The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao: I'm Just Not That Into It

A few months ago, unanimously adored writer Junot Diaz released his first book in 11 years and his first novel ever, entitled The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, to critical acclaim and, let’s face it, ball-faced fawning across the board. The meanest publishing website in the world (Gawker) called it, “the best book we've read in a long-ass time.” Eager to get my hands on this literary sensation, I asked for a copy so that I could get to reviewing it. Imagine my chagrin when I began reading it only to find it was kind of, well, meh? Not that this surprised me. I had the exact same reaction to his first book--a collection of short stories entitled Drown released in 1996. The person who told me about it back then said Diaz was the second coming. I was too embarrassed to tell them I didn’t see it. So, I kept quiet. Eleven years later it's my job to publicly tell everyone what I think and up until now, I've chickened out. How can I stand up in front of the entire internet and say I am the only schmuck in the world who dosn’t cream for Junot Diaz? I’ll surely be crucified. I confided in a couple of friends who are in the literary world, one of whom relayed a recent personal conversation they had with Diaz about relationships. Diaz’s end of the conversation, as conveyed to me, was hilarious. Perhaps that is his forte? Stories about sex, I mean. I was reminded of a passage in the aforementioned Gawker review describing his appearance at the New Yorker Festival last October:

Actually the audience was sort of generally unresponsive, or maybe reverent?

Love is blind and even Gawker editors can fall prey to rose-colored glasses.

The only rise Junot got out of the crowd was when he introduced a story about cheating on one's girlfriend like so: "As long as you all keep cheating on each other, I'll keep writing this shit!" (Cue little "he-said-shit!" gasps all around.)

Yes, that seems to be his allure. His “ghetto-ness.” Which is pretty much precisely what has me so bored. It’s not just Diaz, either. There are a number of Latino authors dating back to the 1980’s that have refused to find a new schtick. I know a lot of Latinos grow up in the hood, but a lot of us don't. It gets boring. But then again, these sorts of incongruities between the author's background and my own were never a problem for me when I read Fitzgerald or Salinger or Alexie. (Talk about disparate backgrounds!) No. I have to say that if a writer is compelling, he’s compelling. Even if he’s writing about wallpaper. And, for me, Diaz just isn’t compelling enough. What I can say about The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao is that I learned a whole lot about Domincan history. Which is as profound as any country’s. As for his characters, I really couldn’t care less about them. I didn’t find them funny. And I especially wasn’t attached to them. In a recent KCRW interview I found online, Diaz states, (and I paraphrase), that sometimes there are terrible books that really produce pleasing results in his mind and his heart and sometimes there are incredibly brilliant books that don’t do any of that. I suppose this may be an example of the latter for me. I’ll take the word of the National Book Critics Circle, anyway, since The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao is #1 on their Best Recommended list. He certainly doesn’t need any recommendations from me. As for those two friends I confided in about this dilemma, neither of them have gotten around to reading the book, though they both make their living in his field. Another member of our staff who received a copy also didn’t manage to make it past the first few pages, citing they were very busy with work. All three people admitted to suspecting that I'm not the only one who will feel underwhelmed by it, but they doubted anyone would admit to that publicly. So, I'm doing it. For better or for worse. It's one person's opinion. I'd be curious to hear yours.