the Dominican Republic is that great baseball players come from there, you'll be pleased with this story. It's sweet and sad at the same time.

If you don't know Spanish, keep a dictionary handy. You won't quite know what some of the references are otherwise.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dominican Family Saga, Oct 13 2008

By	Teddy (Richmond, BC) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao (Paperback)

I had some problems warming up to this book. It is not a cozy read. The book starts out telling us about Oscar and his childhood. We learn of his obsessions from a young age with science fiction, video games, and girls. I didn't really warm up to him, yet I wanted him to succeed in life. I did get quite annoyed with his character at times as with the attitude of some of the other male characters especially. I'm not an old prude, honest, but do Dominican men have sex on the brain or is that just my female interpretation?

As the book progresses we learn about Oscar's mother Beli and his grand parents coloured history in the Dominican Republic. We learn of the brutality that is brought about on their family and the many deaths. Beli must flee to the United States for fear of her life.

Diaz captures the economic, political and psychological Dominican history and we learn quite a bit about it here. I think this novel was worth the read just for that, but I did like other parts of the story as well. There are many Spanish words in the book with no definitions. Some can be figured out by the reader by the context, however, if you do decide to read it, I highly recommend that you have a Spanish-English dictionary nearby.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars At once creative and flat, April 17 2009

By	J. Tobin Garrett (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao (Paperback)

Let me say, before I begin here, that I had very high expectations going into this novel. Not because it won the Pulitzer, but because a friend whose reading habits I respect highly, wouldn't shut up about this book until I read it.

Now that I've read it, I have to say I was disappointed. The book is split into a few narratives. One is Oscar's narrative, an obese nerd whose only goal is to obtain the love of a girl. Others are the history of Oscar's family, including his mother and grandmothers background, and also the view point of Oscar's sister. Much of the book is narrated by a person unknown until a certain point in the book, when it becomes clear who is telling Oscar's story.

There are parts of this book I really enjoyed. Mainly the family history parts. I thought they were fantastically written, and employed a good use of history and fiction, something I have a soft spot for when I read. However, I found the character of Oscar to be annoying and easily dismissed. His personality as a Star Wars type nerd with eating problems and no luck with girls is one that I have seen a billion times in literature, TV and film, and this book does nothing really different for the stock character. He whines and complains and is hopeless, and I stopped caring about him halfway through the book, only kept reading to get back to the story of his family and the narrative of his sister, which was infinitely more interesting.

I suppose the book won the Pulitzer because it meshes styles, plays with language, narrative voice, history and fiction, and employs trendy little things like footnotes to relate parts of the story. Perhaps if I hadn't disliked Oscar so much the book would have sat better in my mind.

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