Sharpe, Matthew. “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Rev. of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. Publishers Weekly. 254(25). 18 June 2007. Web.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=106&sid=362aac0e-cb7d-4ea7-8b16-4271d2d2e89f%40sessionmgr112 (accessed via database…let me know if this link doesn’t work.)

• Main point/argument of review: While the book’s title suggests that the story will be about Oscar, a large amount of the narrative focuses more on family, nation, and language in relation to both of these.

• Two main points:The essence of the novel is “a multiperspectival view of a life, wherein an individual cannot be known or understood in isolation from the history of his family and his nation.”
• Review also emphasizes how Diaz uses language to reinforce his ideas: “rich and playful prose that embodies [the novel's] theme of multiple nations, cultures and languages.”

• Other ideas: complicated notions of identity and nation: “And Dominicans in this novel being explicitly of mixed Taíno, African and Spanish descent, the very ideas of nationhood and nationality are thoughtfully, subtly complicated.”
• Parallels between an individual story and a larger, overarching theme or story: “…this story of one poor guy’s cursed life will also be the story of how 500 years of historical and familial bad luck shape the destiny of its…protagonist.”
• Innovative use of language and structure in the novel: Diaz uses “many un-italicized Spanish words and expressions (thus beautifully dramatizing how linguistic borders, like national ones, are porous)… [and a] plethora of genre and canonical literary allusions–he does helpfully footnote aspects of Dominican history”

• Ways you might use this article: my own paper focused on how a nation can shape family roles. This review may be helpful when considering the role(s)/impact a nation can have shaping any aspects of a family. The quote in bullet #2 summarizes this idea.
• This review could also help support a thesis examining how the language and/or structure in a novel/story work in relation to the plot and characters (quotes in bullets #3 and #6).