My Lovely Brief Encounter w/ Oscar Wao
Tis the season to rant about love, so we shall. I was introduced to this title by a lovely contender and so already I was gung-hoe about reading it, right? The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz took me through a journey I’ve heard from many is rather sorrowful and desolate. A Dominican boy goes from stage to stage in his life in the hopes of becoming a routine papichulo. He reaches his personal conclusion with no success, as in reality he’s just meant to be the solar system-anime believing literature head who can’t get his head out of the clouds or his obesity.
As desolate as it really does sound, I received it as quite the beautiful trail through love and the colorful odyessy it inevitably entails. Happy ending or not, Oscar is seeking the load of love from page one until the very exit of his character. He subconsciously (through first and 3rd person characters) takes us through his long line of adolescent heartbreaks and how his life after each episode portrays this empty space he yet again can't fill, but the guy never gives up. Opportunity after opportunity and gal after gal, he is all in, with his very all in full force, hopeless from the beginning and as open as the first time. The topic of hope is thrown around in the ruble of the streets he walks in search of answers to his life and in the long nights of novel writing he so diligently lives by. Hope never dies, even when Oscar's stories seem like they will. He spiritually leaves a stamp of hopefulness throughout each chapter, happy ending or not. Hopeful that love, in any measure is tangible for anyone and although it comes and goes in many forms, it never falls short of shifting, fulfilling, sweet and always beautiful.
Available at your local El Taller bookshelf.
- Cristina Pimentel, Guerrero Aficionado & fashion writer of The Fuschia Files