Disclaimer: I did not finish this book because I could no longer stand it/lost interest so my review will only reflect the amount that I had read. I just cannot see how the end of the book can compensate what torture I already had to go through.
Disclaimer #2: Since I hated this book so much, the following “review” is very much a rant. Proceed with caution.
Disclaimer #3: I don’t write these very often so don’t be scared off (I only write a few a year).
I should stay away from popular overrated books in the future.
This book cements my opinion that the Pulitzer prize committee either hits or misses (in case you were wondering, they completely missed with this one). The writing was completely juvenile, nothing really made sense (plot-wise and logic-wise), the allusions were suffocating, the “love” was completely flat, and the footnotes were just irritating.
Issue with writing: Junot Diaz is generally accepted to be a good writer, but this reads something akin to a high school fanfiction or that narrative that our teachers made us write to improve our “creative and empathy skills”. It felt whiny, and was never engrossing. Oh and another “sin” of writing – there was so much telling, and no showing at all. Even the dialogue was choppy and felt extremely contrived. Nothing good here (and I did flip through the rest of the book reading snippets and it never gets better).
Issue with logic: Okay explain to me how a child who knows words like “precipitously” and “septuagenarian” only just barely pass 1000 on his SAT? I call BS. What annoys me even more is how Diaz then assume we are too stupid to know these words, and explains it for us. Quite literally. He feeds us what he means. If he is using those words in the first place, he should not have to explain to the readers what he is trying to say (another issue as a half-baked writer). Not to mention how stereotypical this entire book is. Not everyone in the north east is latino or half-black, and not every latino is so hot that every person in a one mile radius wants to screw them. In fact, this felt like because Oscar Wao couldn’t live up to his “Dominican” stereotypes of being hot and pulling in chicks, he was considered a failure. And then applauding those who could is a serious mistake. As for the plot, Oscar is such a static character that does nothing at all. The plot is basically just a lot of people telling him to change, and him being too lazy. Even when he breaks his status quo, Diaz’s writing even made that scene boring.
Issue with allusions: Just because you reference science fiction classics and anime does not make this book “smart” or “endearing”. This is the same problem I had with Ready Player One. Both are literally shoving allusions down your throat as if to say “HEY HEY DO YOU THINK I AM SMART YET, HUH, HUH? NO? WELL HERE ARE SOME MORE ALLUSIONS”. Not that allusions as an idea are bad, but just name dropping stuff is a completely unnecessary, and giving one sentence summaries that one could find in the first paragraph of a Wikipedia article shows a lack of genuine knowledge. By cramming all of the allusions he could find off the related pages of Lord of the Rings in an effort to connect with the readers just ended up feeling pretentious and overbearing.
Issue with Diaz’s view on love: Not only is Oscar static and a completely annoying main character, it seems like his mind is only on fucking every girl he knows. When he meets a new girl, Diaz makes it so that it is a complete failure because they don’t end up sleeping together. Sorry, but that is not all that is in at least one-half of the human population. Not to mention, when Oscar has to choose between two girls, he chooses the pretty one, but then Diaz goes and says something along the lines of “can you blame him? I mean, look at how ugly that other girl is. She didn’t even go to prom!”. It made me want to puke.
Issue with the Postmodern effects: Footnotes that put a reader to sleep definitely interrupts the flow of the story. Not to mention everything in those footnotes is basically a Wikipedia article paraphrased.
Conclusion: Junot Diaz isn’t an anime, or science fiction nerd (I know because I used to be both) and obviously cannot write past a high school diploma but he is sure gonna try to make you believe he is/can, with the help of his trusty friend, Wikipedia (not that I am hating on this wonderful source for last minute essays)! I hate this book. STAY AWAY FROM THIS OVERRATED BOOK, THERE ARE BETTER PULITZER’S OUT THERE)
0 Stars (If I could)
strangertogravity 