The short fantastic life of Oscar Wow. Diaz D.

The novel of the American Dominican writer was published in 2007 and in the next, 2008, received the Pulitzer Prize, the John Sargent Prize and the National Prize of Critics, and also entered the Dublin Prize short list. The amazing in its complexity and multifaceted romance of critics is almost compared with a chorus with the masterpiece of Marquez “A Hundred Years of Loneliness”. Poetic mixture of Spanish and American English; magic elements; The new cultural layer, which first penetrated at such a serious level into literature - comics; History of the Dominican Republic, family saga; Romance of growing up, parable, full of humor. In a word, in one novel, Juno Diaz fit as much as it does not fit in the whole work of another good writer.

everything is very intact in the life of an Oscar, the good but regrettable of the fat romance and the fan of comics and fantasy from the Spanish-speaking ghetto in New Jersey, who dreams of becoming Dominican J. R. Tolkin, but first of all, to find love, at least some kind of- something. But his dreams would have remained with dreams, if not for Fuka - the ancient curse that pursues the Oscar family for many generations. Prison, torture and suffering, tragic incidents and, the most sad, unhappy love - this is the destiny of the Oscar family. His mother Beli - a divine beauty with an indomitable and violent disposition - experienced all the power of a family curse on herself. His sister tried to escape from inevitability. And the Oscar, with adolescence, in vain dreaming of the first kiss, would only be another victim of Fuka if one significant summer did not decide to save his family from a terrible curse.

with incredible energy, literary charm and knowledge of the subject of Juno Diaz, immerses the reader into the stormy life of Oscar, his wayward sister Lola and their frantic mother Belisia, beauty with a royal article, as well as in the history of the epic travel of the family from the beautiful but sad Santo- Domingo to the ordinary American town of Paterson and back. The sincerity and humor of the author is difficult to resist. The “short fantastic life of Oscar Wow” paints the modern world in an unusual, anxious and bewitching angle, telling about the eternal readiness of a person to endure everything - and risk everyone - in the name of love.

Otherwise, this novel is impossible to name this novel, and with all the obviously, Juno Diaz is one of the most unusual, peculiar and attractive writers of our days.

Funny, smart and insightful... incredibly dynamic book, thanks to the last but not least, the author’s style saturated with adrenaline. This novel resolutely confirms: the voice of Diaz in modern prose is one of the most unique and expressive.

Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Awesomely... written with an extraordinary drive on a mixture of Spanish and English, this book is literally stuffed with references to various cultural phenomena - from Flobert to the Dun and the Sounds of Music, not to mention very informative and abstract footnotes regarding the Caribbean history. Read this is one and continuous pleasure, no less than re -read.

Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

An unconditionally outstanding novel... "Probably, the short fantastic life of Oscar Wow" can be called a saga about the family of emigrants, but this will not be quite fair. Rather, this is a family-emigrant saga for those who, in principle, do not read family and emigrant sagas.

Lev Grossman, Time

A panoramic and very personal novel. This book cannot be classified, it does not fit into the genre framework. Hell and Paradise weaved in it.

Los Angeles Times

Diaz is sophisticated in his novel at once at several levels. It interferes with the fragmentation of the comic plot (escape, betrayal, atonement) with honest realism, Spanish slang with sophisticated English, postmodern literature with childhood naivety.

New York Magazine

One of the main advantages of the novel by Diaz is an intimate, very personal intonation, which tells the family tragedy of several generations, closely related to the country's tragedies. In his book, both the present and the past are in focus, and the pictures that arise when reading are so sharp that it hurts the eyes. Acrobatic prose writes perfect figures, moving from reality to fantasy, from the past to the present.

The Boston Globe

Diaz writes bewitching, almost magically. We seem to be sitting on a train, and outside the window there are now beautiful, then frightening paintings. In the landscape of Diaz, we are all equal, we are all victims and heroes at the same time. Together we plunge into hell and together soar into paradise. Having fun and grief.

Esquire

We have been waiting for such a novel for many years. And here he is. Like an explosion. Short and fantastic, like Oscar Wow's life.

The Washington Post Book World