I am more impressed by Diaz’s daring mixture of elements outside the typical purview of the Third World immigrant novel. He pays tribute to his protagonist’s love of science fiction by sprinkling in crazy and unpredictable references to Dune, Tolkien, Dejah Thoris, Planet of the Apes, Dr. Who, and a host of other genre topics.
At other times he throws his readers a surprising high-culture curveball, as in the name of his hero, which comes from a Latino’s mis-pronunciation of Oscar Wilde. The clash and interplay between these different elements in Diaz's writing impart a quirky and enjoyable syncopation to the flow of the book.
Diaz succeeds on several levels. He has done much more than tell the story of Oscar Wao. He has artfully captured the history of a country, a family, and the immigrant experience of Dominican-Americans. Unlike the history lessons in school, this one never gets boring. Let’s hope we don’t need to wait another decade before we get a sequel.
Article comments
1 - Are you kidding?
"Spicy prose?" "Mucho caliente?" Why don't you just add a picture of Carmen Miranda shaking her ass with a fruit hat next to the lede and complete the sterotypical circle? It IS a fantastic book but why not use the same language of praise you'd give another, non-ethnic, writer to say so? Why use stereotypical characterizations of Latinos that convey the very essentialism and categorization Diaz writes against in the novel? "A sinister cabal of superior writers?" Give me a freaking break. And by the way, it's "muy caliente" not "mucho caliente," Superior Writer. Even us spicy Third Worlds have proper grammar.
2 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!