Junot Díaz, the author of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," weaves an intricate piece of material together and speaks in a voice readers throughout the world have been waiting to hear. The Youth of our world needed a genuine story teller such as Díaz to step up and teach them that their writing does not have to follow a format in order to tell an amazing story and the rest of us needed to realize we too need start embracing new ways of expression. Nevertheless, it all starts with Oscar.

Oscar Wao is the coolest super nerd you would ever meet and you almost wish you were friends with the guy throughout most of his adventure. However, just like in this epic, most of us would pass Oscar in the street and our only interaction with this comic book loving super hero would be to comment on his UN Dominican NESS.

"Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody's always going on about---he wasn't no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock."

Oscar not being a typical Dominican cat was what allowed Díaz to transcend the norms and bring the readers closer to something real, something that strikes you at the heart and not at your superficial senses. Oscar too seems to be trying to achieve something more than the superficial. His whole life he searches for love and Díaz takes us through that journey while allowing us to see Oscar's trials and tribulations through the lens of an outsider inside.

Oscar is also searching for Redemption throughout the whole story, while everyone around him seems to feel they have already arrived. It is interesting to see how his family and friends perceive our hero. Yet, in the end many of the people in this story are lost and maybe even more lost than Oscar seemed to be. Now don’t get me wrong. Oscar has his issues but there is this side of him that screams potential. This makes for an interesting read because Díaz spins the story around the question of whether Oscar can break the curse or fall victim to the fukú that surrounds his family.

Oscar is of course not the only person involved in this story and if one is familiar with the style Díaz has mastered, one knows that this story jumps from the future, to the past, back to the future, and ends somewhere in the midst of all of that time traveling. This generations true time traveler takes the art of storytelling to a level that most cannot touch, not only because of his ability to leap through time, but because of the way he attaches to his story the vital history of the Dominican Republic. The pain and happiness people encountered. The rise and fall of Trujillo and the legacy Oscar's mother left behind in the Dominican Republic. These stories are timeless and necessary to the understanding of every character.

Diaz also seems to be expressing his opinions on a few topics that are intimate to many Latino's and people of color in the United States. He speaks of the internalization of self hate almost as being the fukú of the Diaspora.

"What did you know about the states or diasporas? What did you know about Nueba Yol or unheated 'old law' tenements or children whose self hate short-circuited their minds?"

He also references the relationships that Dominican daughters have with Dominican mothers. In this context he is speaking about a Dominican mother in particular, however, one could relate this to Latina mothers in general.

"You don't know the hold our mothers have on us, even the ones that are never around---especially the ones that are never around. What it's like to be the perfect Dominican daughter, which is just a nice way of saying a perfect Dominican slave."

Could this be seen as a stereotype? Sure, but at some point one must realize that history continues if no one is there to stop it from compounding itself into a giant pile of control and anger. There is a history here and a story that Díaz is trying to paint for his readers. Many might read this tale as a story of redemption, love, struggle, fantasy, and reality. Others might envision this story as An American Dream turned Nightmare, or this could possibly be seen as the most exciting roller coaster ride any artist has taken us on in years.

Nevertheless, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is a multi-layered true American novel that speaks the truth to a story that has no ending. No ending, because the world contains millions of Oscar Wao's running from and chasing their own personal gifts and curses. Díaz is not any less creative for choosing to focus on that dilemma. In fact, that is what makes this novel a CLASSIC and a MUST READ, because at the end of this story one sees a little bit of Oscar Wao within themselves, whether it’s a good thing or a great thing.