book redesign

+Jonathan Heter+Typographic Systems +Spring 2013 +Book Cover Process +Herstowski

Half-Price Books has a pretty common bookstore layout. Around the outer walls, nooks seperate the genres, while free standing shelves make up most of the floor space. Like most bookstores, it was relatively quiet, with only soft music playing through the house speakers–making for a relaxing environment.

Soft light throughout the store increases visibility while simultaneously mak-ing the customer feel more comfortable.

Walking around the book-store, I noticed relatively quickly what it is that draws me towards a particular book. Assuming I’m not looking for a specific title, but rather just browsing, a well designed spine is the first thing to stand out to me. When scanning a shelf full of books, a bland spine can get lost among all the titles, while an eye-catch-ing, easily readable one grabs my attention.

+Visit a Bookstore

“KU Union, Hastings, ... spend sometime looking around. What do you see? What captures your atten-tion. How are books dis-played. What made you walk up to a section. What made you pick up a book?”+

Photo Dominate: Well de-signed book covers that suc-cessfully utilize photography as the primary aesthetic.

+1 Designed by Stefan Sagmeister, the cover of this autobiography is both a call-back to Sagmeister’s famous AIGA poster in which he had an assistant carve the event’s details on his chest, and the Lou Reed album he designed where he wrote lyrics on top of a photo of Lou’s face.

Execution: Photograph presumably photoshopped? / Character (obviously) / Contemporary design.

The self-mutilation could be viewed as the artist suffer-ing for his work. Lou Reed has always been known for being a raw, transparent musician, and the carving seems to reflect this.

+2 Designed by Henry Sene Yee, the simplicity of this cover is what makes it so effective. The photo appears to have been taken after a storm (metaphor?) and the nearly deserted parking lot against the sky creates a haunting effect, even when seen before the title.

Execution: Photograph / Setting / Contemporary, haunting, minimal design.

Somewhat interestingly, the authors name is nowhere to be found on the cover, pre-sumably to keep the focus on the tragedy.

+3 Although the content of this cover isn’t particularly in-teresting, I do appreciate the continuity Klosterman has established throughout all of his books, mainly through the use of all-caps Helvetica. However, the semi-out of focus, full page photograph, with large bodies of type is definitely a trend of late as a quick scroll through the book cover archive will show.

Execution: Photograph / Characters, Settings / Con-temporary design.

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+4 Obviously I’m drawn to the full page photograph technique, but I find this one engaging not necessarily for the photo itself, but rather for the way the designer il-lustrates a mythological story with a contemporary photo-graph. Smart.

Execution: Photograph / Characters, Settings / I suppose you would still call this design contemporary? / Again, the basic technique is merely a bold title and author atop a full page photograph.

The photo shows soldiers heading into battle (Normandy?) which quickly tells the reader that there is a large battle taking place.within the pages.

+6 The items in this photo create an intrigue, while the the blurred circles are remi-niscent of sound waves. If I hadn’t read a review of this book, I would have guessed it was some kind of horror novel, but it is evident-ly more of a thriller/noir story. Nonetheless, the cover drew me in, and made me want to know more about the items and the man.

Execution: Photograph and photoshop / Characters, Set-tings / Contemporary design

+5 Just found this to be a cute solution for the subject of love. Finding unique ways to express the content of the book is the ultimate goal, and sometimes the solution is as simple as this; getting there is the issue.

Execution: Photograph / metaphor / Contemporary

The cover manages to convey that the book is light hearted, and perhaps even humorous solely by the photograph.

+Well Designed Book Covers

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+1 Designed by Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant), his rendition of Orwell’s classic recalls Soviet Constuctiv-ism. Fitting, as the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Execution: Illustration, Com-puter Graphics / metaphor, characters, setting / Con-structivist design. (vintage)

Immediately, the color pallet reminds the reader of Early 20th century Russia and Communism. Construc-tivism was all about the working class (animals in this case) and Fairey also manages to capture this with the farm landscape.

