Book Redesign by jon heter

+Jonathan Heter +Typographic Systems +Spring 2013 +Book Cover Process +Herstowski

+Visit a Bookstore

“KU Union, Hastings, ... spend sometime looking around. What do you see? What captures your attention. How are books displayed. What made you walk up to a section. What made you pick up a book?”

Walking around the bookstore, I noticed relatively quickly what it is that draws me towards a particular book. Assuming I’m not looking for a specific title, but rather just browsing, a well designed spine is the first thing to stand out to me. When scanning a shelf full of books, a bland spine can get lost among all the titles, while an eye-catching, easily readable one grabs my attention.

Half-Price Books has a pretty common bookstore layout. Around the outer walls, nooks seperate the genres, while free standing shelves make up most of the floor space. Like most bookstores, it was relatively quiet, with only soft music playing through the house speakers–making for a relaxing environment.

Soft light throughout the store increases visibility while simultaneously making the customer feel more comfortable.

+Well Designed Book Covers

Photo Dominate: Well designed book covers that successfully utilize photography as the primary aesthetic.

5 +1 Designed by Stefan Sagmeister, the cover of this autobiography is both a call-back to Sagmeister’s famous AIGA poster in which he had an assistant carve the event’s details on his chest, and the Lou Reed album he designed where he wrote lyrics on top of a photo of Lou’s face. Execution: Photograph presumably photoshopped? / Character (obviously) / Contemporary design. The self-mutilation could be viewed as the artist suffering for his work. Lou Reed has always been known for being a raw, transparent musician, and the carving seems to reflect this.

+2 Designed by Henry Sene Yee, the simplicity of this cover is what makes it so effective. The photo appears to have been taken after a storm (metaphor?) and the nearly deserted parking lot against the sky creates a haunting effect, even when seen before the title. Execution: Photograph / Setting / Contemporary, haunting, minimal design. Somewhat interestingly, the authors name is nowhere to be found on the cover, presumably to keep the focus on the tragedy.

+3 Although the content of this cover isn’t particularly interesting, I do appreciate the continuity Klosterman has established throughout all of his books, mainly through the use of all-caps Helvetica. However, the semi-out of focus, full page photograph, with large bodies of type is definitely a trend of late as a quick scroll through the book cover archive will show. Execution: Photograph / Characters, Settings / Contemporary design.

+4 Obviously I’m drawn to the full page photograph technique, but I find this one engaging not necessarily for the photo itself, but rather for the way the designer illustrates a mythological story with a contemporary photograph. Smart. Execution: Photograph / Characters, Settings / I suppose you would still call this design contemporary? / Again, the basic technique is merely a bold title and author atop a full page photograph. The photo shows soldiers heading into battle (Normandy?) which quickly tells the reader that there is a large battle taking place. within the pages.

+5 Just found this to be a cute solution for the subject of love. Finding unique ways to express the content of the book is the ultimate goal, and sometimes the solution is as simple as this; getting there is the issue. Execution: Photograph / metaphor / Contemporary The cover manages to convey that the book is light hearted, and perhaps even humorous solely by the photograph.

+6 The items in this photo create an intrigue, while the the blurred circles are reminiscent of sound waves. If I hadn’t read a review of this book, I would have guessed it was some kind of horror novel, but it is evidently more of a thriller/noir story. Nonetheless, the cover drew me in, and made me want to know more about the items and the man. Execution: Photograph and photoshop / Characters, Settings / Contemporary design

+Well Designed Book Covers

Illustration Dominate: Well designed book covers that successfully utilize hand-drawn, or vector art. No photography.

5 +1 Designed by Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant), his rendition of Orwell’s classic recalls Soviet Constuctivism. Fitting, as the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Execution: Illustration, Computer Graphics / metaphor, characters, setting / Constructivist design. (vintage) Immediately, the color pallet reminds the reader of Early 20th century Russia and Communism. Constructivism was all about the working class (animals in this case) and Fairey also manages to capture this with the farm landscape.

+2 Recalling important imagery from the book/film, the designer focuses on the eye and the large, fake eyelashes while simultaneously referencing a pivotal scene in which the protagonist’s eyes are forced open with a device. Execution: Illustration, simple line work, presumably hand drawn / character / vintage I think it helps to know the story to understand this particular cover, however, it is still intriguing enough for someone unfamiliar with the work to pick it up.

