The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The male protagonist of Junot Diaz’s first novel is an overweight Dominican-American man named Oscar, from a Paterson, N.J., a sexually frustrated, socially maladjusted person.
The Novel Begins with Oscars’ story of growing up in N.J. Yunior. is Oscar’s sometime roommate at Rutgers, the would-be boyfriend of Oscar’s sister, Lola, and in just about every imaginable way Oscar’s opposite. While Oscar falls madly and innocently in love with a succession of not-quite-attainable women, Yunior is a chronic womanizer. However, Yunior is, like Oscar, an aspiring writer.
“The Brief Wondrous Life” is not Oscar’s story alone. Indeed, he often seems like a bit banished in the book that bears his name. The recounting of his frustrated romances, his suicide attempt, his friendships and his literary projects is interrupted — and overshadowed — by episodes of family history that reverse the migratory path from the D.R. to the U.S.A. and concentrate on the women in Oscar’s family. His sister, a punk rocker, runaway, and track star, as is their mother, Beli. In Baní, the provincial Dominican city where she was raised, Beli was a dark-skinned beauty, a scholarship girl at a fancy private school and eventually the lover of a notorious criminal. When we first see her, she is an angry woman, fighting with her daughter and furiously wearing herself out with work and worry. Nevertheless, later chapters show Beli as a rebellious daughter in her own right, struggling with La Inca, the poor yet respectable relative in whose home she was raised. Beli’s parents — a doctor and a nurse, as La Inca never tires of reminding her — were members of the bourgeoisie who fell out with the Rafael Trujillo, an impressively brutal dictator.
The tale of Oscar’s coming-of-age is in some ways a young-adult story covering a multigenerational immigrant family saga. The Language can be sometimes jarring to a non-Spanish speaking reader. Overall a great read. Has won 2008 Pulitzer Prize.

About In the Country of Men

The novel begins with the characters in the beautiful city by the sea of Libya in the 70s. Nine-year-old Suleiman’s lives with his father and mother. He is a carefree child doing his painting and playing with the neighborhood children. The troubles are set in motion when his father goes on one of his many business trips and his mother’s illness surfaces. She subjects the innocent child with the clandestine stories of family feuds. The boy’s anxiety over concealing his mothers’ illness is heartrending.
Also noteworthy is the kind of bond that has been portrayed between neighbors. Especially when things go wrong with the Suleimans’ fathers revolt against the Guide. The frailties of parents prove overwhelming to the child and he reacts like only a child could in an immature way. What happens next is not only makes for a great read but also opens a window to Libya’s society.
Hisham Matars first novel, In the Country of Men, was published in July 2006. It went on to be short listed for the Man Booker Prize, and was short listed for the Guardian First Book Award 2006. It has won the 2007 Commonwealth First Book Award for Europe and South Asia, the 2007 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the Italian Premio Vallombrosa Gregor von Rezzori, the Italian Premio Internazionale Flaiano (Sezione Letteratura) and the inaugural Arab American National Museum Book Award. "In the Country of Men" has been translated into 22 languages.

Pallavi's Orbis Terrarum Challenge Book Picks

1. Libya: In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar.
2. United States of America: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz.
3. Turkey: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
4. Britain: House for Mr. Biswas by V.S Naipaul.
5.
6. Mexico: The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz
7. China: One Man’s Bible by Gao Xingjian
8.
9. India: God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Completed books are in Green

The Orbis Terrarum Challenge begins April 1 2008( you are welcome to join later) Through December 20th 2008.- For the challenge each reader is to choose 9 books (for the 9 months).-Each book must be by an author from a different nation in our world.

The bottom line: choose 9 different books, written by 9 different authors, from 9 different countries.

To join The Orbis Terrarum Challenge, write a post with your 9 books on your blog and then add yourself to Mister Linky! Oh, and use the button if you want to ( I know it isn't very good, if anyone has a better idea...let me know! I wanted it to say Orbis Terrarum in roman type bold letters across the bottom, but our computer is not cooperating!):