Review 704: The Autobiography of My Mother

The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After taking a Caribbean literature class in college I bought this book, then did not read it. So after a couple of decades it was finally time. I went into the book somewhat blindly knowing nothing about the story.

Xuela Claudette Richardson was born without a mother as she died in childbirth. Her father, not knowing what to do with her gave her to his laundress as if she was dirty laundry. This woman did not love her. Her father ruled her life, to some extent, but was distant and one could hardly say he loved her. She was born of mixed race in Dominica. Her father sent her to school, actually more schooling than would be expected of a girl in that country. She did not make any close friends. Zuela instead would find what she needed from her own self. She could only rely in her own mind and body.

For much of the book it is somewhat sexual but the language used is not graphic nor what you may find in most typical books. It is the language that propels this book. It is poetic it is sensual.
Zuela’s world is a harsh one. That she claims herself and knows what she wants is amazing. She makes no apologies, lives fully in the world where she is born into, surprising self-accomplishment.

The book is all Zuela’s words of her mind and very little interaction with others as far as dialogue. Yet it works. This is to be read for language and writing style, not so much for the content. And that is what my rating reflects.

Review 497: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars

This was not an easy, nor enjoyable read for me. About a third the way through I about gave it up, but read some reviews and found a website of annotations and translations.

There is quite a bit of misogyny, constant racial slurs and other unappealing aspects of this book, and yet it's a Pulitzer Prize winner. I stuck with it, the annotated website helped, I tried to look up more of the untranslated words and phrases. Most of these are understandable within the context of the sentence, without knowing exactly what is being said. Sometimes though, it just feels like confusion. Even with the website and google translate there were times where there was no translation offered. Perhaps this was the slang, or the Spanglish that was referred to in other reviews. One view said that perhaps there is so much of this in the book so the reader can feel being the outcast, the other, much like the characters do in the American society. Perhaps.

The book is about Oscar Wao, American born living in New Jersey but his homeland, his mother’s country is the Dominican Republic. But it’s not just about Oscar, the bulk of the book is about his mother and his grandfather living through the brutal regime of Trujillo. Through their stories we understand why his mother left on her own to live in the north.

Part of the difficulty in my reading is the book is obsessed with how large Oscar’s body is, and how he is completely unable to get a girlfriend. Oscar is a geek, loving all those fantasy books, role playing and hero marvel worships. He is smart, reads a ton and just cannot relate to women, with a few exceptions, and these girls of course already have boyfriends. The narrator is a friend of Oscar’s, also the boyfriend of his sister. He throws in so many of these geeky references that alone may need some translation for some people.

I’m not sure I’m happy that I finished reading the book. The ending I found unsatisfactory, with Oscar’s actions. And maybe I shouldn’t say the book is about Oscar at all, as his portion of the book is the minority of the book. I think I need to learn how to let a book go, even the prize winners, particularly when the text has so much hate towards its characters.