Lexington Herald Leader Logo

Pulitzer prize astonishes author | Lexington Herald Leader

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • All News
    • Business
    • Communities
    • Counties
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Lexington
    • Local
    • Most Wanted
    • Nation/World
    • News Photos
    • News Videos
    • Politics
    • Searchable Databases
    • State
    • Watchdog
    • Columns
    • Tom Eblen
    • All Sports
    • UK Sports
    • College Sports
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • High School
    • Horses
    • Kentucky Speedway
    • Lexington Legends
    • Reds
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • NASCAR
    • NFL
    • Sports Photos
    • Sports Videos
    • Columns
    • John Clay's Columns
    • Mark Story
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • All UK Sports
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • Baseball
    • Basketball - Men
    • Basketball - Women
    • Recruiting
    • Ex-Cats
    • Football
    • UK Photos
    • UK Videos
    • More UK Sports
    • Columns
    • John Clay's Blog
    • Mark Story
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • All Entertainment
    • Books
    • Celebrities
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Restaurants
    • Stage & Dance
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Entertainment Photos
    • Entertainment Videos
    • News Blogs
    • Kentucky Weather
    • Photo Archive
    • Sports Blogs
    • John Clay's Blog
    • High School
    • UK Football
    • UK Men's Basketball
    • UK Women's Basketball
    • Lexington Legends
    • Entertainment Blogs
    • Walter Tunis on Music
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Joel Pett
    • Letters to the Editor
    • National Columnists
    • Op-Ed
    • Submit a Letter
    • All Living
    • Celebrations
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Fru-Gal: Deb Morris
    • Health & Medicine
    • Home & Garden
    • Paul Prather
    • Religion
    • Travel
    • Readers' Choice
    • Kentucky Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Submit an Obituary
    • Customer Service
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • E-edition
    • Page Reprints
    • Photo Reprints
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Site Information
    • Advertise With Us
    • Archives
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Google+
    • Today's Circulars
    • Classifieds
    • Jobs
    • Cars
    • Homes
    • Homeseller
    • Legal Notices
  • Place an Ad
  • Mobile & Apps

Books

Pulitzer prize astonishes author

By Connie Ogle - McClatchy News Service

    ORDER REPRINT →

April 13, 2008 12:00 AM

MIAMI — The troublesome fuku — ”generally a curse or doom of some kind“ — that stalks the family of his nerdy, overweight hero apparently has decided to bypass Junot Diaz, at least for now. On Monday, the Dominican-born author won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

”I'm completely astonished,“ says Diaz, 39, who heard the news at his mom's house in New Jersey while holding his ”good luck charm“ — his 2-year-old nephew. ”For a Dominican kid with illegal parents to win a Pulitzer, a kid who grew up in New Jersey in a neighborhood where nobody gave a sh— about us, a kid who delivered pool tables throughout college ... wow, man.“

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Lexington Herald-Leader

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Oscar Wao is the second book published by Diaz, who teaches creative writing at MIT and lives in New York City. He wowed the literary world 11 years ago with his story collection Drown, and in Oscar Wao, he combines an onslaught of savvy pop-culture references and the brutal history of the Trujillo regime and its lingering effects on a family relocated to New Jersey. Time magazine compared Diaz to Philip Roth and Richard Russo. The New Yorker named him one of the top 20 writers of the 21st century. And famously cranky New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani wrote that Diaz ”has written a book that decisively establishes him as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices.“

Patricia Saunders, professor of Caribbean literature at the University of Miami, says that Diaz's novel deserves the top U.S. literary award.

”He has found a way to make that distant past of Trujillo relevant in a contemporary context,“ Saunders says. The time periods are ”too often separated. This happened in the Dominican Republic in this period, and now the people it happened to are in New York, so what does life look like in light of both realities? There are generations who didn't experience Trujillo firsthand and don't understand the struggles, but these are things they inherit through myth and family stories. Diaz finds a skillful way of mapping a complex cultural history, past and present.“

”His voice is very exciting,“ says Miami author Diana Abu-Jaber, whose fiction often springs from her Jordanian-American heritage. ”It's a new voice because it's the voice of the community, of the street and also of scholarship. It's smart and street smart. I think that chameleon-like quality is very exciting to a lot of immigrants. e_SLps It's sly. He moves between high and lowbrow, and he does it in a subtle and seamless way. You can hear him on MTV and at MIT.“

Diaz jokes that he's on his way out to buy a fur coat, but he's already looking toward the future.

”I was always encouraged and motivated by other artists' breaking down trails for us. The best thing about these awards is that you encourage someone you don't even know and may never meet. I keep thinking all this will go away, and no one will remember any of it, but maybe some young immigrant girl somewhere will pick up a book someday and say, "I can do this.'“

  Comments  

Videos

Ada Limón reads from her new book, ‘The Carrying’

Lexington’s Ada Limón reads from her new book ‘The Carrying’

View More Video

Trending Stories

Pazzo’s, Magee’s Bakery, Texas de Brazil, Sonic, Qdoba and more on probation

February 15, 2019 06:45 AM

Kentucky Senate approves NRA gun bill on anniversary of Parkland school shooting

February 14, 2019 11:59 AM

Updated list of restaurants on probation as of February: Read before you eat

February 15, 2019 07:00 AM

‘She has to come home.’ Here’s how you can help find missing Kentucky mom

February 15, 2019 03:03 PM

Paradise no more. TVA votes to close iconic coal-burning power plant in Kentucky.

February 14, 2019 11:09 AM

Read Next

Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman keep fans laughing at Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.
Video media Created with Sketch.

Tom Eblen

Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman keep fans laughing at Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

By Tom Eblen

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 14, 2019 03:16 PM

Ed McClanahan and Gurney Norman joined the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame along with four deceased writers: Sue Grafton, Jane Gentry Vance, Helen Thomas and Alice Allison Dunnigan.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Lexington Herald-Leader

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE BOOKS

Books

This week’s best-sellers from Publishers Weekly

February 14, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

This week’s best-sellers from Publishers Weekly

February 14, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

Mystery writer Laura Benedict worries there’s a stranger in her house

February 13, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

Paperback Picks: books by Chloe Benjamin, Zadie Smith and more

February 13, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

For Valentine’s Day, a roundup of books about love – in all its forms

February 13, 2019 03:00 AM

Books

Review: ‘Winter Loon,’ by Susan Bernhard

February 13, 2019 03:00 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Lexington Herald Leader App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Local Deals
  • Digital Solutions
  • Media Kit
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story