Junot Diaz

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Lovelorn, overweight, scifi-obsessed Oscar, son of an orphaned Dominican immigrant mother who survived the Trujillo dictatorship, grows up in New Jersey and ends up in the Dominican Republic. Various narrators contribute to his story of identity, love, and longing. Hoping that the novel’s title simply plays a cruel trick, the reader nevertheless anticipates a tragic ending.

 

This is How You Lose Her

In this related collection of short stories, Dominican-American Yunior recounts his many love affairs and how he sabotages relationships in spite of his longing for love. Diaz offers an explanation but not an excuse for the sexist undertones in the stories as Yunior grapples with the effects of growing up in an immigrant family with an overbearing, womanizing father.