Adult selection

Discussion Questions

Links to Discussion Questions:
http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number=2043

More thoughts for discussion:

1. What do you remember from your own high school English courses? What is the theme of the book? What reason do you think the author had for writing this book?
2. Why do you think this book was chosen for the Pulitzer? What element(s) of the writing sets it apart from other selections?
3. Did the use of Spanish intermittently in the text enhance the reading experience for you? If you are knowledgeable in Spanish, did you find it enjoyable; if not, were you able to piece together what was going on?
4. There are many references to The Lord of the Rings (ringwraiths), Dungeons & Dragons (hit points) and comic books (Watchmen). Did you understand these references? What kind of books did you enjoy as a teenager? Was there a family member, friend, or librarian that you remember putting the perfect book for you in your hands? What book was it?
5. Which story within this story did you like best? We hear the stories of Beli, Lola, Yunior, and Oscar at various times. Was there one story that connected the rest for you?
6. The identity of the narrator is unknown until a good way into the story. Were you surprised at who the narrator was? Did his point of view, and his understanding of events for which he wasn't present, work for you? Is he a reliable narrator?
7. Why did Yunior feel he had to write this book in tribute to Oscar's life? (On page 329 Yunior compares himself to the Watcher; the quote from the Fantastic Four at the start of the book gives some insight into his mindset. This Wikipedia articles gives some background information on what a Watcher is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watcher_(comics).)
8. Did you like Oscar? Could you empathize with him? How about the other members of his family and his few friends?
9. The book opens with a quote from the Fantastic Four and a poem by Derek Walcott. Part two opens with an excerpt from La Nacion. How do these unrelated works relate to the narrative? Why did the author choose these three works by other authors to include in his work in this way?
10. Did the footnotes describing the history of the Dominican Republic help you to understand the world the characters lived in? Would you have missed them if they weren't included?
11. Is Oscar's family really cursed? Instead, are we destined to repeat the mistakes of our parents?
12. How did the story of Beli and Oscar parallel each other? Could either of them have escaped their fate?
13. Fuku is a part of the Dominican way of life. It began with the arrival of the Europeans and continues through the reign of Trujillo. Do you think that believing you are cursed affects how you live your life?
14. "Zafa" is the word, the counterspell, to keep you and yours safe from the fuku. The narrator wonders "if this book ain't a zafa of sorts. My own counterspell." Why did he write this story? How is this a counterspell for him?
15. Did you recognize any of the New Jersey settings in the book? Do you like reading books set in places you have been?
16. Beli contributes all of her fuku to the "Decision That Changed Everything," the moment she goes out with her friend to dance. And what she got was this, she said, "opening her arms to encompass the hospital, her children, her cancer, America." How did that one decision affect the rest of her life? Could she have escaped her choice? Was everything in her life so awful after that moment?
17. We see Beli as a young woman and as a mother. Is she a good mother? Is she a good provider? Are Oscar and Lola good kids?
18. Is the culture of the Dominicans we see transplanted to Paterson different than the culture you grew up in? How?
19. Why does La Inca constantly remind Beli that she is of the Family Cabral, the daughter of a doctor and a nurse? How does the success or failure of our parents affect their children?
20. We knew Oscar was going to die because of the title of the book, and the foreshadowing in the text; did you think he would die the way he did? Or did you think it would be by his own hand?
21. Oscar Wao is the way schoolmates pronounce Oscar Wilde, a figure they think Oscar resembled in his Doctor Who Halloween costume. Do our Oscar and Oscar Wilde have any similarities? Why compare the two?
22. Do Lola and Oscar have a good relationship? Could she have saved him? How?
23. The concepts "men with no faces" and "books with blank pages" appear a number of times in the narrative. Why are they there? What do they symbolize?
24. Why is Oscar so obsessed with women with whom he cannot hope to have a successful and meaningful relationship? Does learning that he had one wonderful weekend with a woman he loved make any difference as to how his life ended?