The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Die BBC het hierdie jaar 'n meningspeiling onder kritici gedoen om die grootste roman van die 21ste eeu (tot op hede) te kies, en hierdie boek het bo uitgekom.

Dit het twee groot dinge:

1. Die skrywer het iets waaroor hy kan praat met kennis en intimiteit, iets waarvan sy lesers niks weet nie: die Dominikaanse Republiek. Al die karakters is, soos die skrywer, Dominikaans, en die helfde van die storie speel af in Santo Domingo.

Op bladsy 1 belowe hy om gou reg te maak "for those of you who missed your mandatory two seconds of Dominican history". Maar die twee sekondes word uiteindelike twee ure, versprei oral deur die boek waar die voorstories vertel word.

Maar alles is vergewe - dis nuut en baie snaaks vertel, verweef met liefde en 'n perspektief dat die geheue van klein nasies ook belangrik is. ...the First American Occupation of the DR, which ran from 1916 to 1924. (You didn’t know we were occupied twice in the twentieth century? Don’t worry, when you have kids they won’t know the U.S. occupied Iraq either.)

2. Die tweede ding is 'n spanning: aan die een kant die stem van hierdie macho Dominikaanse kultuur, aan die ander kant Oscar Wao. Arme Oscar is die anti-tese van alles waarin hy gebore is: 'n nerd soos wat jy nog nooit gesien het nie. En tot sy familie se ontsteltenis word hy elke jaar net erger en vetter:

he’d become the neighborhood parigiiayo. Had none of the Higher Powers of your typical Dominican male, couldn’t have pulled a girl if his life depended on it. Couldn’t play sports for shit, or dominoes, was beyond uncoordinated, threw a ball like a girl. Had no knack for music or business or dance, no hustle, no rap, no G. And most damning of all: no looks.

Die storie begin met Oscar op ouderdom sewe. Mens wag vir hierdie lelike eendjie om uiteindelik in iets te verander - een of ander swaan - maar die teenoorgestelde gebeur: verwerping na verwerping en Oscar wat meer en meer vasklou aan sy comic books en scifi soos 'n verdrinkende man vasklou aan die gewig waarmee hy sink.

Meeste van die "Oscar" deel van die boek word vertel deur sy koshuis kamermaat Yunior, wat 'n aan/af affair met sy suster Lola het, in 'n macho stem wat jou terselfdertyd laat lag en gril van afgryse. Neem bv Oscar se selfmoord

If he’d landed on Route 18, as planned, it would have been lights out forever. But in his drunken confusion he must have miscalculated, or maybe, as his mother claims, he was being watched from up on high, because the dude missed 18 proper and landed on the divider! Which should have been fine. Those dividers on 18 are like concrete guillotines. Would have done him lovely. Burst him into intestinal confetti. Except that this one was one of those garden dividers that they plant shrubs on and he hit the freshly tilled loam and not the concrete. Instead of finding himself in nerd heaven — where every nerd gets fifty-eight virgins to role-play with — he woke up in Robert Wood Johnson with two broken legs and a separated shoulder, feeling like, well, he’d jumped off the New Brunswick train bridge.

Wat regtig jou hart breek is om te sien hoedat hierdie seun grootword-deur-verwerping in 'n jong man sonder enige sukses of liefde - en uiteindelik werk as onderwyser in die dieselfde skool waar hy self ge-bully was.

They said no matter how far a mule travels it can never come back a horse,

Hoe op aarde gaan Oscar verlos word van sy eie vloek?

The days he lay in bed and thought about his mother fixing him his plate the rest of his life, what he’d heard her say to his tío the other day when she thought he wasn’t around, I don’t care, I’m happy he’s here...

Maar iets gaan gebeur ( want Oscar Wao is lewe was wonderlik en kort, sê die titel )  - en, laat ek erken - ek het gehuil. Regte trane.

Wat dit was, liewe leser, sal jy self moet gaan lees.

Ek was mal oor die verhouding tussen Oscar en sy suster Lola

He tried to put a hand on his sister’s shoulder but she shrugged it off. You better go bust out some crunches, Mister.

That’s what she called him whenever she was feeling tender or wronged. Mister. Later she’d want to put that on his gravestone but no one would let her, not even me.

Stupid.