Line #67 Literature/TheBriefWondrousLifeOfOscarWao


1	[[quoteright:319:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oscar_wao.jpg]]
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3	->"Of what import are brief, nameless lives... to '''ComicBook/{{Galactus}}'''??"
4	-->--Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby, ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'', (Vol. I, No. 49, April 1966)
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6	-> They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles. ''Fuká americanus'', or more colloquially, fuká-- generally a curse or a doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the New World.
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8	''The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao'' (2007) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Creator/JunotDiaz. The story revolves around the character Oscar de León, a [[JustForFun/OneOfUs consummate scifi and fantasy geek]] with horrendous luck with women who wants to be the Dominican Creator/JRRTolkien. The story is told through his former roommate at Rutgers, Yunior, who comes off as a [[JerkAss bit dickish]] when he is first introduced into the story, but [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold grows into a better person]] by the time he is writing the novel. Yunior tells the story of Oscar's life by tracing Oscar's story through his sister Lola, his mother Hypatá Belicia Cabral (or Beli for short), and his grandfather Abelard Cabral's own tragic tales.
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10	Between all of the geek references, untranslated Spanish, slang, and footnotes, you might get lost in the text and believe that Díaz [[ViewersAreGeniuses assumes too much]] from the reader, or that he is aiming to disorient the reader. However, understanding all of his references [[GeniusBonus isn't truly necessary for understanding the text]].
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12	Creator/LinManuelMiranda narrates the audiobook.
13
14	----
15	!!This book contains examples of -
16
17	* AbusiveParents: Beli is physically and emotionally abusive to Lola at times, even telling her [[spoiler:to keep her mouth shut about a neighbor molesting her.]] Lola [[spoiler:makes peace with Beli's memory after her mother dies]].
18	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played straight, subverted and deconstructed all in the same book.
19	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted with Beli who has oil scars all over back and later has to have one of her breasts removed.
20	* BigBad: You could argue that Trujillo or the fukú curse fulfill this role.
21	* BigBreastPride: Beli becomes ''extremely'' well-endowed when she [[SheIsAllGrownUp hits puberty]]. [[DCupDistress She's initially ashamed about her breasts]], but soon begins flaunting them when she realizes that they make men fall all over her. Her daughter Lola, on the other hand, is as flat as a board but became just as well-endowed in a different area.
22	* BigDamnHeroes: José Then and the rest of Belicia's old coworkers, who put themselves in danger of great harm by saving her life from some secret police thugs. José even pulls a pistol and jams it against one of their heads.
23	* BilingualBonus: Several of the untranslated Spanish phrases give better insight to the character's emotions as well as providing additional context.
24	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Oscar is no longer a virgin and found someone who he could get intimate with, but in doing so he got himself killed. Beli also died from breast cancer. Lola and Yunior marry other people, and Oscar's manuscript on his family's history is lost, possibly forever. But Oscar found love! Lola has also married and had a daughter, and it's implied she has broken the cycle of abuse that Beli started. Yunior, to atone for letting Oscar die on his watch, is writing a book to counter the fukú and give the future generations a fighting chance.]]
25	* BlackAndNerdy: Oscar falls into this category.
26	* TheBlank: The Man Without a Face appears during times of tragedy in the de León family.
27	* CategoryTraitor: Oscar is considered one for being 1) bad with girls, and 2) literate.
28	* CulturalRebel: Oscar fit the profile to a T. Lola too, to a lesser degree.
29	* {{Curse}} : Fukú may or may not be real, but Oscar and his family certainly get into some deep deep shit. Yunior hopes that his book will help Oscar's family break the curse.
30	* DeathByDespair:
31	** Beli has NoSympathy towards Oscar trying to kill himself [[spoiler:twice]]. This means that even with Lola and Yunior watching out for Oscar, [[spoiler:he still decides that it's better to die after finding love with Ybon then to live and attempt to get treatment for his depression.]]
32	** Shortly after this, [[spoiler:Beli dies when Oscar is murdered and her cancer resurges. She lost the will to live after losing her only son]].
