Junot Diaz: Taking the 21st Century By Storm

Jailene Adorno ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was recently named the best novel of the 21st Century so far according to a BBC poll. Several critics were polled and 156 novels were taken into account. Some contenders consisted of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, and Ian McEwan’s Atonement.

Upon first reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, readers might think that they’re going to learn all about the rise and fall of the titular character Oscar. However, as readers dive deep into the novel, they start to realize that the story goes beyond the “ghetto nerd” and his love of comic books. Readers get sucked into a time machine as Diaz takes them on a journey through Oscar’s family history as well as the history of the Dominican Republic while it was under the rule of Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.
The stories interwoven in Diaz’s novel are extremely thought-provoking. Diaz chooses to share the tales of Oscar and his family in a very deliberate way as he switches perspectives from Oscar to his sister Lola to even his mother Beli. The vernacular and social issues pull readers right in as they read about the characters’ very scandalous lives. The tales are so vivid and often heart-breaking, that readers can’t help but to fall in love with the novel as a whole. It’s a very authentic take on what it was like to live in the Dominican Republic during the 40s and 50s.

Another really interesting feature to this novel is the narrator, who is actually a character seen in a lot of Diaz’s stories. The narrator knows a lot about people that he’s never even met before. He’s somewhat mysterious at times as he leaves readers wondering who’s really telling the stories. Still, the narrator slips through the stories so effortlessly, that readers just come to accept it.
Diaz does an awesome job of incorporating the aspect of magical realism into his novel from the very beginning when he introduces readers to the “fuku.” The infamous “fuku” is the curse or doom that the narrator believes has cursed the New World. This curse goes beyond one particular person; it affects a family for generations and generations. Aside from that, the footnotes throughout the novel, provide readers with awesome historical facts.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao definitely deserved the title of the best novel of the 21st Century so far. It’s diverse in its appeal and can be passed along for years to come.