+3 This cover is very on the nose/literal, which is effective when done properly. The title of the book is Sex, Lies, Murder, Fame. and the designer has simply made icons for each. Execution: Illustration, vector / character & object / could be considered both traditional and modern. I didn’t do any research on this one, but it’s pretty easy to guess what it’s about. As far as the feeling it conjures, I’m getting a noir vibe. The minimal, clean design makes sense for this title as the 4 icons are all popular

+4 Designed by Peter Mendelsund–who has a myriad of cool book designs under his belt–multicolored dots arranged to form a skull make up this cover, .Part of this book is about the author daydreaming of killing his wife by shoving peanuts down her throat (she’s deathly allergic) and I’m guessing that was the main point of inspiration for the cover Execution: Computer Illustration, vector, / death is the main focus, but the skull is an object / very contemporary design /

+5 Surprisingly not designed by Ralph Steadman, the crude characters playing on and around the title are definitely inspired by his work and reflect Hunter’s “gonzo” style of journalism nicely.

+6 The fact that there is no title on this cover makes it all the more intriguing to me. An ape made up of shapes resembling a circuit board immediately makes me think, “science fiction.” (which is the case)

Execution: Illustration, hand drawn, crude / The book is a collection of short stories so I assume we are seeing characters and objects on the cover / feels quite retro

Execution: Illustration, computer / character / contemporary design

To someone unfamiliar with Thompson, I think the crude, vandalistic cover gives a pretty good impression on the type of work that will be

A science fiction book, titled “Evolution,” with a stylized ape taking up the entire cover, kind of makes me think of a relatively popular film franchise, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing..

+Well Designed Book Covers

Type Dominate: Well designed book covers that successfully utilize typography as the primary focus.

5 +1 Simple, yet effective. The motion blur gives the viewer a sense of vertigo. Execution: Type / Photoshop / Contemporary design

Being a Stephen King book, one can assume that it falls under the genre of ‘horror’, or at least ‘thriller,’ and the type conveying the drastic sense of movement makes the viewer/reader feel uneasy, presumably like the books contents.

+2 Not completely type dominant, however, I like how the text is interacting with the woman’s hair. The type is almost tied up by the hair, which would make sense for this novel. Execution: Type / Photography, Photoshop / Character / Contemporary design Again, something about the hair makes this cover kind of creepy. The way the hair lays down and interacts with the type makes it seem like a woman on the floor, and readers familiar with the Millenium series would likely be able to draw assumptions

+3 The cover of Daniel Eatocks book about entrepreneurial authorship shows a large thumbprint made up of hand drawn sentences about his design process. Interesting side note: the author put his actual thumb print on the spine of the first run. Execution: Type, hand drawn / contemporary design Another intriguing cover, it provoked me into researching the book, which in turn got me interested in it. So I guess that would make it successful.

+4 Part of an entire series of McCarthy’s work, David Pearson’s letterpressed covers feel old school and raw, much like McCarthy’s work.

Execution: Type, letterpress, photography / contemporary / traditional design The multiple different character sizes demand the viewer pays attention to the cover. Not sure how I feel about the quote at the bottom, but otherwise really like this idea.

+5 The iconic Penguin cover–about as simple as it gets. The orange bars and penguin logo are immediately recognizable and familiarity is often a good thing to the consumer. Execution: Type / classical, traditional design Something about this design just feels cool to me, and it seems to me, that if a book carries this design, it is often worth reading.

+6 I dig the way the designer makes the text an extension of the cityscape. Taken from the Urban Dictionary, the Edifice Complex can be defined as, “a keen desire of a public or educational administrator to construct a building or buildings (a pun on the Oedipus complex)” Execution: Type / Photoshop, photography / contemporary The horizontal type, in perspective feels like it is a part of the photograph, rather than just slapped on top.

+Redesigning a Bookjacket

+Summary

+Author Information

The book chronicles both the life of Oscar de Leon, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations.

The middle sections of the novel center on the lives of Oscar’s runaway sister, Lola; his mother, Hypatia Belicia Cabral; and his grandfather, Abelard. Rife with footnotes, science fiction and fantasy references, comic book analogies, and various Spanish dialects, the novel is also a meditation on story-telling, the Dominican diaspora and identity, masculinity, and oppression. WW

Most of the story is told by an apparently omniscient narrator who is eventually revealed to be Yunior de Las Casas, a college roommate of Oscar’s who dated Lola. Yunior also appears in many of Diaz’s short stories and is often seen as an alter ego of the author.

Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT. His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an

NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Year. Junot Díaz has had his fiction published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, and four times in The Best American Short Stories. His critically praised, bestselling debut book, Drown, led to his inclusion among Newsweek’s “New Faces of 1996”—the only writer in the group. The New Yorker placed him on a list of the twenty top writers for the

twenty-first century. Díaz has won the Eugene McDermott Award, the Lila Wallace– Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, a U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship from the NEA, and most recently the Rome Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

+Acclaim

+Main Characters

“Terrific...Narrated in high“Funny, street-smart and “Astoundingly great...You energy Spanglish, the book keenly observed...An extraorcould call The Brief Wonis packed with wide-ranging dinarily vibrant book that’s drous Life of Oscar Wao the cultural references—to Dune, fueled by adrenaline-powered saga of an immigrant family, prose...A book that decisively but that wouldn’t really be fair. Julia Alvarez, The Sound of It’s an immigrant-family saga Music—as well as erudite and establishes [Díaz] as one of for people who don’t read hilarious footnotes on Caribcontemporary fiction’s most immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev bean history. It is a joy to read, distinctive and irresistible new and every bit as exhilarating voices.” —Michiko Kakutani, Grossman, Time to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, The New York Times Entertainment Weekly

Oscar de Leon (“Oscar Wao”)- an overweight, nerdy Dominican who can’t get a girl and is continually depressed due to being such an outcast. He turns his attentions to writing, writing and reading as much as possible. He finally falls in love with Ybon, but her boyfriend and his cronies beat Oscar to death. The title character and protagonist. He is a fat ghetto nerd and an outcast everywhere he goes. He spends the majority of the novel looking for a woman who will love him back. He is considered un-Dominican due to his lack of masculinity/

Members of the de Leon family see a man without a face associated with moments of crisis, suggesting that the faceless man may also represent fukú. As Beli flees homeward after her weekend with the Gangster, she sees “that a man sitting in a rocking chair in front of one of the hovels had no face”. This sighting occurs just before she discovers that she is pregnant and her relationship with the Gangster and her safety in the Dominican Republic begin to crumble. She again sees a faceless man in the park as she is being taken by Elvises One and Two, this time in the form of a cop.

The dictator, Trujillo, known for his sexual desire for young girls, whose families cannot protect them, learns that Abelard’s oldest daughter, Jaquelyn, has become a beautiful young teenager. As a father Abelard does not want to give his daughter to Trujillo, as so many other fathers had been forced to do, and does not bring her to the event it had been demanded she come to. Some four weeks later Abelard is arrested for supposedly making a joke that there were no bodies in the trunk of his car. As Trujillo’s henchmen disposed of opponents this way he was accused of slandering the dictator.

+Important Objects

The novel takes place in both the ghetto’s of New Jersey as well as the hot, tropical environment of the Dominican Republic. The sugar cane fields of Santo Domingo are also an important environment in the book.

+Setting

Although a work of fiction, the novel is set in New Jersey where Díaz was raised and deals explicitly with his ancestral homeland’s experience under dictator Rafael Trujillo Diaz frequently involves fantastical elements in the

book. He has said that “No one can write a straight forward political novel about the Trujillato and capture its phantasmagorical power.” The fantastical elements of the book can serve to provide a fictional lens that readers can use to grasp the surreal quality of Trujillo’s

reign and his power. Trujillo and the events surrounding his dictatorship are then often aligned with fiction. Trujillo is described as being “a personaje so outlandish, so perverse, so dreadful that not even a sci-fi writer could have made his ass up.

Comic Books

Fantasy/Science-fiction

The Mongoose

Fuku and Zafa

The novel opens with the epigraph: “Of what import are brief, nameless lives…to Galactus?” Diaz has said that this question can be read as being directed at the reader, “because in some ways, depending on how you answer that question, it really decides whether you’re Galactus or not.” In the Fantastic Four comic book however, Galactus is asking the question of Uatu the Watcher, whose role is played out in Diaz’s novel by the narrator Yunior, indicating to Diaz that the question is both a “question to the reader but also a question to writers in general.”

Diaz frequently uses references to works of sciencefiction and fantasy. These references serve both to illuminate the world that Oscar lives in and create a parallel between the supernatural events in fantasy literature and the history of the Dominican Republic. In the opening pages of the novel, the narrator quotes Oscar as having said “What more sci-fi than Santo Domingo? What more fantasy than the Antilles?” One of Diaz’s frequent references to J.R.R. Tolkien comes when he describes Trujillo: “Homeboy dominated Santo Domingo like it was his very own private Mordor.” In another section, Felix Wenceslao Bernardino, an agent of Trujillo is metaphorically described as the Witchking of Angmar.

