The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

Alright first thing is first, I just love it when the end makes everything click and there's just an epiphany feeling. It's that sort of feeling that makes me want to read more and more... that's what causes the addiction. Then there is the thinking in circles my mind does to try to figure out all of the connections and how they were important, and I have to say this one has so many circles!
The one aspect of this story that I thought was amazing were the connections between the characters, not only are they connected as a family but their experiences are also intertwining them together. I thought this was especially interesting because for a book intending to be about Oscar's story Diaz spent nearly half of the book explaining his mother's, Lola's, and his grandfather's pasts in order to have Oscar be totally understood. The connections between Oscar and the rest of his family can't even be seen until nearly the end. Just when I was about to right off Oscar and say that he was going to die the odd ball out I was thrown for a loop when I realized Oscar, Lola, Beli, Abelard, and even La Inca were so much alike in the end. He was being beaten in a sugar field for the same reason his mother was and that was for the "forbidden love" and the same reason that Diaz suggested that Abelard was put into jail. For me the most important idea carried throughout this novel was the dirty message of love, they all had it and it was unrewarding most of the time but they still had it and still clung to it. All of the characters seemed to connect at the end through Oscar as he went and fought back, not physically of course, but he refused, like so many in his family had before, to give in and give up. Oscar was in the game the rest of his family had played before, but he went back for more. He like his mother had been given a way out but came back for a second fight. Who would have thought he had it in him?
One thing is for certain this book does make the reader work for understanding, and even understanding isn't completely attainable in this novel.