- Although the title of the book alludes to a story about a ghetto nerd named Oscar, I am not so sure that the book is necessarily about him... Who do you think the book is really about and why so? What about Yunior? What about Beli? What about Lola?
- Near the end, Lola has some pretty harsh things to say about DR-ans; she says, "Ten million Trujillos is all we are." How do you feel about DR and about DRans? How do you think the author feels about his own people? Why be so negative about a country and its people?
- Yunior, the narrator, matures over the course of the book and frames what he learns through the lenses of Oscar. Yunior also hints at deeply admiring and wanting to be with Lola at several points in the story, but can't commit to her (or at least doesn't while he has a chance and wants to when he finally can although he has long missed the opportunity). Yunior comes to believe in fukú although he did not as younger person when he knew Oscar; he writes in the beginning that the novel is his "very own counterspell," his "zafa." But my q is: zafa to what? Do you think it is a zafa to how his life turned out? Do you think he regrets sleeping around in college? Do you think he regrets throwing away his chance with Lola? Is he in some way envious of Oscar's ability to love, to latch on, to commit, to be what he himself could not do when he was younger and missed out on the best thing in his life... when Oscar got it!?!!! Sure Oscar died young... but he had passion. He felt love. He really lived... and did Yunior? He says at the end, "It's not exactly what I dreamed about when I was a kid, ... but I make it work as best as I can. I have a wife that I adore (does he love her the way that Oscar did? Does he love her the way he loved(s?) Lola?) and who adores me." Sounds kinda complacent to me. Was Oscar complacent to you?
- Oscar rose in the end - practiced lots of steel and nerve... when he was often portrayed in the book through several characters/situations to be a quitter, to give in, to give up, to be self-deprecating. Yunior was, in my mind, rightly pissed off with Oscar for quitting running, but Oscar had every right to quit? Did that frustrate you? And when he faced his fears and practiced lots of self-commitment in the end; how did that make you feel about him? Do our final actions in life frame, capture, define who we are? Should it be that way? Did that happen to you in this book?
Cheers.
p.s. as for logistics of this online book club - I will also answer these myself. (I will post a comment on my my own blog entry.)
2 comments:
After a disastrous adventure writing thoughtful responses to each of Francophile’s thoughtful questions mysteriously going missing when I hit ‘post’ I will be drafting these (much less erudite) thoughts in word and pasting them in (this is a word of warning to all those hoping to post).
1- The book is about Oscar the way that The Lord of the Rings is about the ring. Yunior is telling us this story about how all of these people’s life are impacted by and impact Oscar. I am made curious about characters because of how they interact with Oscar and their back-stories are more interesting because we see how they work with Oscar in the super-narrative. The analogy also necessarily points that Oscar is not always the most compelling character. When reading LOTR I rarely thought, ‘damn, that’s some ring’ I thought ‘boy Frodo sure is working hard’ similarly when reading Oscar Wao I rarely thought ‘man I wish Oscar was my friend’ but I definitely felt that his relationships were compelling and authentic.
2- I feel like the perceived anti-DR sentiment is more a commentary on the nature of dictatorship and not on a people. Dictatorships exist because at some point there is a desperation for a single narrative. Dictatorships are one person speaking unadorned truth (no matter if her or his words are lies) one person making unilateral decisions that make or brake a society. In this way I feel like Lola is really frustrated with simple thought because coming out of a dictatorship people don’t simply pop back and say ‘oh, there are multiple points of view’. Think back to elementary school. My K-3 teachers were dictators. “can I go to the bathroom Mrs. _____” “No”. “I think we should do math now” “No, math is at 10:00am” etc.
3- (this is tied to 2)I think that this whole narrative is a meta-commentary on the nature of dictatorship. Yunior is dictating the reality of the world we live in and telling us how to think about the characters all the while pointing out his own faults. So the Fuku is the curse that is carried over from the nature of dictatorship and he is trying to exorcize his demons through this narrative (zafa). This being said I think we are learning about Oscar only through Yunior’s lens so while he seems complacent I think it speaks to Yuniors inability to understand him. Oscar is a fan first and foremost. He is a fanatic. He LOVES the things he loves. He does not monkey around. That can cause stasis. When I am obsessed with something…I am OBSESSED with them to the excusion of all other things. Does this make him complacent? I don’t know but I think he seems more complicated than simply a nerd.
4- I was frustrated by the way he was portrayed (because Diaz was a genius in undermining his own narrative with his narrator). I never liked Oscar but I felt for him throughout. He quit running because he was the spoiler for the culture of dictatorial mandate. He continued to go after his woman despite the fact that it would literally kill him despite all the protestations of his family. He went out of his way to disrupt our perceptions. This is brilliantly done and intriguing because I was able to love the super-narrative while not being totally compelled by all of the individual stories.
I too will find more to talk about but I wanted to get something in to spark more debate.
So I too had the same disappearing comments (luckily I saved mine before trying to post). How did you manage to actually post anything? I could not figure out how to post a comment... until I changed the settings on posting comments... hopefully things are easier now.
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