33	* DirtyCop: Ybon's boyfriend is a thug with a badge.
34	* DrivenToSuicide : Oscar attempts this before moving in with Yunior, and again after [[spoiler:he caught Jenni having sex with a punk guy]]. He fails both times.
35	* EvilOverlord: Trujillo certainly fits the bill. He is directly compared to Darkseid and Sauron.
36	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The word [[spoiler:"Brief"]] being in the title [[spoiler:[[OhAndXDies isn't for show]]]].
37	* FootnoteFever: Quite unusual for a work of fiction.
38	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Oscar has attempted suicide [[spoiler:twice]]. This shows he has little regard for his life when [[spoiler:he finally finds love with Ybon worth his subsequent fatal beating.]]
39	* GeekPhysiques: Oscar weighs over 300 pounds for most of his life.
40	* GeekReferencePool: Listing all of the references that Yunior includes to various aspects of GeekCulture would take a page unto itself. But that doesn't mean we are not going to try:
41	** ''Manga/{{Akira}}''
42	** '' ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''
43	** ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
44	** ComicBook/FantasticFour
45	** ComicBook/NewGods
46	** ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''
47	** ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''
48	** ''Franchise/{{Dune}}''
49	** Creator/HPLovecraft
50	** ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets''
51	** Daniel Clowes
52	** '' ComicBook/TheSandman''
53	** Creator/JohnKricfalusi (misspelled "Krikfalusi")
54	** ''Franchise/StarTrek''
55	** ''Series/DoctorWho''
56	** ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes''
57	** ''Franchise/StreetFighter''
58	** ''Film/{{Zardoz}}''
59	** ''Virus''
60	* GratuitousSpanish: See BilingualBonus.
61	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Why, yes, Rafael Trujilo [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo was a real person, and dictator of the Dominican Republic.]] He didn't have a sister, though one shows up in the text. Other historical figures, such as the Mirabal Sisters and Joaquin Balaguer, show up in the footnotes.
62	%%* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Ybon.
63	* IdiotBall: Oscar is portrayed as fairly intelligent in most of the book, but his decisions in the last section (namely [[spoiler: returning to the Dominican Republic and continuing to pursue a woman with a cop boyfriend who had him ''beaten almost to death'' when he hung out with her before]]) are almost unfathomably stupid.
64	* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl: Oscar with Ybon.
65	* InsistentTerminology: Oscar's geeky interests are lumped together as "the Genres."
66	* KarmaHoudini:
67	** The most Beli's boyfriend does for her after other thugs beat her up and cause her to miscarriage is apologize, deny that he knew it would happen, and give her a chance to leave the country. She does so reluctantly and tries to start a new life.
68	** Yunior mentions that he sees Ybon's husband living in New York, having suffered no consequences for [[spoiler:murdering Oscar.]]
69	* LonelyFuneral: [[spoiler:Oscar's]] funeral at the end of the novel is attended only by Yunior, Lola, Beli and La Inca.
70	* LonersAreFreaks: Oscar.
71	* LoveCannotOvercome: Even though Yunior loves Lola and even dates her at one point, she can't return his feelings. It's because [[spoiler:Oscar attempted suicide while rooming with him, and then borrowed money from him to return to Ybon, which leads to Oscar's brutal death.]]
72	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Oscar, so very much. We see in a flashback that he inherited this trait from his mother Beli, who nearly got killed because of it, with [[spoiler:Oscar being even less lucky because he thinks dying for love is better than living alone.]]
73	%%* MagicRealism
74	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The curse on the family, which Yunior calls fukú. On the one hand, the previous generation suffered ''really'' bad luck under Trujillo, which is what led to Beli being scarred as a child. One could argue, however, that the cause is more rooted in genetic mental illness and generational trauma; Oscar's bad mental health could have been inherited from his mother, and neither of them had the resources in their respective time periods to get the support they needed.
