author: Junot Díaz

name: Steev

average rating: 3.88

book published: 2007

rating: 4

read at: 2009/09/16

date added: 2009/09/16

shelves: novels

review:
This is so far really really good. The story of a fat nerd from the Dominican Republic who loves role-playing games, Tolkien, Akira, etc, and is the youngest of an old family that's always had bad luck. Follows him but also switches viewpoint to his friend Yunior (who is Diaz's alter ego from his earlier book Drown), his sister, his mother, his grandfather, all of whom had no end of hard times both on their native island and, for the younger members of this clan, later in Norte America.



The book flows easy and fast and is written in a colloquial urban spanglish but is also full of dorky references to Lord of the Rings mythology, as well as footnotes explaining the finer points of Dominican history. The plot ranges from Oscar's bad luck with finding girlfriends to his grandfather's bad luck getting arrested and tortured by the Trujillo regime in the 50s. A sad, brutal, sweet, and hilarious book.