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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Staci Snell
- Length: 16 hrs
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Publisher's summary
Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2008
National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction, 2008
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience – and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.
Also includes the bestselling short story collection Drown.
Critic reviews
"An extraordinarily vibrant book that's fueled by adrenaline-powered prose... A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)
"Díaz finds a miraculous balance. He cuts his barn-burning comic-book plots (escape, ruin, redemption) with honest, messy realism, and his narrator speaks in a dazzling hash of Spanish, English, slang, literary flourishes, and pure virginal dorkiness." (New York Magazine)
"Genius... a story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific. And what a voice Yunior has. His narration is a triumph of style and wit, moving along Oscar de Leon's story with cracking, down-low humor, and at times expertly stunning us with heart-stabbing sentences. That Díaz's novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator's] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth's Zuckerman - in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is just the word for it) work of modern fiction - all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else." (San Francisco Chronicle)
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Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows that she's different, even if she can't put her finger on how or why. It's not because she's black - most of the other students in the fourth-grade class at her West Philadelphia elementary school are, too. Maybe it's because she calls her father - a housepainter-slash-philosopher - "Baba" or because her parents' friends gather to pour out libations "from the Creator, for the Martyrs" and discuss "the community".
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Loved It!!!
- By ayodele higgs on 05-20-15
By: Asali Solomon
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Things We Lost in the Fire
- Stories
- By: Mariana Enriquez
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An arresting collection of short stories, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Julio Cortazar, by an exciting new international talent.
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Great short story collection
- By Gatster on 06-15-17
By: Mariana Enriquez
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Miss Fortune
- Fresh Perspectives on Having It All from Someone Who Is Not Okay
- By: Lauren Weedman
- Narrated by: Lauren Weedman
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lauren Weedman is not okay. She's living what should be the good life in sunny Los Angeles. After a gig as a correspondent with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, she scored parts in blockbuster movies, which led to memorable recurring roles on HBO's Hung and Looking. She had a loving husband and an adorable baby boy. In these comedic essays, she turns a piercingly observant, darkly funny lens on the ways her life is actually not okay.
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Good
- By Ajules29 on 04-02-16
By: Lauren Weedman
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True Stories from an Unreliable Eyewitness
- A Feminist Coming of Age
- By: Christine Lahti
- Narrated by: Christine Lahti
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For decades, actress and director Christine Lahti has captivated the hearts and minds of her audience through iconic roles in Chicago Hope, Running on Empty, Housekeeping, And Justice for All, Swing Shift, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, God of Carnage, and The Blacklist. Now, in True Stories from an Unreliable Eyewitness, this acclaimed performer channels her creativity inward to share her own story for the first time.
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Christine Lahti, Actress, Activist and A+ Author!
- By L. Cat Schultz on 10-26-18
By: Christine Lahti
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Loving Day
- By: Mat Johnson
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On his first night in his new home, Warren spies two figures in the grass outside; when he screws up the nerve to confront them, they disappear. The next day he encounters ghosts of a different kind: In the face of the teenage girl he meets at a comics convention, he sees the mingled features of his white father and his black mother, both now dead. The girl is his daughter, and she thinks she's white.
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Teen lit with heavy erotic imagery
- By Itinerant T on 08-26-15
By: Mat Johnson
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Learning to Die in Miami
- Confessions of a Refugee Boy
- By: Carlos Eire
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Carlos Eire's story of a boyhood uprooted by the Cuban Revolution quickly lures us in, as eleven-year-old Carlos and his older brother Tony touch down in the sun-dappled Miami of 1962 - a place of daunting abundance where his old Cuban self must die to make way for a new, American self waiting to be born. In this enchanting new work, narrated in Eire's inimitable and lyrical voice, young Carlos adjusts to life in his new country.
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Excellent memoir of a forgotten time in history
- By BRB on 03-23-15
By: Carlos Eire
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God-Shaped Hole
- A Novel
- By: Tiffanie DeBartolo
- Narrated by: Rachael Warren
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Beatrice Trixie Jordan replies to a personal ad, she meets Jacob Grace, a charming, effervescent 30-something free-spirit writer passionately seeking life. He possesses his own turns of phrase and ways of thinking and feeling that dissonantly harmonize with Trixie's off-center vision. As they rollercoaster through the joys and furies of their wrenching romance, they try to come to terms with the hurt brought about by both of their distant fathers who, in different ways, forsook them.
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To see a fortune teller or not to see one...
