Junot Díaz

Weaving the history of politics in the Dominican Republic over the 20th century with the story of a family over three generations and writing with such flair and intelligence, Junot Díaz created a masterful book here. He’s so fearless, never worrying about political correctness, bluntly assessing the brutal regimes of Trujillo and Balaguer, and letting it rip from beginning to end, freely dropping in references to works of fantasy, untranslated Spanish, and little snippets of the supernatural. The result is a work containing a history lesson, a drama, and comedy, one that kept this reader on his toes and engaged from beginning to end.

The book tells of the fall from grace of an affluent family, starting in the present with the nerdy, obese titular character, his strong, rebellious sister, their sometimes overbearing mother, who we find was once rebellious and in love herself, and finally getting to their grandparents, whose lives were gradually destroyed by Trujillo. The immigrant experience is often written about, but it has such vitality here, and elements like the chapter on Oscar returning to the D.R. (“Oscar Goes Native”) were among my favorite in a book full of great chapters. Because of all its references and ideas this is a book that takes active effort to read, but I found it rewarding, and well worth it.… (mehr)

This is the Pulitzer Prize winning story by Junot Díaz who was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey, featuring geek and social outcast Oscar de León and the Fukœ or curse that afflicts his family.

The story begins with the woes of overweight, fantasy and game-obsessed Oscar and his frustrated attempts to get a girlfriend. Oscar tries everything, but the female sex either view him with complete contempt or as strictly friend material only. The book then moves to the life of his sister Lola and her difficult relationship with their authoritarian mother. It also shifts back to the 1950s in the Dominican Republic when their mother Belicia was growing up in the turbulent and frightening era of the Trujillo dictatorship. The family believe they are afflicted by a Fukœ or curse, meaning each of them are haunted by bad luck, accidents and doomed love affairs.

On the positive side Díaz paints a picture of the Dominican Republic and it’s suffering under a cruel and bloodthirsty dictatorship. On the negative side, I became totally fed up with the complete monopoly of misogynistic feckless men, in both the storylines and the narratorship. The whole book is full of men who abuse women, beat them up, rape them, sleep around and consider themselves to be complete studs based on how many women they can shag. Somehow this toxic masculinity is always written off as the Dominican way. Sure, feel free to be a total jerk and man-whore who views women merely as conquests or holes to be filled, but don’t blame it on your culture. I began the story feeling sorry for Oscar, but by the end I couldn’t care less about his quest to get laid, as I was so put off by the too-cool-to-move tone of the narrator (who is supposed to be a reflection of Díaz himself) and his gross attitudes and behaviour towards women.… (mehr)