The Not That Brief, Not That Wondrous Book of Junot Díaz
I waited for a month or so to get my hands on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. It's the latest Pulitzer Prize winner, and everyone's reading it. There were forty holds on it at the library when I gave it a click. I was very excited.
I loved all the geeky references, from Akira to The Stand, from Doctor Who to Dungeons and ( Read more... )
I loved all the geeky references, from Akira to The Stand, from Doctor Who to Dungeons and ( Read more... )
Comments 44
Sounds like another one for the skip pile.
Oh, and Cormac McCarthy can get away with not correctly punctuating dialogue as well. As for mega long sentences, seems like it's only this cat and Hitler who do that.
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Nah, the curse isn't really that big a deal. And I haven't read A Confederacy of Dunces yet. It's more like a combination of Midnight's Children and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Except not really.
Oh, and Cormac McCarthy can get away with not correctly punctuating dialogue as well.
Can he? Shit. I've been told not to read The Road because it's like THE MOST DEPRESSING BOOK EVER, but there's another reason to avoid it.
As for mega long sentences, seems like it's only this cat and Hitler who do that.
And my man Faulkner.
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I agree that the concept sounds interesting, and even some of the stylistic stuff, (plus nerd references!), but it sounds like it didn't ultimately work, and now I'm curious why. A lesson in what not to do, perhaps.
Spoiling Watchmen is uncool. I only read it this year, and I'm amazed I remained unspoiled for so long. (I think it's because most Watchmen fans realize the importance of not spoiling Watchmen for potential readers... which makes doing it randomly in an unrelated book kind of a dick move, actually.)
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Hee! Probably not? I didn't specifically say not to read it! I didn't hate it or anything.
I agree that the concept sounds interesting, and even some of the stylistic stuff, (plus nerd references!), but it sounds like it didn't ultimately work, and now I'm curious why. A lesson in what not to do, perhaps.Problem is I can't figure out what the intangible fuck-all is that kept me from getting into it. Because the whole "write really casually like you're just shooting the shit with the reader" thing should do the opposite, you know? It should create a nice bond with the reader. But I think all the random Spanish makes the reader feel like he's not the target audience, like it's not really written for him. I mean, honestly, you get the impression that the book is specifically written for people from the Dominican Republic, that's kind of the way the narrator addresses you. As if you're one of his people. Although, no, there are several times where he assumes you're ignorant of DR ( ... )
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The book sounds interesting, but annoying. I'm happy to read experimental or non-traditional prose, but this sounds like it falls into "Whee! Look at me, I'm so clever!" territory.
In other news, your "i hate the shipping news" tag makes me snerk with malicious glee. I tried twice to get through that book and couldn't do it. The only reason I tried a second time is that it is one of my mom''s favorite books.
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It's not even clever! It's just hip and cool.
In other news, your "i hate the shipping news" tag makes me snerk with malicious glee. I tried twice to get through that book and couldn't do it. The only reason I tried a second time is that it is one of my mom''s favorite books.
Yeah, I have a similar story. A friend sent it to me for my birthday, and while I hated the book, she left little notes for me throughout the pages that made the reading experience a little more worthwhile. I did make it all the way through by sheer force of will.
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YES. Except I felt his fake cool wasn't just about writing about a culture people don't know about; I felt like he was so impressed with his ability to break the rules, man, and express himself without remaining imprisoning within the confines of the White Man's language and its petty rules. LIKE QUOTATION MARKS.
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Thing about Joyce and Faulkner is I think their style is out there enough that a lack of quotation marks works. With Díaz's style, it doesn't make a lot of sense. As I said above, the casual style is supposed to be all reader-friendly, but a lack of quotation marks is SO not reader-friendly.
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Someone on another board was saying that Díaz said in an interview or at a reading that "he did stuff on purpose so that no one who wasn't a Dominican uber-geek would get everything -- that was to make the reader have the immigrant experience of basically understanding what was going on, while at the same time knowing you were missing out on nuance." So you might be right on with the idea that it's not actually supposed to be reader-friendly. And I respect his intention and think it's kind of a neat idea except for the fact that I went in for a reading experience, not an immigrant experience.
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