What have others been reading in fiction?
I just finished Junot Diaz's Pulitzer Prize winning "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao". If not a brilliant novel it certainly has it's charms and I highly recommend it. The nerdy lovesick Oscar of the title says he wants to be the Domincan Tolkien, but what he really wants is a girlfriend. This compact work conveys a family saga of three generations ranging from victims of Trujillo's dictatorship to immigration in the distant land of New Jersey. It helps to be somewhat well versed in in the pantheon of science fiction writers and 70's/80's pop culture not to mention some experience with Spanish "street" dialect, but even if you aren't by the end I'll bet you'll find a place in your heart for this book...
Next up: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
1 comment:
Haven't read this one yet (though it is on my reading list ) mostly because I found his first book, Drown (short stores), a brittle read--it skated surfaces and was couched in a male gaze I found somewhat flat. He's a wonderful speaker though. . .I liked an interview he did on on NPR. He talks about choices--personal choices in the novel (and in life). Something along the lines of if you are in a marginalize community to choose to be anything other than what cultural expectations and stereotypes require, issues of cultural authenticity come into play. For example he talks about how if you live in DR and don't like platanos than you don't like platano but if you are a Dominican living in the States not liking platanos is an act of cultural betrayal. Anyway I should get to it soon...when someone who has it out returns it to our library. . . .
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