The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Techniques / Literary Precedents

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao combines a number of styles into a single, dazzling narrative. Footnotes are used to document important historical information about the Dominican Republic, and characters—particularly Oscar—speak with a mix of “high” and “low” cultural references.

Critics praise Díaz’s writing not just for its creativity but for its careful, colorful, and instinctive insights into Dominican culture. Díaz’s first book, Drown, was an instant success in part because of his tense and electric use of language. His vocabulary, both on...

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