#1: What is love? Love is honestly indescribable is just such a powerful sensation we all get yet is different for all of us. It’s a feeling we get from someone who we find so beautiful in our own way, from someone who loves us so much and who we also love just as much.  Junot Diaz wrote a story titled “Otravida, Otraves” and no it is not a Spanish story haha. In this story Yasmin is a manager on a housecleaning business involved with hospitals and she’s deeply in love with Hector. Hector loves her too but he has a wife and a son who he left back in Dominican Republic. This always bothered Yasmin especially the letters he continuously received from his wife. She would always write to him telling him how much she loves him, misses him and to comeback. Yasmin would always get saddened by this and would talk to her best friend Ana Iris about it. Each time they talked while Yasmin is talking about Hector, his wife and her problems Ana Iris would talk about her kids and how much she misses them for she too left them in Dominican Republic. This story is really deep and sad.

The first part of Otravida, Otraves by  Junot Diaz might leave the reader feeling sad and eager for Yasmin. You feel bad for what she’s going through but you also want to know was going to happen next in her situation. Is it going to get better or worse? Those were the type of thoughts that were going through my mind. An example of this is on page 69 when she says “I can see myself watching him shave every morning. And at other times I see us in that house and see how one bright day (or a day like this, so cold your mind shifts every time the wind does) he will wake up and decide it’s all wrong. He will wash his face and then turn to me. I’m sorry, he’ll say. I have to leave now”. This is so crazy to me, I don’t know how you can be in love with someone who not only makes you think about a happy future you two can have together but also of a sad ending. An ending that he can just wake up and leave you because he has someone he can go to who would love him just as much as she does.

This story really made me think not only about a lot of my friend but of my peers. Most people my age already have a stepdad/stepmom and I would just wonder if maybe their parents went through this. I begin to wonder if maybe they themselves never saw their other parent as much as they saw the parent they lived with and maybe felt abandoned by the second parent who was hardly around. Even my peers go through drama like this when they get involve with a guy or girl who has a baby and always get jealous towards the mom or dad of the baby. They tend to call it “baby mama drama”.

After this part of the book, most readers probably will be looking forward to reading the rest of the book because they will be eager to see if Hector and Yasmin are meant to be. They will be eager to see if their love is strong enough to overcome all the obstacles they face. What is Yasmin going to do? Will her best friend leave back to Dominican Republic because she can’t take the pain anymore of missing her kids? Maybe she will, I think so. Or maybe she gains more strength and stays in the United States to continue to work hard and provide money for her kids.

#2 : I’ve never really taken relationships seriously; I always have a girlfriend just so I can have her as my number 1 girl and then I’ll be cheating and doing me behind her back. Recently I’ve been reading a story titled “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”.  It’s a crazy story about a man whose heart is broken and lonely because his fiancée left him. But hey, don’t feel sad for him. It’s entirely his fault; I mean he cheated on her not with one or two girls but with fifty different girls. I mean dam fifty different women? That’s just over the top. He did all that through a 6 year period and I don’t blame his fiancée for leaving him. That’s just something you can’t forgive. Of course after he got caught he changed his ways and became boyfriend of the year, taking her out to different countries, writing her letters, buying her everything, etc. But nothing he does can replace what he did, his fiancée had her mind made up, is over.

Page 5 of The Cheater’s Guide to Love by Junot Diaz might actually make you feel bad for him. Even though he betrayed her, the pain he’s feeling now that he lost her is to the extreme. He can’t function without her and she’s all he thinks about. Everyday something always happens or something he sees will remind him of her and he starts to cry. You begin to wonder if he's going to commit suicide because that’s how downhill his going. An example of this is on the third paragraph on page 5 where he says “During the finals a depression rolls over you, so profound you doubt there is a name for it. It feels like you’re being slowly pincered apart, atom by atom”. This is very sad, I feel so bad for him. I can relate so much to what he's going through too. I got flashbacks of when I went through.  

One of the themes in this book is you never know what you got until you lose it. I mean the whole time his fiancée was the best girl he ever had, she loved him so much and so did he. But he wasn’t loyal; he wasn’t doing his job as a man. Once he got caught he lost what he loved the most, he lost what he wanted the most. He lost an amazing girl and now he’s dealing with a pain he can’t handle and its entire fault. So always honor and cherish what you have. When you read this story I hope you get to noticed and learn the lesson I did.

After this part of the book most readers probably will be looking forward to reading the rest of this book because it’s interesting what the character is going through with his life while dealing with this pain. The actions the character takes, the stuff that goes through his head all while dealing with this pain makes you eager to see what is he going to do next.



