Brief and Wondrous

I was tickled to see that Sunday Morning was airing a story on Junot Diaz this week.

It’s been an adventure for some of my friends to get a copy of Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. At one Barnes and Noble, my friend was told, “we are a didactic book store and we stock what our customers want.’

Her reply was to order five copies, four of which she never intended to pick up. She also said to the sales person, “This book is going to blow up. Do you know what that means? People, my friends, are going to come in looking for it and I hope you have some in stock.”

After allowing another friend to read the first chapter, she was immediately drawn into the story. “I’m going to go get it after we get done here.”

“Be sure not to go to Barnes and Noble.”

“Why?”

“Because I bought their only copy.”

“What do you mean?”

“This was the only copy they had when I went to get mine. (I only got it there because I had an extra discount.) I’m pretty sure they haven’t replaced it yet.”

She didn’t listen to my warning and there weren’t any new copies.

Anyway, that’s all beside the point. The point is that it’s awesome he’s getting more media coverage. All real people accounts I have read and heard about this book are positive. So it’s nice that for once the critics and the readers agree.