It is safe to say that Junot Diaz is far from a prolific writer – but he is a praised one. It has been 11 years since the release of his first book, “Drown,” which received critical acclaim for its portrayal of Dominican-born kids coming of age in New Jersey. His long-awaited followup, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” has only been on sale for three weeks and is already a best seller.
Now considered a major Latino writer and a literary force from New Jersey, Diaz, who is in his late thirties, was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the Garden State at the age of 6. His mother currently resides in North Bergen.
The new novel contains references to Weehawken, West New York, Union City, and even mentions Bergenline Avenue at the beginning.
One writer’s beginning
Diaz took a long path to his literary life, growing up in an apartment complex in Old Bridge and trying in vain to publish his short stories for several years. He graduated from Rutgers, attained an MFA in writing from Cornell University in 1992, and slaved at a temp job in New York.
When one of his short stories sold to the now-defunct Story magazine, a six-figure book deal followed, and his collection of Dominican-themed short stories, “Drown,” earned accolades from the New York Times and Newsweek and was published all over the world.
Diaz hunkered down to write and teach over the next 11 years, and fans patiently awaited a new book. The new book is not a short-story collection like the last one, but a full-fledged novel. Oscar Wao
The novel intertwines between the stories of Oscar Wao, a young and ill-fated Dominican kid growing up geeky in New Jersey; his sister, his mother, his abuela (grandmother), and Yunior, the narrator, who also appeared in Drown.
When introduced to Oscar, the reader is set up to look at a character that has no luck with women, and then it is discovered how the women in his life have made him so. From the rebel sister who looked after him, to the traditional Dominican mother who wanted him to exude more machismo, to the grandmother back in the D.R. who thought him a genius, the important relationships were forged early in the boy’s life.
This is a book about a young Dominican man who does not meet the stereotypes of his culture, but the themes are universal to any underprivileged group living in an urban society. The single mom works to better herself, her teenage daughter rebels against her, and the son likes to keep to himself and play Dungeons and Dragons. If the family had been white, it would have seemed like an episode of “Freaks and Geeks.”
The big question on readers’ minds seems to be, who is the real “Oscar Wao,” and who is Yunior, the narrator?
Originally a character from his first work “Drown,” Yunior appears again in “Oscar.”
In a great deal of fictional literature, the narrator tends to be either the main character in the book, or an unseen, god-like apparition who happens to know all that occurs as he narrates. On the other hand, Yunior appears and tells you exactly who he is. He’s a Dominican who grew up in Jersey and had dormed with Oscar at Rutgers University while he briefly dated Oscar’s sister Lola. He discusses the family in the novel from exactly that perspective.
The narration greatly adds to the telling of the story. The book is written as if you were talking to your buddy at a bar and he said, “Did I ever tell you about this cat from the D.R. that couldn’t get girls?”
Diaz interjects in his own book as well, offering history where appropriate and once or twice even correcting his characters.
Throughout the novel, there is a heavy base in the history of the Dominican Republic and the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. In a large way, the novel is almost a tribute to those afflicted by Trujillo during his rule from 1930 to 1961. The book looks at the way a family moves from a dictatorship to Democracy, and how even the smallest variable in a person’s life can be traced back to one horrific event from the past.
The book deals with the concept of fuku. Fuku was the curse that the natives of the Caribbean gave to the Westerners who originally landed there, the curse that supposedly still exists to this day. Often, the characters will make mention of the curse, and the very concept of fuku becomes the elephant in the room. Are these characters’ lives this way due to their own ineptitudes? Is it simply a matter of them making the wrong choices, or is it the curse that prevents Oscar’s family from excelling?
Garden State of mind
It is obvious that living in Jersey affected Diaz. With many references to the people, style, and attitude that Jersey has become known for, it is not until the end of the 335-page novel that we see almost a romanticization of the Garden State.
Diaz is currently on a national tour promoting “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” The next time he will be in the tri-state region will be on Oct. 2, at the Instituto Cervantes in New York. For more information on Diaz, go to his website, www.junotdiaz.com.