75	* MostWritersAreWriters: Both Yunior and Oscar are aspiring writers; the later of pulpy SF, and the former of hyper-violent FilmNoir.
76	* NamedLikeMyName: Óscar de León, the main character, has the name of a famous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_D%27Le%C3%B3n salsa singer]]. This is, though, never mentioned in the book.
77	%%* NarratorAllAlong: Yunior.
78	%%* NerdsAreVirgins:
79	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Both Oscar and his mother, Beli, receive one in the very same place.
80	* NWordPrivileges: The N-word is used very liberally in the book.
81	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Yunior kicks himself when he realizes that Oscar asked him for a loan, and Oscar has ''never'' asked anyone for money. [[spoiler:Oscar wanted to fly back to the Dominican Republic and reunite with Ybon.]]
82	* PlausibleDeniability: When Oscar is caught driving an unconscious Ybon in the Dominican, he tells her boyfriend that he thought the not-so former had broken up. Ybon's boyfriend still orders his men to take Oscar to the sugarcane field and deliver a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
83	* PyrrhicVictory: Oscar finds love...[[spoiler:and then is killed brutally]].
84	%%* QuestForSex
85	* RevengeBeforeReason: Subverted. Much as Yunior would like to get even with [[spoiler:Ybon's husband for killing Oscar and hurting Lola]] never does so when they encounter each other. For one, [[spoiler:the man has enough firepower and money to defend himself. And for another, he doesn't even know who Yunior is. No one would win by Yunio getting himself killed or arrested for murder]].
86	* SenseiForScoundrels: Yunior tries this with Oscar and fails utterly.
87	* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Oscar and Yunior definitely fall into these categories.
88	* SheIsAllGrownUp: Jacquelyn and Beli blossom almost overnight from skinny girls into stunningly beautiful and well-endowed teenagers, although it doesn't do them much good in the long run. ''Especially'' for Jacquelyn and her poor doomed family in the Age of [[KavorkaMan Trujillo]].
89	* SlutShaming: Beli makes it a point to call Ybon a ''puta'' (a prostitute) at every opportunity. [[spoiler:Ybon nearly getting Oscar killed doesn't endear Beli to her.]]
90	* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Jacquelyn and Beli are both stunning, and their beauty wins them all the wrong kinds of attention.
91	* ShoutOut: The title is an allusion to the Creator/ErnestHemingway story, ''The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber''.
92	* StalkingIsLove: Oscar is very... persistent to say the least, with Ybon.
93	* TooDumbToLive:
94	** Beli after her boyfriend impregnates her thinks that she can go on as she does when a few Mirabal Sisters show up and tell her she has to abort the baby and has to stay away from him. She doesn't get the memo and refuses to get an abortion. This means that several police thugs beat her to death after luring her out of her house, and cause her to miscarry. She's lucky to be alive.
95	** Oscar's attempts to persuade Ybon to ditch her husband for him, despite him nearly being killed by his goons before escaping to America and the persuasions of those closest to him not to go through with the act.
96	* WartsAndAll: Lola has this attitude about her mother at the end of the book. Beli was an awful person, a terrible mother that didn't understand mental illness, and a {{Hypocrite}} slut-shamer considering her past. Lola will never forgive or forget what her mother did to her to make her feel ugly and unloved, using Oscar as a pawn and their go-between. [[spoiler:She also understands that Beli didn't know how to be a parent and felt burdened with the responsibility of rearing two kids alone after her husband died. Oscar's death also pushed Beli's cancer to a fatal condition, showing she did care about her son]].
97	* WhatYouAreInTheDark:
98	** When Beli lies semiconscious in the sugarcane field, she has a vision of a creature telling her she has to live so that she will have her two children. Beli decides to listen and reluctantly leave her home.
99	** Oscar later encounters this same creature after being in a similar situation. He still decides that [[spoiler:it's better to try and win Ybon over.]]
100	* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Averted, Beli and her family go back to Santo Domingo every year for vacation.
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Context Literature / TheBriefWondrousLifeOfOscarWao