Junot Diaz's 2007 novel tells the story of its ill-fated title character, an overweight, undersexed Dominican-American teenage boy with literary ambitions and an expert command of science fiction. It also compels us to consider other aspects of the way this story is told. As you read, consider the following:
- Diaz begins with a discourse on "fukú." What is it, and where does it come from? This will be significant to our grasp of the legacy of "fukú" for Oscar's own fate. What about its antidote, "zafa"?
- Diaz's narrator is third-person, and he seems omniscient. But he is also, we come to learn, very much a part of the story he is telling. So the question is, Who is Yunior? What sort of a person does he represent himself as being? What do you infer about him from the way he tells the story?
- A related point is Yunior's use of language. He writes in English but peppers his prose with Spanish, with Dominican vernacular. He has an enormous vocabulary and is capable of sophisticated formulations, but he also curses like he's from the streets. What is your perspective on Yunior's use of language? What effect does Diaz seem to be pursuing?
- Diaspora is an important concept for this novel. How does the book dramatize - both in its plot and in its form and style - the way diaspora works: scattering people from one place to multiple other places yet preserving their connection to that former place and to one another?
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