The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

My niece Kayla made me laugh the other day.  We were taking a walk, and she asked me if I walk every day.  I told her yes.  Then she slightly cocked her head to the side, pointed her nose to the sky, placed her hands on her hips, and replied, "I am marveled by you."  Coming from the mouth of an eight year old who pronounces the word "Portuguese" as "pork 'n cheese," I found myself marveled (and humored) by her comment.  Ever the doubtful aunt when I hear something embellished and out of the ordinary from a habitual story teller, I had to pry further into how and where she obtained this new word before my socks were truly blown off by this sudden command of new-found vocabulary.

So I asked Kayla if she knew what the word "marvel" meant.  And she said, "Yeah, you know how when someone is painting a sculpture?  They use marvel."

Huh.  Well, I guess we were 1 for 2 on this one.  She knew how to use the word in a sentence but had no idea what it meant.

I too find myself marveled by certain aspects, situations, and achievements in life.  In her 8-year-old mind, Kayla finds my daily walk to be an astounding and wondrous feat ~ probably because her short legs can't take her as far as mine.  But she is marveled nonethelesss.  She viewed my walk the same way I may perceive the amazement in someone's ability to paint a landscape, climb Mt. Everest, or overcome and survive a personal tragedy.  Everyone has their own perceptions of "wonderful," and we all have goals we'd like to achieve to make us feel like we're living a wondrous life.  But we also have different abilities and limitations toward achieving these goals.  At the core of it, however, don't we all just want to feel love, acceptance, and happiness?

Although his life may have been wondrous, Poor Oscar Wao was doomed from the beginning.  A bookish, overweight, down-on-his-luck, science fiction nerd, Oscar Wao strives to find a girlfriend and fall in love before dying a virgin.  He believes that finding a girlfriend will help him achieve his own goals of love, acceptance, and happiness.  Oscar's tragic and sorry life is told through the perspectives of his sister Lola and their friend Yunior.  The detailed, turbulent histories of his parents, grandparents, and home life are included as part of his biography, which also include the history and political atmosphere of the Dominican Republic at the time.

I wish The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao had marveled me, but I had difficulty connecting to any of the characters.  The stories behind each character were interesting, but I found some of them to drone on longer than was really necessary.  The book is loaded with lengthy footnotes, which distracted me from the story and made me feel like I was reading a thesis paper rather than a fictional biography.  Maybe that was the whole point, and I clearly missed it.  This was just an okay read for me.  I didn't love it; but I didn't hate it.  I guess I was hoping for something "wondrous" and exciting to emerge from all of the tragedy so that I could be marveled.  Unfortunately, it just left me feeling a bit flat.