+2 Recalling important imagery from the book/film, the designer focuses on the eye and the large, fake eyelashes while simultane-ously referencing a pivotal scene in which the pro-tagonist’s eyes are forced open with a device. Execution: Illustration, simple line work, presum-ably hand drawn / charac-ter / vintage

I think it helps to know the story to understand this particular cover, however, it is still intriguing enough for someone unfamiliar with the work to pick it up.

+3 This cover is very on the nose/literal, which is effec-tive when done properly. The title of the book is Sex, Lies, Murder, Fame. and the designer has simply made icons for each.

Execution: Illustration, vec-tor / character & object / could be considered both traditional and modern.

I didn’t do any research on this one, but it’s pretty easy to guess what it’s about. As far as the feeling it con-jures, I’m getting a noir vibe. The minimal, clean design makes sense for this title as the 4 icons are all popular

Illustration Dominate: Well de-signed book covers that suc-cessfully utilize hand-drawn, or vector art. No photography.


+4 Designed by Peter Mendelsund–who has a myriad of cool book designs under his belt–multicolored dots arranged to form a skull make up this cover, .Part of this book is about the author daydreaming of killing his wife by shoving peanuts down her throat (she’s deathly allergic) and I’m guessing that was the main point of inspiration for the cover

Execution: Computer Illus-tration, vector, / death is the main focus, but the skull is an object / very contempo-rary design /

+6 The fact that there is no title on this cover makes it all the more intriguing to me. An ape made up of shapes resembling a circuit board immediately makes me think, “science fiction.” (which is the case)

Execution: Illustration, com-puter / character / contemporary design

A science fiction book, titled “Evolution,” with a stylized ape taking up the entire cover, kind of makes me think of a relatively popular film franchise, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing..

+5 Surprisingly not designed by Ralph Steadman, the crude characters playing on and around the title are definitely inspired by his work and reflect Hunter’s “gonzo” style of journalism nicely.

Execution: Illustration, hand drawn, crude / The book is a collection of short stories so I assume we are seeing characters and objects on the cover / feels quite retro

To someone unfamiliar with Thompson, I think the crude, vandalistic cover gives a pretty good impression on the type of work that will be

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+2 Not completely type dominant, however, I like how the text is interacting with the woman’s hair. The type is almost tied up by the hair, which would make sense for this novel.

Execution: Type / Photogra-phy, Photoshop / Character / Contemporary design

Again, something about the hair makes this cover kind of creepy. The way the hair lays down and interacts with the type makes it seem like a woman on the floor, and readers familiar with the Mil-lenium series would likely be able to draw assumptions

+1 Simple, yet effective. The motion blur gives the viewer a sense of vertigo.

Execution: Type / Photoshop / Contemporary design

Being a Stephen King book, one can assume that it falls under the genre of ‘horror’, or at least ‘thriller,’ and the type conveying the drastic sense of movement makes the viewer/reader feel uneasy, presumably like the books contents.

+3 The cover of Daniel Eatocks book about entrepre-neurial authorship shows a large thumbprint made up of hand drawn sentences about his design process. Interest-ing side note: the author put his actual thumb print on the spine of the first run.

Execution: Type, hand drawn / contemporary design

Another intriguing cover, it provoked me into researching the book, which in turn got me interested in it. So I guess that would make it successful.

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Type Dominate: Well de-signed book covers that suc-cessfully utilize typography as the primary focus.


+4 Part of an entire series of McCarthy’s work, David Pearson’s letterpressed cov-ers feel old school and raw, much like McCarthy’s work.

Execution: Type, letterpress, photography / contemporary / traditional design

The multiple different character sizes demand the viewer pays attention to the cover. Not sure how I feel about the quote at the bot-tom, but otherwise really like this idea.

+5 The iconic Penguin cover–about as simple as it gets. The orange bars and penguin logo are immediate-ly recognizable and familiar-ity is often a good thing to the consumer.

Execution: Type / classical, traditional design

Something about this design just feels cool to me, and it seems to me, that if a book carries this design, it is often worth reading.

