I just finished The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (I think that's it), by Junot Diaz, and I definitely recommend it, but only if you speak at least some spanish and at least some geek. There's a lot of each, and you can kind of slide by assuming what he means by things, but it goes a lot easier if you actually know what he's talking about.
I just met him! He was one of the speakers at the Key West Literary Conference, and he addressed the geek/Spanish thing directly. He said that one of the reasons that he wrote the book the way he did was to force the reader into one essential aspect of the immigrant experience: never quite understanding everything going on around you. He wanted to create some level of discomfort with the narrative. Fascinating speaker (cute, too).
He said that one of the reasons that he wrote the book the way he did was to force the reader into one essential aspect of the immigrant experience: never quite understanding everything going on around you. He wanted to create some level of discomfort with the narrative.
Oh, that's really cool.
OH! How do you pronounce Junot? That's been killing me.
Fascinating speaker (cute, too).
I've had a crush on him for ages. Literary. I haven't read the new book yet. Must get in on that!
In other news not really about the book, I was reading the acknowledgements like I always do (what, I think I'm going to know someone?) and one of the last names was, in fact, someone I went to high school with. Hilarious.
I was reading the acknowledgements like I always do (what, I think I'm going to know someone?)
I do this too! Just in case. Because the world is very small.
OH! How do you pronounce Junot? That's been killing me.
Like the movie Juno, silent "t."
That's what I figured, because it sounds better than pronouncing it in Spanish (hoo-note), but I wanted to be sure.
I pronounce Juno JU-no and Junot ju-NO, but I'm not sure where I picked that up. The Junot I know was a French general, so it may have been just my own vague and inaccurate way of Frenching it up in my head.
it sounds better than pronouncing it in Spanish
Can you? It seems so un-Spanish.
Mom: And I learned some slang, too! I never knew before that boys call their erections "boners."
Ahaha! Wow. I'm really glad that
Part-Time Indian
won the National Book Award (for Young People's Literature) last year; I think it's an important book as well as a great one, and I hope that it gets the wide readership it deserves.
Must read
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
! Especially since I am fairly well-versed in both conversational Spanish and conversational geek.
