A review by enolization
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
3.0
i’m completely in the middle.
i remember reading this and falling in love because as a dominican-american, i’ve never seen a piece of media solely dedicated to dominican culture. i relate to both oscar and lola in ways only a dominican can. i was proud of this book, proud that my people’s history was recognized. i learned about trujillo and the history of dominan republic america never taught.
however, rereading it, i hated parts of the book. i hated the dominican male gaze yunior has because he is the stereotypical male dominican tiguere. the way he narrates perpetuates negative things in dominican culture: the machismo mentality, the objectification, the abuse, etc.
there’s more to dominican republic than those negative stereotypes people already have of us.
i hated the derogatory terms knowing the current discourse on race and what that looks like for afro-latinos. i hated how oscar wanted sex more than anything and the author seemed to think lust and love are the same.
and that’s why i am in the middle because while this book was the first popular piece of representation for dominicans, it wasn’t a great one.
i remember reading this and falling in love because as a dominican-american, i’ve never seen a piece of media solely dedicated to dominican culture. i relate to both oscar and lola in ways only a dominican can. i was proud of this book, proud that my people’s history was recognized. i learned about trujillo and the history of dominan republic america never taught.
however, rereading it, i hated parts of the book. i hated the dominican male gaze yunior has because he is the stereotypical male dominican tiguere. the way he narrates perpetuates negative things in dominican culture: the machismo mentality, the objectification, the abuse, etc.
there’s more to dominican republic than those negative stereotypes people already have of us.
i hated the derogatory terms knowing the current discourse on race and what that looks like for afro-latinos. i hated how oscar wanted sex more than anything and the author seemed to think lust and love are the same.
and that’s why i am in the middle because while this book was the first popular piece of representation for dominicans, it wasn’t a great one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault