My apologies if this has been discussed already, but I'm halfway through Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and I'm having a hard time convincing myself that I should keep reading (and this is aunque hablo español, so it's not the Dominican slang that's bothering me).

Did anyone else have trouble getting into it during the first half and then find themselves hooked for the last half?

We have talked about it some, and what I said was that it was hard, but worthwhile. I kept putting it down to read something else, and then coming back to it.

Did anyone else have trouble getting into it during the first half and then find themselves hooked for the last half?

Jen, I'm in the minority, but I was never hooked. I had to make myself finish the damn thing.

I wasn't hooked beyond my usual hate-to-put-books-down ish. But HMOG. I'm glad I read it. It prompts lots of discussion. I think his book of short stories is much much stronger. So many of the characters in Oscar Wao are just sort of asshatian that it makes it hard to get through.

LOVE Sherman Alexie. I just reread Reservation Blues which is knockout.

Rumor has it Alexie has a new YA book coming.

And that it's the sequel to Absolutely True Diary ! The other YA book he was working on has been postponed.

I love Alexie completely. I am going to write a short story called stalking Sherman Alexie. In college, I went to Olsen's and saw him read and was transfixed. Then it was like, every time he read, I was there. I even went to Sacramento to hear him give a talk to a group of English teachers.

His poetry is marvelous. It's even anthologized in AP readers (like the textbook Legacies). AND Junot Diaz is in there too now.

He is amazing.

Thanks for the responses! I'm going to keep trying.

P-C, your LJ post really sums up the trouble I'm having with it. (Also, I just added you as a friend on LJ.)

And honestly, I'd rather see someone playing in Jane Austen's sandbox than see another book by or about Larry the Cable Guy, or The Big Book of Bathroom Humor.

I suppose I'm bad because I'd rather see the demise of both. Actually, I much prefer something like The Jane Austen Bookclub, which used the construct of the book club reading her novels with which to draw parallels in the characters' lives. Tough book to read in some ways, though-- odd writing style. Good, though.

I'm indifferent to Oscar-- I know that Junot wrote it basically for the audience of himself and for that, I admire him hugely, but I couldn't connect with the book in any meaningful way.

In college, I went to Olsen's and saw him read and was transfixed.

I was first introduced to him at a reading seven years ago. He was really funny, and I always meant to read something by him but only just got around to it.

His poetry is marvelous.

I'm not really a poetry person, but I'll give it a looksee. Neil Gaiman makes me skeptical of author/poets because while I like his writing, his poems do absolutely nothing for me.

P-C, your LJ post really sums up the trouble I'm having with it.

I'm glad it was helpful!

And ha ha ha, A Softer World weighs in on the Austen craze.