+6 I dig the way the designer makes the text an extension of the cityscape. Taken from the Urban Dictionary, the Edi-fice Complex can be defined as, “a keen desire of a public or educational administra-tor to construct a building or buildings (a pun on the Oedipus complex)”

Execution: Type / Photoshop, photography / contemporary

The horizontal type, in per-spective feels like it is a part of the photograph, rather than just slapped on top.

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+Redesigning a Bookjacket

The book chronicles both the life of Oscar de Leon, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey who is ob-sessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations.

Most of the story is told by an apparently omniscient narrator who is eventually revealed to be Yunior de Las Casas, a college room-mate of Oscar’s who dated Lola. Yunior also appears in many of Diaz’s short stories and is often seen as an alter ego of the author.

The middle sections of the novel center on the lives of Oscar’s runaway sister, Lola; his mother, Hypatia Belicia Cabral; and his grandfather, Abelard. Rife with footnotes, science fiction and fantasy refer-ences, comic book analo-gies, and various Spanish dialects, the novel is alsoa meditation on story-tell-ing, the Dominican diaspo-ra and identity, masculinity, and oppression.WW

+Summary

Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT.

His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulit-zer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an

NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Year.

Junot Díaz has had his fic-tion published in The New Yorker and The Paris Re-view, and four times in The Best American Short Sto-ries. His critically praised, bestselling debut book, Drown, led to his inclusion among Newsweek’s “New Faces of 1996”—the only writer in the group. The New Yorker placed him on a list of the twenty top writers for the

twenty-first century. Díaz has won the Eugene McDermott Award, the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, a Guggenheim Fel-lowship, a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow-ship, a U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship from the NEA, and most recently the Rome Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

+Author Information

“Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Carib-bean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

“Funny, street-smart and keenly observed...An extraor-dinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose...A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Won-drous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev Grossman, Time

+Acclaim

Oscar de Leon (“Oscar Wao”)- an overweight, nerdy Dominican who can’t get a girl and is continually depressed due to being such an outcast. He turns his attentions to writing, writing and reading as much as pos-sible. He finally falls in love with Ybon, but her boyfriend and his cronies beat Oscar to death.

The title character and pro-tagonist. He is a fat ghetto nerd and an outcast every-where he goes. He spends the majority of the novel look-ing for a woman who will love him back. He is considered un-Dominican due to his lack of masculinity/

+Main Characters

Members of the de Leon family see a man without a face associated with mo-ments of crisis, suggesting that the faceless man may also represent fukú. As Beli flees homeward after her weekend with the Gangster, she sees “that a man sitting in a rocking chair in front of one of the hovels had no face”. This sighting occurs just before she discovers that she is pregnant and her relationship with the Gang-ster and her safety in the Dominican Republic begin to crumble. She again sees a faceless man in the park as she is being taken by El-vises One and Two, this time in the form of a cop.

The dictator, Trujillo, known for his sexual desire for young girls, whose fami-lies cannot protect them, learns that Abelard’s oldest daughter, Jaquelyn, has become a beautiful young teenager. As a father Abelard does not want to give his daughter to Trujillo, as so many other fathers had been forced to do, and does not bring her to the event it had been demand-ed she come to. Some four weeks later Abelard is ar-rested for supposedly mak-ing a joke that there were no bodies in the trunk of his car. As Trujillo’s henchmen disposed of opponents this way he was accused of slandering the dictator.

Although a work of fiction, the novel is set in New Jer-sey where Díaz was raised and deals explicitly with his ancestral homeland’s experience under dictator Rafael Trujillo

Diaz frequently involves fantastical elements in the

reign and his power. Trujillo and the events surrounding his dictatorship are then often aligned with fiction. Trujillo is described as being “a personaje so outlandish, so perverse, so dreadful that not even a sci-fi writer could have made his ass up.

