When my book club met to discuss This is How You Lose Her, many of the members recommended that if I hadn't read Oscar Wao that I should. They were all
swooning over it and said they loved it much better than TIHYLH. So I picked it
up at the library recently and just completed it. I really did enjoy the
story. There are a few stylistic elements that I'm not a fan of (i.e.
long tortuous paragraphs of footnotes[1]
that detract from the flow of the story) but overall I had a good time reading
it. I didn't absolutely love it, but it is a strong book. Along with
being a story about a lovestruck nerd who seems doomed to remain a virgin, I
think it was also a phenomenal lesson on the history of politics in the Dominican Republic (if you're interested).
Diaz will give you plenty to chew on from that aspect, mostly in
the form of long footnotes I mentioned earlier. The story is not so much
about Oscar as it is about the perceived family curse. Diaz goes all the way
back to Oscar's grandfather to describe how the family is a magnet for bad
luck. His grandfather, his mother, his sister, and Oscar all have their
stories told and this helps you think critically about the big picture.
In the end, you wonder if Oscar's demise was inevitable given all the
misfortune that preceded his life. What I enjoy about Diaz is his
hyperbole and his ability to make a sentence stick out in your mind visually as
you read it. If you are going to read Diaz's work this is probably the one to pick up first.
[1] It’s only
fitting that I place a footnote in this review because Diaz does use them
somewhat extensively in the book. But do you see how distracting this is for
you to either stop reading where the little number tells you and come down here to read something entirely new or to skip over
the little number but feel compelled to read it when you’ve finished the page? Then you have to remember what this footnote is related to within the
story or if it's really related at all. What I really want to tell
you in this footnote is that one of the narrators in the story is Yunior, who
happens to be the main character in TIHYLH. If you read TIHYLH first, you will
realize what a sad little boy-man Yunior is and that may color your reading of
Oscar Wao. What else can I say in this footnote? I should make it kind of official and put a fact in here or something, right? Well I was born in Ohio which is the only state with a non-rectangular flag. It's really called a burgee.