Mongooses appear throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as guardians of the family. The mongoose is known for its sociability and cunning. Like the de Leon family, the mongoose is an immigrant, an invasive, non-native species. The mongoose was transplanted westward to the Dominican Republic, just as Oscar’s family was forced out of the Dominican Republic. Diaz has stated the importance of the mongoose as being alien, creating an otherworldly quality to its assistance. Furthermore, in a footnote, the mongoose is described as “an enemy of kingly charriots, chains, and hierarchies. an ally of Man”, suggesting the mongoose’s importance in helping the de Leon family not just for their misfortune but also as a means of undermining Trujillo’s oppression.

Yunior, throughout the novel, draws the events of the story back to the themes of fukú (a curse) and zafa (its counterspell). Yunior ascribes Oscar’s tragic family history as the result of fukú. Some say the fukú was “carried in the screams of the enslaved[23] ” meant to doom the New World. Yunior traces the power of fukú through Oscar’s family, beginning with the Trujillo-dominated Abelard and ending with, Yunior hopes, Oscar’s death. The fukú represents the burdens every family carries, particularly immigrant families, with which The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao deals explicitly. Zafa, on the other hand, is the counterspell. Yunior hopes that telling Oscar’s story will act as zafa to the de León family’s fukú. For the characters in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, there are two sides to every story, and so whether one’s experience is fukú or zafa is based entirely on perspective.

Early in the novel, Diaz aligns Oscar with comic book superheroes: “You want to know what being an X-man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto...Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest.” Diaz hints at possible latent abilities or qualities Oscar may possess that will reveal themselves or develop later in the novel.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (AKZIDENZ)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Garamond) THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (FUTURA)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Gothamlite)*

+Moodboards & Blurbs

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (GOTHAMBOLD)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Goudy) CHARACTER MOOD BOARD: Rafael Trujillo / Man Without a Face

SETTING MOOD BOARD: 1940-60 Dominican Republic / Canefields

OBJECT MOOD BOARD: Religious / Mystical Iconography

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (HELVETICA)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Interstate)

+1 In order to capture the fear Rafael Trujillo instilled into the Dominican culture at large, the design should reflect artistic movements that derived from dictatorships of the past, like constructivism, while the imagery should symbolize Trujillo’s brutal tyranny.

+2 In order to visualize the environments depicted throughout Junot Diaz’s novel, the design needs to provide intrigue to readers unfamiliar with the work, and simultaneously make sense to those who know the book, while the imagery should convey the locale, without being too direct or predictable.

+3 In order to relate to the reader the importance of magik realism throughout the book, the design should reflect the curses, (fuku’s and zafa’s) as well as the supernatural occurrences, while the imagery should be rooted in the mysticism of the Caribbean, (i.e. hoodoo, rituals, etc.)

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (TRADE GOTHIC)*

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Mrs. Eaves) THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO (META)* The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Clarendon)*

+Type Studies

+Visual Library

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO JUNOT DIAZ

A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZ

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

+60 Sketches PLACE (cover only 6 x 9 inches): 20 sketches by hand or on the computer (try image, typography, no computer, I want to see a full range of ideas, not the same idea over and over)

OBJECT (cover only 6 x 9 inches): 20 sketches by hand or on the computer (try image, typography, no computer, I want to see a full range of ideas, not the same idea over and over)

a novel by junot diaz

A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZ

CHARACTER (cover only 6 x 9 inches): 20 sketches by hand or on the computer (try image, typography, no computer, I want to see a full range of ideas, not the same idea over and over)

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

Junot Diaz

the brief wondrous life of oscar wao

JUNOT DIAZ

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO THE BRIEF

WONDROUS

JUNOT DIAZ

LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

"[Junot Diaz has] written a book that decisively establishes him as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistable new voices." -Michiki Kakutani, The New York Times

junot diaz

Junot Diaz

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO BY JUNOT DIAZ

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ

THE BRIEF WOND ROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

THE BRIEF WOND

THE BRIEF WOND ROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

A NOVEL

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO BY JUNOT DIAZ

+Bookjacket Sketches and Refinements

JUNOT DIAZ

Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot DĂaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT. His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 20 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Book of the Year.

