A decade ago, Dominican-born author Junot Díaz published Drown, a remarkable short story collection that met with critical and popular acclaim. Diaz's first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is worth the wait, showing the author is equally adept at longer form. Telling the story of Oscar, an overweight, oversexed, Dominican sci-fi nerd living in New Jersey, the book is a heady mixture of high and low, sex, street slang, Tolkien references, and political history.