Read it or Weep

On Sunday, I went to the Cleveland Public Library’s Writers and Readers Series to hear Junot Diaz, author of the Pulitzer prize winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Diaz was funny, engaging and thoughtful and if you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it. One thread of his discussion was about the role of post-memory in our lives and in his novel. Post-memory, according to Diaz, is how the memories of our parents and grandparents shape and transform our lives, though they are not our direct memories. In Oscar Wao’s case, his mother’s abuse at the hands of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo resonates throughout her childrens’ lives.

One of the things I look for when choosing books to read are diverse settings and characters. It may sound simplistic, but reading books like this one help me to think outside my own experiences. Diaz singled out the National Book Critics Circle Award as nominating books that are representative of the diversity of American culture. Among books nominated in fiction this year are Diaz’s novel, Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games, Hisham Matar’s In the Country of Men, Joyce Carol Oates’ The Gravedigger’s Daughter and Marianne Wiggins’ The Shadow Catcher. I, for one, am thrilled that more and more books offer up the whole of the American experience. What do you think?

~ Dori