- By Renee on 08-08-18
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I'm the One That I Want
- By: Margaret Cho
- Narrated by: Margaret Cho
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
I'm the One That I Want, based on her show of the same name, is filled with dead-on insights about the experience of being a woman with attitude, of flowing with the highs and lows of life, and of creating one's own identity and acceptance. It is every bit as hilarious, shocking, and irreverent as she is.
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Hilarious and deeply engrossing
- By Ling on 04-10-03
By: Margaret Cho
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The Bonesetter's Daughter
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Amy Tan, Joan Chen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in contemporary San Francisco and in a Chinese village where Peking Man is being unearthed, The Bonesetter's Daughter is an excavation of the human spirit: the past, its deepest wounds, its most profound hopes. Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, brilliantly presents "storytelling in its oldest and truest form".
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Exceptionally good
- By Eileen Finn on 03-25-03
By: Amy Tan
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Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture - baseball and barbeques - and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely.
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Excellent
- By Cheyenne on 06-13-15
By: Karim Dimechkie
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Mislaid
- A Novel
- By: Nell Zink
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
Stillwater College in Virginia, 1966. Freshman Peggy, an ingénue with literary pretensions, falls under the spell of Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, and they begin an ill-advised affair that results in an unplanned pregnancy and marriage. The couple are mismatched from the start - she's a lesbian, he's gay - but it takes a decade of emotional erosion before Peggy runs off with their three-year-old daughter, leaving their nine-year-old son behind.
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Misbegotten, mishandled, misfired novel
- By Julie W. Capell on 02-07-16
By: Nell Zink
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Fury
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Salman Rushdie
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The world renowned author of The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie is a Whitbread Award winner and recipient of the Booker Prize. His first truly American novel, Fury is a metaphorically rich black comedy that reflects the pressure-cooker of modern life. Malik Solanka, irascible doll-maker and retired historian of ideas, suffers the pain of wanting without knowing exactly what it is he wants.
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surprisingly good
- By David on 11-21-07
By: Salman Rushdie
-
32 Candles
- A Novel
- By: Ernessa T. Carter
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
Davie—an ugly duckling growing up in small-town Mississippi—is positive her life couldn’t be any worse. She has the meanest mother in the South, possibly the world, and on top of that, she’s pretty sure she’s ugly. Just when she’s resigned herself to her fate, she sees a movie that will change her life— Sixteen Candles. But in her case, life doesn’t imitate art.
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2 High Fives - for Monkey Night
- By Nevada on 10-03-12
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Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
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This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
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Wild tale, enveloping reader
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I was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a chaser of whales. I was Not Sidney Poitier. Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country. The sudden death of his mother orphans him at age eleven, leaving him with an unfortunate name, an uncanny resemblance to the famous actor, and, perhaps more fortunate, a staggering number of shares in the Turner Broadcasting Corporation.
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Excellent if you forgive pronunciation
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Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.
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The most compelling listen I've ever owned
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Americanah
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Story
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be Black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.
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Excellent writing; wish I would have read rather than listened
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What listeners say about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- K. Parks
- 10-29-07
Excellent in every way
This book has soul. Diaz creates an endearing, flawed group of characters, depicting them with humor and compassion. The narrator is so alive that he seemed to be a character himself. He truly is one of the best narrators I have heard, and my Audible library is large.
I am embarrasssed to admit that I did not know much about the history of the Dominican Republic before reading this book. Diaz wove the history into the story effortlessly and memorably. I highly recommend the book. It is one of the two best I have listened to, the other being The Hungry Tide, by Amitov Ghosh.
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37 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Carole P
- 12-26-07
Wow. Not to be missed.
Modern, realistic, gritty, sensuous writing. I loved the layers, rich detail, and superb characterization in this story. A fabulous bittersweet story...I could relate to Oscar Wao on many levels....but also to his college roommate--the one telling the story. The narration is excellent. I know I'll listen to this book again. Well worth the price and the time.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Lady of the Lake
- 09-17-11
Powerful
I loved the style of this author. My favorite books are those that let me get in the head and life of people unlike myself. This was well accomplished in this book. I came out with a greater understanding of what it would be like to live in a country with a cruel dictator and to see the colorful people who live and love through it all.
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- Ryan
- 07-11-11
An impressive, if messy novel
I loved the narrator's voice, which mixed profanity-laden Dominican-American streetspeak with sci-fi and fantasy references. He conveyed a powerful sense of the loneliness that must belong to an overweight, undersexed nerd in an ethnic culture where such people are a laughable anomaly. The novel was even more compelling when it traveled back into the past and explored the history of Oscar's family back in the DR. This story was full of riveting scenes, like a father torn between bringing his beautiful daughters to a state ball, where the nation's terrible dictator (whom the narrator compares to JRR Tolkien's dark lord, Sauron) would be likely to rape them, and the dangerous indiscretion of NOT bringing them. The writing is so authentic, capturing the way people from the hood speak and think, but telling a story almost anyone can find something to connect to in -- who'd have thought Star Trek geeks, hip-hop fans, and Caribbean immigrants would find common cause in one novel.
