Wow! This Putlizer prize winning novel by Junot Diaz is tough to characterize. The story alternates narrators and jumps through time, telling the stories of an American teenagers Oscar de Le&oacute;n, his sister Lola, their mother Beli (who emigrated from the Dominican Republic), and their grandfather Abelard. Oscar is overweight, obsessed with science fiction and fantasy, and consequently has some trouble fitting in at school. Lola is rebellious against her not-so-affectionate mother. Although Oscar and Lola are American, the story keeps returning to the Dominican Republic, both in the present, as Oscar and Lola return to visit, and in the past, as we learn how the lives of Beli and Abelard were profoundly affected by the oppressive dictatorship of Trujillo. As one narrator puts it, "Trujillo was Mobutu before Mobutu was Mobutu."