The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success
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Why do Jews win so many Nobel Prizes and Pulitzer Prizes? Why are Mormons running the business and...
Agincourt 1415: Field of Blood
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On 25 October 1415, a trapped and vastly-outnumbered force of exhausted and demoralised English...
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
10.0
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, 2017 Hisham Matar was 19 when his...
Libya Politics Biography
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
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Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Hurricane’s Eye, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mayflower, and...
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in Books
Oct 29, 2017 (Updated Oct 29, 2017)
Labelled 'a masterpiece' by critics, the book follows the life of Oscar de Leon, or as some know him as Oscar Wao, from the perspective of the people that know him. From the title you can expect something interesting happened to him to reduce his lifespan and this definitely is the case.
Through his friend Yunior and sister Lola's accounts, they delve into the history of the Dominican Republic where they were originally from before settling in New York. Fuku or a curse, plays a big role in this book, as the de Leon family believed they had faced many misfortunes over the generations and ghetto nerd Oscar was no exception. In between the chaos of murder and corruption, were several love stories that went awry.
And while some of it was interesting, and you need a good grasp of Spanish, the footnotes became irritating filling several half pages to explain the historical context. To be honest, apart from the grandmother La Inca, and sister Lola, most of the characters were unlikable - the idiotic things they'll do for love are astounding. The language was rich, but the structure seemed slightly convoluted, as if the writer had attempted to keep a scheme in place but it still leaked everywhere. While some of it is engaging, I'm really not sure how this won the Pulitzer.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Less in Books
Jul 28, 2018
The book was a little meta; Arthur is told that the book he's writing isn't that interesting because his protagonist, a middle aged gay white man, isn't interesting and no one cares about him. Which is exactly how I feel about Arthur Less. He's a middle aged gay white man with the means to travel the world, and a boyfriend who would have married him if he'd only, I don't know, asked. But he just floats through his life a little melancholy and woe is me. And not in the like actually depressed kind of way. Just - meh.
Arthur is BORING. Arthur is privileged, and boring, and annoying as all hell. This book just makes me want to avoid Pulitzer Prize winners. Who awards these prizes, and WHY? Also why does everybody rave about books like this?
Blargh. Don't bother with this book. People who say it made them laugh out loud don't know what they're talking about, or perhaps haven't read actually funny books. They should read something by Ellen, or Trevor Noah, or Tiffany Haddish. THEY'RE ACTUALLY FUNNY.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
The Sting Man: The True Story Behind the Film American Hustle
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"Quite possibly the finest book on presidential politics ever written, combining meticulous...
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
8.0
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Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History New York Times Book Review Top Ten books of the Year ...