Bookish Thoughts

This is How You Lose Her  is a series of short stories about failed and failing relationships. All but one of the stories is about Yunior, the narrator of most of  The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  (he dated Oscar's sister). The one that isn't about Yunior almost feels like it doesn't fit in the book at all, but it might be my favorite of the stories for that very reason. Yunior is an asshole. A jerk. A cheater. A mysoginist. A bad, bad guy despite his opening claim that he isn't. He never quite seems to grasp that "keeping" a woman involves respecting her and talking to her and treating her like a person. As far as Yunior is concerned, women are sums of their beautiful parts: hair, breasts, ass, pussy. If one isn't up to hanging out, it's no big deal to go pick up another one. And so he cheats continuously, and he never sees anything wrong with it. I was less interested in Yunior's failed relationships than the bits of his life that are r...

I felt a little bad when I abandoned  Middlemarch  after 120 pages. I don't often abandon books, and there's always some residual guilt that comes along with it. But then I picked up Junot Diaz's  The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao , and I fell head over heels in love on practically the first page. This is why I let myself abandon books - so I have more time to spend with the ones I enjoy. The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  is not just about Oscar Wao. It's about his entire family, going back to the time of his grandfather, who was cursed. The entire family struggles with the curse, coming back again and again to play out the same tragedies, unable to break free. But it's also about the Dominican Republic, the immigrant experience in America and diaspora. About not really being able to go home, but not quite fitting in in your new home either. It's about the toxicity of machismo culture, which Oscar struggles to live up to his entire life and Lola may o...