The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Summary

In the section "The Golden Age," Junot Díaz introduces the novel’s hero, Oscar de Léon. Oscar is "a Dominican boy raised in a relatively 'normal' Dominican family." Even at the relatively young age of seven, he begins taking a keen interest in girls. He is a great hit at parties, where he entertains adults who force his attention on any girl his age. His mother is proud of his premature display of manliness.

Once, Oscar even has two girlfriends at the same time—Maritza Chacon and Olga Polanca. However, this "threesome lasted only a week." Maritza insists that Oscar choose between herself and Olga. Oscar does not find it difficult to choose Maritza, because she is more beautiful than Olga. Olga cries her heart out when Oscar breaks up with her, but Oscar responds nonchalantly by saying, "Don't be a baby."

However, the Monday after he breaks up with Olga, he sees Maritza at the bus stop holding hands with another boy, Nelson Pardo. Maritza refuses to smile at Oscar and pretends that she does not even see him. At first, Oscar does not believe his eyes, but when he hears Maritza tell Nelson that they should get married, he sits down on the curb and begins to cry. He is still crying when he boards the school bus, which arrives shortly.

The rejection by Maritza affects him deeply: "his life shot straight down the tubes." In two years, he grows fatter and fatter and consequently avoids any contact with girls because they find him repulsive: "he did not kiss another girl for a long, long time." Olga is similarly affected, and she too becomes fat and repulsive: "even her breasts, when they finally emerged, were huge and scary." However, Maritza becomes prettier and prettier: "Maritza blew up into the flyest girl in Paterson, New Jersey."

The second section, "The Moronic Inferno," deals with Oscar's high school life at Don Bosco Tech. Oscar finds life at this all-boys Catholic school run by the Salesian Fathers and Brothers stressful. In his sophomore year, Oscar weighs two hundred and ten pounds, which would increase by another ten pounds whenever he was depressed. At school, he is like most other kids; "throughout high school he did the usual ghetto nerd things." His main interest is "the end of the world," and he voraciously reads all the available books on that topic. However, there is one very serious shortcoming: "he didn't date no one. Didn't even come close." This is despite the fact that he is internally a very passionate and affectionate lover. Sadly, no girl in the neighborhood is aware of his capacity for love and affection.

His virginity and lack of girlfriends are often topics of discussion at home. Everyone has advice to offer him. Oscar's sister, Lola, warns him rather ominously, "You're going to die a virgin."

Oscar's sister, who had been raped by a senior when she was only in the sixth grade, is well versed in matters concerning love and sex. She cuts her hair short and is quite a rebel who would "say anything to anybody." She often advises Oscar, who true to his character would not listen to her. The main narrator of the novel later gets to date Lola in college. Currently however, Lola is dating "a failed welter weight Golden Gloves boxer." Lola's three friends—Gladys, Marisol, and Leticia—also date macho, weight-lifting types. The three "sex kittens" provide enough titillation for Oscar when they visit his sister. Much to Oscar's discomfort, completely oblivious of his presence but well within his hearing, they loudly prattle on and on about their sex lives.

The third section, "Oscar Is Brave," describes Oscar's disappointment at not getting a girlfriend in his senior year at Don Bosco Tech, and his simmering jealousy of his two video-game-playing friends, Al and Miggs, who succeed in doing so.

One day, Al brags that he met his girl by chance for the first time at the Menlo Park Mall. She informed him that another friend of hers was desperately in need of a boyfriend. So Al introduces Miggs to his newly acquired girlfriend, who does the rest. Oscar comes to know of this only a week later when they are in the midst of a very exciting video game. Initially, Oscar accepts the news of his friends' success stoically but deep down he is peeved that his friends have excluded him from their sexual adventures. He is especially astounded by the fact that Miggs has succeeded in getting a girl because "Miggs was an even bigger freak." He is completely dejected and depressed when both his friends tell him that their girlfriends "don't have any other friends."

Oscar becomes introspective. He spends a lot of time in front of the mirror studying his reflection and comes to the conclusion that he is a "Morlock," an ugly and repulsive character from a video game. He then decides to follow partially his sister's advice and have a physical makeover. He has a barber get rid of his Afro and shave his moustache; he substitutes contact lenses for his glasses and "starve[s] himself dizzy" in an effort to lose weight.

Al and Miggs are puzzled by these "changes." Although Oscar briefly continues to go to the movies with them, secretly he is jealous of their success and begins avoiding them completely. When Al and Miggs ask him why he is avoiding them, he lies that he is "finishing up his first novel."

In Chapter 4, a weight lifter and playboy friend of Lola’s decides to be Oscar’s roommate. Oscar calls him “Yunior.” During this period, Oscar writes books, plays games, and continues to ogle girls, often complaining that he will die a virgin. Yunior tries to “fix” Oscar by getting him to diet, exercise, and think positively. When Oscar gives up, Yunior takes it personally, shoves Oscar, and ruins his relationship with Lola in the process. Oscar reverts to his old habits and earns the nickname "Oscar Wao" as a play on "Oscar Wilde" because Yunior decides to mock his love for science fiction.

