The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Edit 03/25/2019: Counting this as my Dominican Republic book around the world.

Original angry rant...I mean review. Leaving this unedited because it's Harisa of the past (almost exactly 5 years ago past!)

Cannot even begin to describe how horrible this book was. Some parts were mildly interesting, but the characters all sucked and I found it hard to feel any amount of sympathy for them. They're all morons and choose/prioritize the wrong things in life and I'm not surprised their life is so horrible.

The author incorporates an attempt at magical realism in the novel, but it's mostly him blaming a “curse” for the horrible outcomes of each family members, when in reality, each family member doesn't even seriously try to build a good life for themselves. So, there is no “curse”, they're all idiots.

Isabel Allende is wonderful with this literary device (magical realism), but I can't even say that this author even tries to use it...I just think he tried to make a story of crappy characters into something deeper....he failed.

Would not recommend, unfortunately I had to finish if for a class otherwise I would have given up a while ago.