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pl Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi. di Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusa constituam, et ius natum accusata putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi. Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi cons consetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu.

DIAZ

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Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, di ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu. In pri corrumpit aliquando, at mea clita sensibus facilisis. Id sit epicuri maluisset inciderint, saperet eleifend necessitatibus ea vim. Mollis ponderum expetendis nec ex, vivendo complectitur in nec. Definitiones necessitatibus qui no. Putent salutandi constituto nam ut. Vis graece noluisse pericula eu, ad vim possit reprehendunt. no Ut ius nostro liberavisse necessitatibus. Ut probo dolorem appetere vis. Vel idque aliquid ut, sea illud modus ea. Quo clita nominavi quaerendum te, sea sumo sonet elaboraret at. No stet graeco voluptaria cum, usu ferri inani id.

Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi cons consetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu.

Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi. Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros sc explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consetetur eu quo, vim an idque detracto adipiscing. In dicta praesent mel, mei graece fierent expetenda an. Sanctus delicatissimi cu his, mea et solet referrentur. Quod deleniti ne eam, dicat docendi quo eu. pri corrumpit aliquando, at mea clita sensibus facilisis. Id sit epicuri In p maluisset inciderint, saperet eleifend necessitatibus ea vim. Mollis ponderum expetendis nec ex, vivendo complectitur in nec. Definitiones necessitatibus qui no. Putent salutandi constituto nam ut. Vis graece noluisse pericula eu, ad vim possit reprehendunt.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuri medioc mediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu. Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi. Ut eum suas scripta dissentiunt, ex ludus convenire sed, homero ceteros explicari te eam. Est ex dicant aliquip eleifend, vocibus honestatis usu ei. Nam ei liber docendi mandamus, ei pro agam iracundia definitiones. Nominavi consetetur eu quo, vim an

JUNOT DIAZ

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est volumus officiis gubergren no. Vocibus omittam at usu. Lorem electram corrumpit eum ea, an noster sadipscing vel, mei splendide torquatos id. Causae tincidunt mel at, sea id quot adipiscing, epicuri medioc mediocrem persecuti ex quo. Ad est nihil similique inciderint, omnes vocibus dissentiunt mel cu, eros ridens graecis his ne. Ex cum illud electram consectetuer, cum fierent atomorum oportere cu. Eripuit maiorum platonem eos at, sint evertitur has ut, an usu cibo mandamus. Accusata efficiantur ut qui, dolore labitur adolescens ex ius. Mea eirmod alienum qualisque no, ius tibique imperdiet te, erat dolores maluisset ea vel. Ex est fugit accusata constituam, et ius natum putant. Mei te inciderint mediocritatem, dico errem feugait te vix, ut eos error commune nominavi.

the brief wondrouse life of oscar wao

li A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot DĂaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.

junot diaz

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot DĂaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Washington Heights to New Jerseyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevereâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and to risk it allâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in the name of love.

the brief wondrous life of oscar wao

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diaz

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Funny, street-smart and keenly observed...An extraordinarily vibrant book thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose...A book that decisively establishes [DĂaz] as one of contemporary fictionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Michiko Ka Kakutani, The New York Times

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THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural referencesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Musicâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

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DIAZ

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really be fair. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an immigrant-family saga for people who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t read immigrant-family sagas.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Lev Grossman, Time

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THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Genius...A story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That DĂazâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s novel is also full of ideas, that [the narratorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Rothâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Zuckermanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and trul that is the just word for it) work of truly, modern fictionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Oscar Villalon, San Francisco Chronicle

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO BY JUNOT DIAZ

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THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO / JUNOT DIAZ

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Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot DĂaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT. pr His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s John Sargent Lib Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

Of what import are brief, nameless livesâ&#x20AC;Ś to Galactus?

A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.

JUNOT DIAZ

“Genius...A story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That Díaz’s novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator’s] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth’s Zuckerman—in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is the just word for it) work of modern fiction—all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.” —Oscar Villalon, San Francisco Chronicle

“Astoundingly great...You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.” —Lev Grossman, Time Gr “Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly “Funny, street-smart and keenly observed...An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose...A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.” —Michiko Kakutani, The voices New York Times

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last. With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love. A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.

Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

JUNOT DIAZ

“Funny, street-smart and keenly observed...An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose...A book that decisively establishes [Díaz] as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO / JUNOT DIAZ

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ

the brief wondrous life of oscar wao / junot diaz

“Terrific...Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references—to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music—as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and histor every bit as exhilarating to reread.” —Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ

ABOUT JUNOT DÍAZ Junot DiazBorn in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT.

