Another borrowed book from the library, I found it difficult to put it down once I got past the initial few pages. The book interweaves the history of Dominican Republic during the violent era of dictatorship (under the dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1950s) with the stories of the individuals (a family affected by the atrocities of dictatorship). The story is told from the perspective of three characters, although the omniscient narrator is present throughout the book.
Oscar Wao is an overweight Dominican who mainly does two things in life: falling in love with beautiful women and writing sci-fi and fantasy books (“the next Tolkien”) and fails fantastically at both. The other main characters in the book are Oscar Wao’s sister Lola, their once-beautiful, domineering mother, and their grandmother named La Inca. Wao’s luck seems to be clouded by a powerful fuku (curse) that the family is burdened with, which is also linked to the evil eye of the dictator.
The language is fluid, and the storytelling is effortless. The bleakness of the story is only manageable because of the wonderful humour that is present throughout the book. There is a liberal usage of Spanish sentences in the book throughout, so much so that it was annoying – every time I was forced to stop reading and do a google translation. After a point, I quit in frustration: the translation part, not the reading.
What I loved the most was the extensive footnotes, which becomes part of the storytelling. After a point, I looked forward to the footnotes – they are the window to the country’s bloody history and the perpetrators of the violence. The footnotes at some point stopped becoming just factual information, they also ended up becoming part of the story itself.
A must read for people who enjoy political, social commentary along with a well-crafted story.
I would give it a 4.0/5.0
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