The Learning Umbrella

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

This was a great book to launch myself into summer on, with its tropical settings and cinematic descriptions, as well as plenty of action and suspense.  This is the story of a family, which may or may not be under a curse (or fuku), and three generations of tragic encounters with corrupt officials in the Dominican Republic.  The story is not told in straight chronological order, and the narrator shifts several times, but the author keeps it tight and interesting.

There is a lot of spanish and spanish slang in the book, and in some places I’m sure I was missing some good stuff because I couldn’t understand it.  My SIL, who spent a study abroad year in DR and can speak some spanish, reports that she didn’t understand all the slang either, however.  Also, a warning for the sensitive: lots of swear words and sex and violence.

Oscar is a massively overweight nerd, obsessed with science fiction and fantasy and doomed to strike out with girls.  His family lives in New York, after his mother had to leave the DR because she became the lover of the wrong man and was almost killed.  But there is more to the story of his family in the DR, and eventually he will do the research to uncover the fuku that has hung over the family since his grandfather’s time – but not in time to save himself from falling victim to it.