¿Qué tal será The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, la nueva novela de Junot Diaz?

El escritor dominico-americano Junot Díaz pondrá a la venta su tan esperada novela el próximo 6 de septiembre. Hace siete años que su público la espera, y en ocasiones, el mismo Junot confesó no querer terminarla. Yo seré una de las primeras que la leeré. De hecho, pedí The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao por adelantado -no se cuando me llegue. Les prometo que desde que la termine, la analizaré y publicaré mis impresiones sobre ella. Tal vez hasta vaya a conocer a su escritor a la Barnes & Noble en la que estará firmando su libro.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ha hecho mucha bulla, por ser la primera novela de Junot Díaz y porque éste ha tenido a su público esperándola por los últimos siete años. Amazon.com está ofreciendo la novela con unos ocho dólares de descuento a los que la compren por adelantado. Esta vez, seré buena paisana, como me sugirieron los insultos -digo comentarios- en mi post sobre Wildwood. Para los que no saben de lo que hablo, me llovieron los insultos, e intercambié una que otra palabra con mi querido amigo Marco.

Al inicio de este post, puse un vínculo por si quieren comprar la novela ustedes también. Recuerden que si no los convence como escritor, siempre la pueden donar a la biblioteca del barrio donde viven; por lo menos, es lo que haré yo si Junot me falla de nuevo.

Por ahora, les dejo el siguiente texto que según la escritora Maud Newton es una nota al calce de The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Maud Newton es una entuasiasta de la obra de Junot Díaz:

For those of you who missed your mandatory two seconds of Dominican history: Trujillo, one of the twentieth century’s most infamous dictators, ruled the Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1961 with an implacable ruthless brutality. A portly, sadistic, pig-eyed mulatto who bleached his skin, wore platform shoes, and had a fondness for Napoleon-era haberdashery Trujillo (also known as El Jefe, the Failed Cattle Thief, and Fuckface) came to control nearly every aspect of the DR’s political, cultural, social, and economic life through a potent (and familiar) mixture of violence, intimidation, massacre, rape, cooption, and terror; treated the country like it was a plantation and he was the master. At first glance your typical Latin American caudillo, but his power was terminal in ways that few historians or writers have ever truly captured or, I would argue, imagined. He was our Sauron, our Arawn, our Darkseid, our Once and Future Dictator, a peronaje so outlandish, so perverse, so dreadful that not even a sci-fi writer could have made his ass up. Famous for changing ALL THE NAMES of ALL THE LANDMARKS in the Dominican Republic to honor himself (Pico Duarte became PicoTrujillo, and Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the first and oldest city in the New World, became Ciudad Trujillo); for making ill monopolies out of every slice of the national patrimony (which quickly made him one of the wealthiest men on the planet); for building one of the largest militaries in the hemisphere (dude had bomber wings, for fuck’s sake); for fucking every hot girl in sight, even the wives of his subordinates, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of women; for expecting, no insisting on absolute veneration from his pueblo (tellingly, the national slogan was “Dios y Trujillo,” and if, at any public gathering, you forgot to toast Trujillo’s health you could find yourself in a world of hurt); for running the country like it was a Marine boot camp (trusted generals would get themselves kicked out of a job because Trujillo found dirt in one of their barracks); for stripping friends and allies of their positions and properties for no reason at all (just imagine what he did to his enemies) and for his almost supernatural abilities (dude was the original Witchking of Angmar).

Outstanding accomplishments include: the 1937 genocide against the Haitian and Haitian-Dominican community; one of the longest, most damaging U.S.-backed dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere (and if we Latin types are skillfull at anything it’s tolerating U.S.-backed dictators, so you know this was a hard-earned victory, the chilenos and argentinos are still complaining); the creation of the first modern kleptocracy (Trujillo was Mobufu before Mobutu was Mobutu); the systematic bribing of American senators; and, last but not least, the forging of the Dominican peoples into a modern state (did what his Marine trainers, during the Occupation, were unable to do).

Vía: Maud Newton's blog