+Setting

The novel takes place in both the ghetto’s of New Jersey as well as the hot, tropical environment of the Dominican Re-public. The sugar cane fields of Santo Domingo are also an important environment in the book.

book. He has said that “No one can write a straight forward political novel about the Trujillato and capture its phantasmagorical power.” The fantastical elements of the book can serve to provide a fictional lens that readers can use to grasp the surreal quality of Trujillo’s

Comic Books

The novel opens with the epigraph: “Of what import are brief, nameless lives…to Galactus?” Diaz has said that this question can be read as being directed at the reader, “because in some ways, de-pending on how you answer that question, it really decides whether you’re Galactus or not.” In the Fantastic Four comic book however, Ga-lactus is asking the question of Uatu the Watcher, whose role is played out in Diaz’s novel by the narrator Yunior, indicating to Diaz that the question is both a “question to the reader but also a ques-tion to writers in general.”

Early in the novel, Diaz aligns Oscar with comic book superheroes: “You want to know what being an X-man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a con-temporary U.S. ghetto...Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest.” Diaz hints at possible latent abilities or qualities Oscar may possess that will reveal themselves or develop later in the novel.

Fantasy/Science-fiction

Diaz frequently uses refer-ences to works of science-fiction and fantasy. These references serve both to illuminate the world that Oscar lives in and create a parallel between the super-natural events in fantasy lit-erature and the history of the Dominican Republic. In the opening pages of the novel, the narrator quotes Oscar as having said “What more sci-fi than Santo Domingo? What more fantasy than the Antil-les?” One of Diaz’s frequent references to J.R.R. Tolkien comes when he describes Trujillo: “Homeboy domi-nated Santo Domingo like it was his very own private Mordor.” In another section, Felix Wenceslao Bernardino, an agent of Trujillo is meta-phorically described as the Witchking of Angmar.

The Mongoose

Mongooses appear through-out The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as guardians of the family. The mongoose is known for its sociability and cunning. Like the de Leon family, the mongoose is an immigrant, an invasive, non-native species. The mongoose was transplanted westward to the Dominican Republic, just as Oscar’s family was forced out of the Dominican Republic. Diaz has stated the impor-tance of the mongoose as being alien, creating an otherworldly quality to its assistance. Furthermore, in a footnote, the mongoose is described as “an enemy of kingly charriots, chains, and hierarchies. an ally of Man”, suggesting the mongoose’s importance in helping the de Leon family not just for their misfortune but also as a means of undermining Trujillo’s oppression.

Fuku and Zafa

Yunior, throughout the novel, draws the events of the story back to the themes of fukú (a curse) and zafa (its coun-terspell). Yunior ascribes Oscar’s tragic family history as the result of fukú. Some say the fukú was “carried in the screams of the en-slaved[23] ” meant to doom the New World. Yunior traces the power of fukú through Oscar’s family, beginning with the Trujillo-dominated Abelard and ending with, Yunior hopes, Oscar’s death. The fukú represents the burdens every family car-ries, particularly immigrant families, with which The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao deals explicitly. Zafa, on the other hand, is the coun-terspell. Yunior hopes that telling Oscar’s story will act as zafa to the de León fam-ily’s fukú. For the characters in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, there are two sides to every story, and so whether one’s experience is fukú or zafa is based entirely on perspective.

+Important Objects

CHARACTER MOOD BOARD: Rafael Trujillo / Man Without a Face

+1 In order to capture the fear Rafael Trujillo instilled into the Dominican culture at large, the design should reflect artistic movements that derived from dicta-torships of the past, like constructivism, while the imagery should symbolize Trujillo’s brutal tyranny.

SETTING MOOD BOARD: 1940-60 Dominican Republic / Canefields

+2 In order to visualize the environments depicted throughout Junot Diaz’s novel, the design needs to provide intrigue to readers unfamiliar with the work, and simultaneously make sense to those who know the book, while the imagery should con-vey the locale, without being too direct or predictable.

OBJECT MOOD BOARD: Religious / Mystical Iconography

+3 In order to relate to the reader the importance of magik realism throughout the book, the design should reflect the curses, (fuku’s and zafa’s) as well as the supernatural occurrences, while the imagery should be rooted in the mysticism of the Caribbean, (i.e. hoodoo, rituals, etc.)

