A 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner, this is a heartbreakingly honest tale about a 2nd-generation Dominican-American, Oscar de Leon, who has everything working against him. Obscenely overweight, with a penchant for sci-fi and using huge ponderous words which no one uses (or understands), his hip-quotient is sorely impeded whether in New Jersey where he lives or Santo Domingo where his family originates. Nonetheless, Oscar falls hopelessly in love with one hot chico after another who would rather cross the street than to walk by him. And to add to all that misery, he has the family fuku (or curse) that has transcended down the generations to contend with.