Ever since his breakthrough short story collection Drown came out almost 10 years ago everyone wondered what the Dominican writer Junot Diaz would do next. At long last we have an answer via The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Released earlier this year with much fanfare, Diaz has become the Latino darling of the literary world, again. The tale of a Dominican geek who gets no play is linked to larger Dominican history. The book is making the must read list of critics and pop culture mags alike.

I’m about a third into the book and it’s made me nod my head and crack up because I can identify with the urban Latino setting and characters. But it’s those same aspects that is garnering criticisms, especially from other Latinos. I won’t name names (for various reasons I won’t get into here) but some Latino blogs and Latino writers (who have since rescinded their critiques, at least online) have said that Diaz is replaying the same Latino stereotypes that white people like to read about and that his formulaic (that’s what they say) portrayal of Latinos does a disservice to other Latino writers.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a must read, even if it is to analyze and decide if what the critics say is true.