#14 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (11/12/11)

I have NO IDEA why I own this book.  I'm guessing Amazon.com recommended it to me and I was in a mood to buy.  So, POOF, it ended up in my bookcase.  The reason why I read it is equally as anti-climactic:  it was there and the right length for what I felt like getting myself into.

You'd think that I'd choose books in a better way.  I have a list of Books I Should Read and yet I waste (harsh?  maybe...) my time with things like Oscar Wao.

That said, this book wasn't bad.  There were interesting parts and it obviously held my attention.  But it certainly won't be remembered.

But the author did something throughout that I seriously do not like:  he snuck in all sorts of detail and history in FOOTNOTES.  Okay, listen, this isn't a research paper.  It's a novel.  And having half the page taken up by a footnote is distracting.  Especially when I have to read said footnote (which is half of one page but then runs over to half of the next page) and it takes me completely out of the story you're telling me and into a new story.  By the time I return to the real story, I'm sort of lost.

So stop footnoting.
Thanks.

(I guess its a bad sign when the only thing I want to write about after reading a book is how I didn't like the style, huh.)