Spoiler Warning: These book club discussion questions on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz reveal important details about the novel. Finish the book before reading on.
- Did the presence of so much Spanish frustrate you? Did you look up words and try to translate sentences, or did you just skip over them? Did it add to, or take away, from your reading experience?
- What are your thoughts on the narrator? Was it frustrating to you to not know who he was for so much of the novel? Why do you think Diaz waited so long to reveal Yunior? Did you like Yunior as a person? Did you like his voice?
- Were the footnotes helpful to you? Why do you think the author chose to give us that information via footnotes instead of the main narrative?
- What do you think was in the 2nd unreceived package that Oscar told his family about?
- Is there hope at the end of the story? Is there reason to believe Lola's daughter might escape the curse of the de Leons?
- Did Oscar make the right decision going back to the Dominican Republic? Knowing what awaited him, he still believed it was the right decision. His family and Yunior did not. What do you think?
- Who was your favorite character? Which character did you like least (other than Trujillo)?
- Were you familiar with the Dominican Republic history presented in Oscar Wao? Does reading historical fiction make you want learn more on the subject, or at least entice you to look up what's fact and what's fiction?
- What is the mongoose with golden eyes? The man without a face? Did they represent something? Were they literal?
- Rate The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao on a scale of 1 to 5.