#3: We all either have a friend who gets all the girls or know a guy like that. A guy who can get any girl without effort. A guy who loves being around women and talking about women. A guy who has a lot of girlfriends and talks to every girl he sees. I recently started reading a book titled “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz. It’s about a young Dominican boy named Oscar who when young (back when he was 7 years old) had good luck with the ladies. He use to get them all, even had 2 girlfriends at the same time. In family parties he would be the only young guy dancing with the girls. You know how it was when 2 young kids dance with each other in adult way, hip against hip, grinding haha. I remember when I use to do that how all the men in my family would cheer me on. Oscar was no different he use to love it. Even though Oscar was a ladies man his downfall came when he got attached to one girl.. Maritza. Maritza dumped Oscar and oh boy did it hurt him. He started gaining weight, getting fat and ugly. His evolution to becoming a nerd has just begun.

The beginning of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz might leave a reader feeling entertained because it’s so funny and realistic. The reader might start to think that when Oscar grows up his going to be getting all the girls. “His going to be such a player” I said to myself when I finished reading the second page. An example if this is on page 2 “The girls--his sister Lola’s friends, his mother’s friends, even their neighbor, Mari Colon, a thirty- something postal employee who wore red on her lips and walked like she had a bell for an ass--all purportedly fell for him”. This is crazy because Oscar is just 7 years old getting any girls he desires. When I was 7 all I was thinking about was Video Games, not girls. Oscar was really the true definition of a ladies man.

A reader’s question might start on page 16 where it says: “It seemed to Oscar that from the moment Maritza dumped him--Shazam!--his life started going down the tubes”. This is important because you would have never thought that Oscar would get his heartbroken, I mean this guy was getting all the girls. You would never look at him as the type of guy to get attached or fall in love. I mean he was just 7 years old did he really like Maritza that much? I was so disappointed in him. The author seems to be making the point that even though Oscar was a ladies man, he was still young minded and full of emotion. He got attached to Maritza for her looks and not her personality. That was his big downfall.

After this part of the book most readers probably will be looking forward to reading the rest of this book because they will be eager to see how Oscar will be as he gets older. Did the heartbreak really affect him on the long run or was it just puppy love? Will Oscar still be a ladies man or did he lose his swag? Who knows, what I think is going to happen next is Oscar might just get a new girlfriend.. He might just get attached to a new girl.


#4: As I continue reading “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, my emotions go in a roller coaster ride. I’m disappointed in Oscar for losing his swag with the ladies, but I’m happy because he now found a new love. Reading and writing, oh yes people a ladies man just transformed into the biggest nerd. Who would have thought? I personally never seen a transformation like this in person but hey is possible. After Maritza dumped Oscar back when he was 7, it really hurted him. He cried, he gained a whole lot of weight, he lost his pride, his cool, he lost everything! Oscar is in high school now and boy is he fat. Girls don’t even want to be around him and when they are they just laugh at him. All Oscar does now is read books especially comic books he loves them. If there is something out that has to do with the world ending or an apocalypse he will get it. Even if it’s a movie he will watch it, he seen them all. Oscar was spending so much time reading books and watching movies his mom was getting angry. She would kick him out the house just so he can actually go outside for once and live life instead of wasting every minute reading a new comic book or watching a new alien movie. This really bothered his mom and boy do I understand how she feels, I feel the same way and I’m just the reader.

Pages 20-22 of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz might leave a reader feeling sad for Oscar. Oscar is really a full-time nerd and a proud one too. An example of this is on page 21: (Oscar) “Could write in Elvish, could speak Chakobsa, could differentiate between a Slan, a Dorsai, and a Lensman in acute detail, knew more about the Marvel Universe than Stan Lee, and a was role-playing fanatic.”. This is just so disappointing, does he really expect to be a ladies man again by wasting time on the Marvel Universe? I mean Oscar what the heck is wrong with you, you were once such a cool character. I guess I have to settle for Oscar the nerd now and move on from the old Oscar. Maybe being a nerd isn’t so bad after all, honestly speaking Oscar is having a lot of fun. Plus the fact he never has to worry about getting his heart broke again.

Something interesting happens on page 29 where it says: “Right there he had an epiphany that echoed through his fat self. He realized his fucked-up comic-book-reading, role-playing-game-loving, no-sports-playing friends were embarrassed by him”. This is an important point in the plot because it got Oscar really angry. It got him so angry it motivated him to become something. I mean noticing your friends are embarrassed to take you out will really hurt you and make you take action. Oscar started writing, I mean like he started writing a lot. His mom had sent him and his sister to Dominican Republic for vacation and so they can spent time with their Grandmother. He wrote two books during that period, and boy was he proud. Oscar was happy of his writing skills, he found a new happiness and got his pride back thanks to it.

After this part of the book, most readers probably will be looking forward to reading the rest of the book because they will be interested in the outcome of Oscar’s writings. Will it get him somewhere? Will one of his books be published and loved by the public? Or is this just another waste of time? Only way to find out is to keep reading. What’s probably going to happen next is Oscar might just write a book that will take him on a journey and maybe on that journey he will find a girl, well at-least I hope so.