I am reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Pulitzer Prize author Junot Díaz. I was pretty sure the book was going to be good and it is; but what I didn’t count on was how anxious I was to learn more about the political history of the Dominican Republic. I can’t recommend this book enough not only for its entertainment value but for the glimpse into what was really going on in the Dominican Republic under Rafael Trujillo’s regime. Written in English with Junot Díaz’s perfect placement of words in Spanish, this book exudes Dominican culture and reads seamlessly. Some may say that the story is hard to follow, but the truth is, the story is complex and the character development is so well done that I felt like I could pick them out in a crowd. Although this is a work of fiction, I couldn't help but think that perhaps somewhere it is someone's true story. Was it fate, was Oscar's life decided for him, or was it what Junot refers to as fukú?
Other reads that be of interest regarding the Dominican Republic and the Trujillo regime are Perejil (in Spanish translated from French) by René Philoctète and two books by author Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies.
Visit http://www.tintafresca.us/website for more information on books in Spanish or books in English by Latino authors.
Search our Online Catalog for these titles.
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