SHORT REVIEWS OF 4 PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS

More short review of books I read this summer while deprived of television and the internet.




THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by JUNOT DIAZ (2007) Second reading
A seriously overweight man of Dominican heritage, who is obsessed with fantasy and science fiction, continuously looks for love. This novel does not end happily-ever-after, but the plot is so intriguing and the language -- a mixture of Spanish and American slang -- so unique that I could overlook my emotional need for happy endings. This won the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the Pulitzer. Recommended.


THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE by OSCAR HIJUELOS (1989) Third reading
The life stories of a family of Cuban-heritage musicians who once gained a measure of fame when they appeared on the I Love Lucy television show with Desi Arnez. That doesn't sound very interesting, but it is, especially as enlivened by a large dose of sex. Recommended.


BELOVED by TONI MORRISON (1987) Third reading
An African-American woman who escaped from slavery to the North later kills her own daughter rather than see her returned to their former master. Later, she and her other children are "haunted" by the ghost of the dead child. Whether one believes the ghost to be literal or a psychological result of trauma matters little, because the impact of the novel is overwhelming, no matter the interpretation. This has rightfully come to be considered a classic. Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 for her body of work.


MIDDLESEX by JEFFREY EUGENIDES (2002) Second reading
The character at the center of the plot has a mutated gene which results in his/her being intersex, having characteristics of both male and female. Raised as a girl, he nevertheless feels male. A large portion of the book concerns the grandparents and parents of the character, and, for me, this diffuses the focus of the novel. Much is also included about the difficulties of immigrants (these are Greek) and the turmoil in Detroit during the 1960s. I feel that the novel takes too much of a scatter shot at too many issues to be as effective as it could have been if it had stuck to gender identification issues.