Disguised at first as a casual romp through the life of a young nerd named Oscar, Diaz unveils the literary equivalent of chaos theory. Immediately, we fall in love with Oscar, and we see how the world around him complicates his life in full Murphy's Law fashion, from his troubled sister to his tortured mother, to his inability to meet society's expectations of masculinity. Somehow, Diaz has beautifully created a pageturner somewhere between joy and longing.
Rendering with warmth the endless human capacity to persevere, this is the long-awaited--and thrillingly satisfying--first novel from the unmistakable voice behind the short story collection "Drown."