+Moodboards & Blurbs

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THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (AKZIDENZ)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Garamond)

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (FUTURA)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Gothamlite)*

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (GOTHAMBOLD)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Goudy)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Interstate)

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (HELVETICA)*

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (TRADE GOTHIC)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Mrs. Eaves)

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (META)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Clarendon)*

+Type Studies

+Visual Library

THE BRIEF WONDROUSLIFE OF OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO


A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZ

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

Junot Diaz

the brief wondrous lifeof oscar wao

a novel by junot diaz

THE

BR

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JUNOT DIAZ

+60 Sketches

CHARACTER (cover only 6 x 9 inches): 20 sketches by hand or on the computer (try image, typography, no computer, I want to see a full range of ideas, not the same idea over and over)

OBJECT (cover only 6 x 9 inches): 20 sketches by hand or on the computer (try image, typography, no computer, I want to see a full range of ideas, not the same idea over and over)

PLACE (cover only 6 x 9 inches): 20 sketches by hand or on the computer (try image, typography, no computer, I want to see a full range of ideas, not the same idea over and over)

THE BRIEFWONDROUSLIFE OFOSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZTHE BRIEF

WONDROUS

LIFE OF

OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ The BriefWondrous Life Of OscarWWao

Junot Diaz

junot diaz

"[Junot Diaz has] written a book that decisively

establishes him as one of contemporary fiction's

most distinctive and irresistable new voices."

-Michiki Kakutani, The New York Times

Junot Diaz

THE BRIEF WONDROUS

LIFE OF OSCAR

WAO

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFEOF OSCAR WAO BY JUNOT DIAZ

THE BRIEF WONDROUS

LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ




A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZTHEBRIEF WONDROUS LIFEOF OSCARWAO

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THE BRIEF

WO

ND

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SLIFE O

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+Bookjacket Sketches and Refinements

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Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit afugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuri mediocadipiscing, epicuri mediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit afugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuri mediocmediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi.

Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consetetur eu quo, vim an

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuadipiscing, epicuri mediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluissmaluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi.

Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consconsetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuri mediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, emel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi.

Ut eum suas scUt eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu.

In pIn pri corrumpit aliquando, at mea clita sensibus facilisis. Id sit epicuri maluisset inciderint, saperet eleifend necessitatibus ea vim. Mollis ponderum expetendis nec ex, vivendo complectitur in nec. Definitiones necessitatibus qui no. Putent salutandi constituto nam ut. Vis graece noluisse pericula eu, ad vim possit reprehendunt.

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

WWith dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

A true liA true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.

“Genius...A story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That Díaz’s novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator’s] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth’s Zuckerman—in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and trultruly, that is the just word for it) work of modern fiction—all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.” —Oscar Villalon, San Francisco Chronicle

“Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev Grossman, Time

““Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating toto reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

“Funny, street-smart and keenly observed...An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose...A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.” —Michiko KaKakutani, The New York Times


HisHis first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 202007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Year.

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Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured prprofessor at MIT.

His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile LibLibrary Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, moTolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.



Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuri mediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, edissentiunt mel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuri mediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similisimilique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi.

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Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consconsetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu.

In pri corrumpit aliquando, at mea clita sensibus facilisis. Id sit epicuri maluisset inciderint, saperet eleifend necessitatibus ea vim. Mollis ponderum expetendis nec ex, vivendo complectitur in nec. Definitiones necessitatibus qui no. PuPutent salutandi constituto nam ut.



Ut eum suas scripta diUt eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu.

In pri In pri corrumpit aliquando, at mea clita sensibus facilisis. Id sit epicuri maluisset inciderint, saperet eleifend necessitatibus ea vim. Mollis ponderum expetendis nec ex, vivendo complectitur in nec. Definitiones necessitatibus qui no. Putent salutandi constituto nam ut. Vis graece noluisse pericula eu, ad vim possit reprehendunt.

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Of what import are brief, nameless lives… to Galactus?

JUNOT DIAZ



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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

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Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIis a tenured professor at MIT.

His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library CenterMercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Year.

“Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev Grossman, sagas.” —Lev Grossman, Time

“Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean historhistory. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscaand ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.


Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. TolkienTolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred rromance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s WashingtonWashington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experienceexperience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.



HisHis first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First NovelNovel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Book of the Year.

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“Funny, street-smart and keenly observed...An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose...A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev G—Lev Grossman, Time

“Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

“Genius...A“Genius...A story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That Díaz’s novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator’s] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth’s Zuckerman—in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is the just word for it) work of modern fiction—all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.” —Oscar —Oscar Villalon, San Francisco Chronicle

ABOUT JUNOT DÍAZ

Junot DiazBorn in Santo Domingo, the Junot DiazBorn in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT.

His first novel, His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Year.

Junot Díaz has had his fiction published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, and four times in The Best American Short Stories. His critically praised, bestselling debut book, Drown, led to his inclusion among Newsweek’s “New Faces of 1996”—the only writer in the gthe group. The New Yorker placed him on a list of the twenty top writers for the twenty-first century. Díaz has won the Eugene McDermott Award, the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, a U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship from the NEA, and most recently the Rome Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

“Genius...A story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That Díaz’s novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator’s] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth’s Zuckerman—in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is the just word for it) work of modern fiction—all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.” —Oscar Villalon, San Francisco Chronicle

“Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev GrGrossman, Time

“Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to bit as exhilarating to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

“Funny, street-smart and keenly observed...An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose...A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voicesvoices.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

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“Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev Gsagas.” —Lev Grossman, Time

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevecapacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.



HisHis first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First NovelNovel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Book of the Year.

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With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love. persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.


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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim.only its most recent victim.

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Chapter One

The Golden Age

Our hero was not one of those Domini-can cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

GhettoNerd at the End of the World

1974-87GhettoNerd at the End of the World

1974

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The Golden Age

Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

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Chapter OneThe Golden Age


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The Golden Age


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The Golden Age

Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s al-ways going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly ba-chatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then. JUNOT DIAZ


The Golden Age


/GhettoNerd at the End of the World

GhettoNerd at the End of theWorld

The Golden Age


/1974-87


Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock.

GhettoNerd at the End of theWorld


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/1974-87 THE GOLDEN AGE



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/1974-87

THE GOLDEN AGE

GHETTONERD AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s al-ways going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

The Golden Age


1974-87GHETTONERD AT THE END OF THE WORLD

THE GOLDEN AGE: 1974-87Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

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+Final Designs+

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A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZ

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dstill dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevehuman capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

Junot Diaz was Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey. Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT.

His first novel, The Brief His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Book of the Year.

“Genius...A story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That Díaz’s novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator’s] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth’s Zuckerman, in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and trulkick-ass (and truly, that is the just word for it) work of modern fiction, all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.” —Oscar Villalon, San Francisco ChFrancisco Chronicle

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+Final Bookjacket #1.For this cover, I attempted to recall Constructivist poster art, to reflect the Dominican Dictator, Rafael Trujillo and his brutal regime.

+Final Bookjacket #2.The main character, Oscar is obsessed with all things nerdy, so for my “handmade” cover, I cut the title out of a comic strip.

+Final Bookjacket #3.One of the first designs I had, this cover focuses on the canefield–an extremely important place throughout the novel where many char-acters unwillingly end up.

the brief wondrous life of oscar wao

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Junot Diaz was orn in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT.

His firHis first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John SaSargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, momost of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. OscaOscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

GHETTONERD AT THE END OF THE WORLD

THE GOLDEN AGE: 1974–87


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/1974-87 THE GOLDEN AGE



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JUNOT DIAZ


The Golden Age: 1974–1987


/GhettoNerd at the End of the World

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+SummaryThe bookjacket redesign helped me to learn that the best solution is often hidden. Pushing yourself, and experi-menting with mediums that you may not be accustomed to–or comfortable with–can often create the best results. Therefore, it’s important to not get too complacent in any one way of problem solving.

book redesign

Documents

photograph characters

book cover archive

page photograph technique

contemporary design

design contemporary

contemporary photograph

cover isnt

particular book