The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) by Junot Díaz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that blends Dominican history, sci-fi nerdery, and raw immigrant-family drama. The story follows Oscar de León, an overweight, lovelorn Dominican-American “ghetto nerd” obsessed with Tolkien and Doctor Who, as he stumbles through life under the shadow of the fukú—a generational curse tied to the Trujillo dictatorship. Narrated by Oscar’s brash, Spanglish-slinging friend Yunior, the novel jumps between Oscar’s tragicomic quest for love and his family’s harrowing past in the Dominican Republic.
Díaz’s prose crackles with humor, footnoted history lessons, and pop-culture riffing, but its heart lies in the exploration of diaspora identity and the costs of dictatorship. A modern classic that’s as hilarious as it is devastating.