The Brief Wondrous

Life of

Oscar Wao Junot Diaz

His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the AnisfieldAnisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2007 and Time magazine’s Book of the Year. Junot Díaz has had his fiction published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, and four times in The Best American Short Stories. His critically praised, bestselling debut book, Drown, led to his inclusion among Newsweek’s “New Faces of 1996”—the only writer in g the group. The New Yorker placed him on a list of the twenty top writers for the twenty-first century. Díaz has won the Eugene McDermott Award, the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, a U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship from the NEA, and most recently the Rome Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

JUNOT DIAZ Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last. Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Junot Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT. MI

JUNOT DIAZ

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

A true literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Díaz as one of the best and most exciting writers of our time.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

JUNOT DIAZ

+Bookjacket Patterns

+First Pages

GhettoNerd at the End of the World

Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a ﬂy bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

GhettoNerd

at the End of the World

at the End of the World The Golden Age

Chapter One

The Golden Age

1974-87

Chapter One The Golden Age Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a ﬂy bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very unDominican of him). He was seven then.

The Golden Age Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a ﬂy bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

GhettoNerd at the End of the World

GhettoNerd at the End of theWorld

Chapter One

1974-87

/GhettoNerd at the End of the World JUNOT DIAZ The Golden Age Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a ﬂy bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

GHETTONERD AT THE END OF THE WORLD

DIAZ

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

1974-87 /1974-87

GhettoNerd at the End of theWorld

/1974-87 THE GOLDEN AGE

GhettoNerd at the End of theWorld

Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a ﬂy bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZ

THE GOLDEN AGE: 1974-87

1974-87

GhettoNerd at the End of the World

THE BRIEF WONDROUS

LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

3 3

7 8 4 DE

7 OL 9 1 / EG TH

H TT DA

F DO

R WO

O TT

G A N

+Final Designs

JUNOT DIAZ

Junot Diaz was Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey. Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

for fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the fukú—the ancient curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and ill-starred romance. Oscar, d still dreaming of his first kiss, is only its most recent victim—until the fateful summer that he decides to be its last.

“Genius...A story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific...That Díaz’s novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator’s] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth’s Zuckerman, in short, that what he has produced is a trul that is the just kick-ass (and truly, word for it) work of modern fiction, all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else.” —Oscar Villalon, San Ch Francisco Chronicle

With dazzling energy and insight, Junot Díaz immerses us in the uproarious lives of our hero Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, and their ferocious mother Belicia, and in the family’s epic journey from Santo Domingo to New York City’s Washington Heights to New Jersey’s Bergenline and back again. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humor, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and the endless perseve human capacity to persevere—and to risk it all—in the name of love.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZ

+Final Bookjacket #1. For this cover, I attempted to recall Constructivist poster art, to reflect the Dominican Dictator, Rafael Trujillo and his brutal regime.

+Final Bookjacket #2. The main character, Oscar is obsessed with all things nerdy, so for my “handmade” cover, I cut the title out of a comic strip.

+Final Bookjacket #3. One of the first designs I had, this cover focuses on the canefield–an extremely important place throughout the novel where many characters unwillingly end up.

Junot Diaz was orn in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and raised there and in New Jersey, Díaz graduated from Rutgers and received an MFA from Cornell. He lives in New York City and Boston, and is a tenured professor at MIT.

junot diaz the brief wondrouse life of oscar wao

the brief wondrous life of oscar wao

junot diaz

fir novel, The Brief Wondrous His first Life of Oscar Wao, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Fiction of 2007, the Mercantile Library Center’s John Sa Sargent Prize for First Novel in 2007, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO GhettoNerd at the End of the World

GHETTONERD AT THE END OF THE WORLD

/GhettoNerd at the End of the World

/1974-87

THE GOLDEN AGE

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO A NOVEL FROM JUNOT DIAZ

THE GOLDEN AGE: 1974–87

JUNOT DIAZ The Golden Age: 1974–1987 Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a ﬂy bachatero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock. And except for one period early in his life, dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him). He was seven then.

3 3

+Summary The bookjacket redesign helped me to learn that the best solution is often hidden. Pushing yourself, and experimenting with mediums that you may not be accustomed to–or comfortable with–can often create the best results. Therefore, it’s important to not get too complacent in any one way of problem solving.