Book Club Guide

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz · 2007 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The fukú — the Dominican curse that runs through the family
Diaspora, belonging and the Dominican-American condition
Geek culture as an alternative language for describing suffering

About this book

Oscar is an overweight Dominican-American geek who wants to find love and write fantasy novels; his narrator Yunior tells the story of Oscar's doomed family across three generations and between the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, weaving together science fiction, Dominican history and the violence of the Trujillo dictatorship. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Published in 2007, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won the Pulitzer Prize. Diaz spent eleven years on the novel, much of the time unable to finish it. He has said the book is about the specific experience of growing up Dominican in New Jersey.

Discussion questions

The fukú — a curse brought by Columbus — runs through the family's history. How does Diaz use this supernatural framework — as satire, as genuine mythology, or as something that allows him to talk about historical trauma without reducing it to polemic?
Yunior's narration is dense with footnotes, genre references and Dominican slang. What does this style achieve — and what does it demand of readers who don't share all of its cultural references?
Oscar wants love and to be a great writer. How does Diaz develop these ambitions — as noble, as pathetic, or as the same thing seen from different angles?
The novel deals extensively with the Trujillo dictatorship. How does Diaz integrate the historical material — as context, as cause, or as the novel's true subject?
Oscar Wao won the Pulitzer Prize. What does it do that earns this recognition — and what might readers who don't get the genre references miss?