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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2008 > April > 08 > Entry
Junot Diaz wins Pulitzer Prize
One of my favorite books from 2007 has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Here is my capsule review from December 30, 2007:
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz. This story bounces across the pages. Oscar is intelligent, overweight and obsessed. He’s a Dominican kid living in New Jersey with his comic books and a fantasy of one day finding the woman of his dreams. The action shifts to the Dominican Republic, where Oscar becomes enamored with a dangerous female. This inspirational tragedy unfolds with diabolical precision among astonishing footnotes.
Here’s a report from The Guardian UK:
Junot Diaz has won the Pulitzer fiction prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, an ambitious novel that took him 11 years to complete. “It’s extraordinary how many people read a book that’s new and weird and befriended it,” a stunned Diaz said, shortly after learning that his tale about a nerdy Dominican immigrant and his family had won the £10,000 award for “distinguished fiction by an American author”.
The novel is an unconventional tale, hailed by the Guardian as “funny, unapologetic and intensely readable”. Diaz’s only other book, a story collection called Drown, created a stir when it was published in 1996, and Diaz, disoriented by all the attention, struggled to follow up its success. This, of course, only adds to his happiness now: the long-awaited Oscar Wao has also won the National Book Critics Circle award this year.
“I’m just this Dominican kid from New Jersey,” Diaz said, bashfully suggesting that if anybody deserved the award it was his fiancée and his agent, who coaxed and cajoled him through the book’s difficult birth. The real importance of his prize, he said, lies in its potential effect on others: “For any young person who’s attempting to make art against all the odds, I hope this can be inspiration and motivation.”
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