Oscar falls in love with a goth girl named Jenni who is otherwise known as La Jablesse. As a result of Oscar's persistence, they begin spending time together. Love transforms Oscar: he takes better care of himself and exercises all on his own. When Oscar catches her with someone, he falls into despair, stops writing, and eventually drinks three bottles of Cisco. He attempts suicide (because of the fukú curse) on the New Brunswick train bridge. Aided by the "Golden Mongoose," Oscar misses the road and lands on a soft garden divider. This leaves him broken, but alive. He recovers and begins writing again, looking better than he ever has in his life. With renewed interest in Lola, Yunior moves back in with Oscar, who still contemplates suicide but ends up taking midnight drives instead.

Abelard Cabral (Oscar's grandfather) was an upper-class surgeon and businessman. He married Socorro, a respected nurse practitioner, had a mistress named Lydia, and brought up his two daughters (Jackie and Astrid) to follow in his footsteps. Abelard dealt with the deplorable Trujillo regime by ignoring it until Jackie grew so beautiful that Trujillo himself lusted after her (as he did many others). Abelard took a big risk by not allowing his wife or daughter to attend Trujillo's parties and sporting a lame excuse. Abelard loses weight in worry, but does not deport them to safety. Trujillo finally confronts Abelard about their absence. Unable to delay any further, Abelard almost allows them to attend before reneging at the last moment. He simply tells Trujillo, "They could not attend." Abelard was arrested by the Secret Police under the false pretense of making a bad joke about bodies in the back of his car (or some say because of a book written revealing Trujillo's "supernatural roots" and "dark powers"). Through his 14 years in prison, Abelard is starved, shocked, stripped, bound, and tortured. While visiting, Socorro becomes pregnant with their third daughter (Beli). Family members die one by one, but Beli is passed around and eventually sold to a man who poured hot oil on her back. La Inca finally responds, finds Beli, and saves her.

In Chapter 6, Oscar moves home after college and teaches at his old high school. The students ridicule him, and Oscar again falls in and out of despair. Oscar experiences a lot during a summer in Santo Domingo, but he considers falling in love with Ybón Pimentel (a middle-aged, semiretired prostitute) to be "the start of his real life." The relationship begins with her smiling and approaching Oscar all on her own. Oscar falls in love with Ybón and begins visiting her every day, which upsets Beli and La Inca. With no one to talk to for a long time, Ybón reveals her life to Oscar through pictures and words, but her Dominican boyfriend, "the capitán," quickly becomes jealous of Oscar. Oscar refuses to back down, even when bullets hit La Inca's house and even when instinct dictates otherwise. Ybón gives Oscar his first kiss in front of the boyfriend and his minions, who drag Oscar, whimpering and frightened, to the cane fields and beat him senseless. Clives, the taxi driver, follows and finds Oscar by heading toward "someone singing." While unconscious, Oscar dreams of the Mongoose who asks him if he wants "More or less?" Oscar almost asks for less, but then asks for more. When Oscar revives, he asks for Ybón (who insists they not see each other) and admits that the fukú curse might be true. Back in New Jersey, Oscar dreams about the cane, only this time he finds himself listening instead of running.

In Chapter 7, Yunior tells us that Oscar was fully prepared for the applause on his final voyage to Santo Domingo. He parks in front of Ybón's house and steadfastly waits for her. Oscar professes his love even though he has been hurt by her. Ybón reciprocates, but also insists that Oscar depart for his own safety. Oscar refuses to leave and eventually begins writing at La Inca's house, not responding to the capitán's horn honks. For twenty-seven days, "he researched-wrote and he chased her," scaring Ybón. They exchange passionate letters. Ybón, Lola, La Inca, Beli, and Yunior try to get Oscar to leave, but he professes that "This is my home." Ybón and Oscar finally meet. Oscar tries to kiss her, but she refuses by saying, “He’ll kill us.” Suddenly, Grod and Grundy show up and drive Oscar back to the cane field. Oscar does not cry, but only imagines the Mongoose this time. After sending telepathic messages to his many family members, he bravely tells his captors of their wrongdoing, that they were removing a great love from this world, that he had taken a great risk by coming back here, and that he would be seen as a hero and avenger because “anything you can dream...you can be." Oscar is given one last (fake) opportunity to save himself by replying to the request, “Tell us what fuego means in English.” Oscar blurts out his answer, “unable to help himself.” It is then that Oscar is killed.

In Chapter 8, Yunior and the family come down to Santo Domingo to claim Oscar’s body. The family arranges the funeral, but no one else comes. Beli's cancer finally takes hold while La Inca sells her home and moves back to Bani. Yunior and Lola do not stay together as a result of his philandering tendencies, so she marries a man in Miami and has a daughter of her own. Yunior is haunted by dreams of Oscar until he decides to clean up his life. Yunior decides to teach college and get married, declaring himself "a new man" and that he "learned that from Oscar."

Now both Yunior and Lola believe in the curse. In fact, Lola's daughter wears "three azabaches" around her neck: "the one that Oscar wore as a baby, the one that Lola wore as a baby, and the one that Beli was given by La Inca upon reaching Sanctuary”: powerful magic to keep away the fukú.

Immediately after Oscar's death, postcards begin to arrive. Eight months after Oscar’s death, a large package arrives at the house in Paterson, New Jersey. Two manuscripts are enclosed: an unfinished space opera called Starscourge and a long letter to Lola. The letter reveals that Oscar was, in fact, able to spend some time alone with Ybón and that Oscar did lose his virginity to her. More importantly, the letter explains that another package would be coming with "the cure to what ails us" in regards to the fukú. That package never comes.