The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

By: Junot Díaz

Narrated by: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Karen Olivo

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Read by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award®-winning creator and star of the musical Hamilton, and Tony Award®-winning actress, Karen Olivo. This brilliant narration adds another layer of lyricism and depth to this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novel.

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience - and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

©2007 Junot Díaz (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"An extraordinarily vibrant book that's fueled by adrenaline-powered prose... A book that decisively establishes [Diaz] as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

"Diaz finds a miraculous balance. He cuts his barn-burning comic-book plots (escape, ruin, redemption) with honest, messy realism, and his narrator speaks in a dazzling hash of Spanish, English, slang, literary flourishes, and pure virginal dorkiness." (New York Magazine)

"Genius...a story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific. And what a voice Yunior has. His narration is a triumph of style and wit, moving along Oscar de Leon's story with cracking, down-low humor, and at times expertly stunning us with heart-stabbing sentences. That Diaz's novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator's] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth's Zuckerman - in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is just the word for it) work of modern fiction - all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Poor Oscar

the story is compelling. At times I got a little confused because it jumps around a lot. But I was definitely sucked into the magical energy of the curse in the family. so well-read too. Definitely worth a listen.

A wondrous tale

I would never read/listened this book if I hadn't heard about the Lin-Manuel Miranda audiobook. I'm glad I stumbled onto it through Lin-Manuel Miranda. This is an interesting story and well written. I love the humor of the writing even though the story is at times quite dark. I have to admit my Spanish is not good enough for this book but the performance did relay a lot. My only complaint about this is something that may not be as bad if you actually read the physical book. At times I found it difficult to determine the narrator of the story. I will have to investigate this author further.

Wonderful book, with a great performance

This is a great book that follows the story of a family over multiple generations. It illuminates the private lives of the family members alongside the social and political backdrops of the Dominican Republic under dictatorship and New Jersey in the 70s-90s, and I'd recommend it to everyone. It's funny, heart wrenching, and beautiful. Besides the story, the performance itself is worth the listen. The primary narrator does a fantastic job bringing the characters to life. The only thing is, if you don't speak Spanish it's a little complicated to listen to; there is a lot of Spanish and Spanish slang mixed in. You can find super helpful translations online if you search for annotated Oscar Wao. I kept referring to those while listening and it worked out very well, but it meant I couldn't listen in the car or anytime I didn't have the internet handy. Still worth it and I'm glad I listened to the audio instead of reading it in print.

Great story with some historical info about DR

Great story and performance by Lin Manuel Miranda is very entertaining and engaging as the narrator.

Perfectly balanced

Light yet dense, not a fan of historic novels, this was excellent: the mix of history and pop culture, the languages. Great mix.

Amazing performance!

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo deliver this Pulitzer award winning novel with superb emotion. Aside from a few mispronunciations with some of the Dominican places and slang, the life of Oscar Wao has never been more wondrous with this performance.

Narration is exceptional

I read this in college and loved it but couldn’t remember it well. Decided to do the audio version and it did not disappoint.

Make u miss el patio in each of its chapters

It was weird. Different. But fun and funny. Sprinkle with magic and sci-fi while at the same time so damn accurate and truthful.

What did I love?
Each and every chapter were Lola was narrating

What did I like?
- The ubiquitous Dominican references
- The sprinkle of Dominican slang
- And Lin Manuel Miranda trying to pronounce things in Spanish which are not really Spanish but Dominican.

What I didn't like?
- Some of the shifting. Honestly I love a good complicated history line, with some shifting narrator. Damn that's my kind of shit. But every time the history started turning really political/historical I couldn't help but to roll up my eyes and doze off. I'm not sure if it was because of the story itself, or if it was because of that history teacher I once had that made me hate history or simply because it's easier to silently shame Germany and the Nazy for the holocaust but it's way harder to see our role in the our own Haitian holocaust.

Favorite Quote:
That’s white people for you. They lose a cat and it’s an all-points bulletin, but we Dominicans, we lose a daughter and we might not even cancel our appointment at the salon.

This historically-tapped, sci-fi interwoven love story

Really enjoyed the story, the stories within the story and being able to relate in all my Dominican-ness. I’d get hung up on some mispronounced things by the narrator, but he did such a great job acting it out.
Worth the listen, no doubt.

Jersey Pride

I loved every word of the book. This book reminded me of what it’s like to dream the impossible and make it your own. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Diaz’s books.