Yet, I found that this book felt more like a patchwork of stories that never quite formed a cohesive whole. The story revolves around Oscar, but he never really becomes an engaging character, nor does his personal tale (mostly about his difficulties finding romance) ever assume the sense of importance that Diaz gives to the Dominican history and myth that he includes. In fact, I thought it was a mistake that Oscar wasn't given his own voice in the novel -- his D&D and science fiction obsessed perspective would have been quite interesting. Described from the head-shaking viewpoint of the narrator, Yunior, who is more of an archetypal Dominican-American male, he just sounds like a stereotype of a nerd.
Still, while aspects of this novel left me flat, it's so original in its concept and voice that it's worth reading just for that.
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- Fire In The Henhouse
- 11-09-12
What a stupendous book
I'm sure Junot Diaz doesn't need to know my opinion, but he is a fantastic writer! This story is by turns hilarious, heartbreaking and astonishing. There are moments that make you hold your breath and wish better things for the characters. The use of language is unique and always compelling. Just a great book, well performed.
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- Ina
- 12-23-07
Bravo!!!!
This book is so beautifully written. I love all the historical facts. Junot's talent is to be praised. Hopefully, we will not have to wait for long for his next treasure.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-29-16
A Mythical Trajedy
Where does The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Among the top. This is on par with mythical or Shakespearean tragedies. This tale will poke and prod you, elbow you and nudge you, until you surrender and become enchanted, then disenchanted and finally converted into a follower of Junot Diaz's world. My take of this tale, is the way this world takes to Jesus - beautifully shocking.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Oscar Wao and the trigueña tri-fecta of La Inca, Beli and Lola.
What about Jonathan Davis and Staci Snell ’s performance did you like?
Pitch perfect. Never felt that they ever err'ed or made any missteps in communicating Diaz's words. And what I appreciated the most of their performances was their strong command of the spanish element of this tale.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There were a few: Fuku and the History of the DR, Lola's story, and the time Oscar Wao spent in DR.
Any additional comments?
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a technicolor yawn of lyrical and masterful prose. It's no wonder it won the Pulitzer.
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- Kojika55
- 08-14-16
Loved this book
What made the experience of listening to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the most enjoyable?
I had no idea what this book was about, even from the description. The narrator captured the essence of the story and presented in quite and interesting and entertaining way.
What did you like best about this story?
References to the struggle of people of the Dominican Republic and how it still affects them to this day.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Absolutely!
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- Doug D. Eigsti
- 06-08-15
Fanboy Lives Life On His Own Terms
This is a mainstream novel whose main character is a Science Fiction genre fanboy. There are regular references to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and scattered other references to other SF standards. Clearly this is not a Science Fiction novel but anyone with a love for the genre will find much to relate to. The story is told in first person by another character in the book whose life is inextricably linked and, consequently, strongly impacted by Oscar. The title character is a nerdy, overweight geek from the Dominican Republic who does not fit in with the oversexed culture of his heritage. He spends his whole life searching for a meaningful relationship with a member of the opposite sex. In this, Oscar has a one-track-mind. This persistent focus on this subject is off-putting and detracts from what is otherwise a decent novel.
The main theme is parallel to the story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" by Ernest Hemingway: A good hearted man struggles with either compromising his own identity to fit into the world in which he finds himself ~ or being true to himself and being ostracized from all he loves. The character Oscar is in most ways stereotypical of a Star Wars fanboy: he collects action figures; peppers his speech with quotes from obscure Science Fiction sources (most of which I recognized), and can't make it with a woman.
The narration is the best reason to tackle this book. Jonathan Davis handles the majority of the text, and Staci Snell takes on some of the sections that are presented from the perspective of female characters. Jonathan Davis has such a a large repertoire of character voices that he makes listening to this novel like hearing a movie soundtrack. His Dominican accents are, to my gringo ear, spot on and lend each different character a special place in the narrative.
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- Sue D.
- 11-10-11
Interesting - heartfelt
This would be a good read for High School kids so maybe they could have compassion about how other kids feel and think about themselves. The unpopular kid who feels sorry for himself but does nothing about it. It was a good story. Good narrator also.
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