The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

end of those twenty-seven days the palomo did get Ybón away from La Capital. For one whole weekend they hid out on some beach in Barahona while the capitán was away on “business,” and guess what? Ybón actually kissed him. Guess what else? Ybón actually fucked him. Praise be to Jesus! He reported that he’d liked it, and that Ybón’s you-know-what hadn’t tasted the way he had expected. She tastes like Heineken, he observed. He wrote that every night Ybón had nightmares that the capitán had found them; once she’d woken up and said in the voice of true fear, Oscar, he’s here, really believing he was, and Oscar woke up and threw himself at the capitán, but it turned out only to be a turtleshell the hotel had hung on the wall for decoration. Almost busted my nose! He wrote that Ybón had little hairs coming up to almost her bellybutton and that she crossed her eyes when he entered her but what really got him was not the bam-bam-bam of sex—it was the little intimacies that he’d never in his whole life anticipated, like combing her hair or getting her underwear off a line or watching her walk naked to the bathroom or the way she would suddenly sit on his lap and put her face into his neck. The intimacies like listening to her tell him about being a little girl and him telling her that he’d been a virgin all his life. He wrote that he couldn’t believe he’d had to wait for this so goddamn long. (Ybón was the one who suggested calling the wait something else. Yeah, like what? Maybe, she said, you could call it life.) He wrote: So this is what everybody’s always talking about! Diablo! If only I’d known. The beauty! The beauty!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
     
     
    I’d like to give thanks to:
     
    the pueblo dominicano. And to Those Who Watch Over Us.
     
    Mi querido abuelo Osterman Sánchez.
     
    Mi madre, Virtudes Díaz, and mis tías Irma and Mercedes.
     
    Mr. and Mrs. El Hamaway (who bought me my first dictionary and signed me up for the Science Fiction Book Club).
     
    Santo Domingo, Villa Juana, Azua, Parlin, Old Bridge, Perth Amboy, Ithaca, Syracuse, Brooklyn, Hunts Point, Harlem, el Distrito Federal de México, Washington Heights, Shimokitazawa, Boston, Cambridge, Roxbury.
     
    Every teacher who gave me kindness, every librarian who gave me books. My students.
     
    Anita Desai (who help land me the MIT gig: I never thanked you enough, Anita); Julie Grau (whose faith and perseverance brought forth this book); and Nicole Aragi (who in eleven years never once gave up on me, even when I did).
     
    The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Fund, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
     
    Jaime Manrique (for being the first writer to take me serious), David Mura (the jedi master who showed me the way), Francisco Goldman, the Infamous Frankie G (for bringing me to Mexico and being there when it started), Edwidge Danticat, (for being mi querida hermana).
     
    Deb Chasman, Eric Gansworth, Juleyka Lantigua, Dr. Janet Lindgren, Ana María Menéndez, Sandra Shagat, and Leonie Zapata (for reading it).
     
    Alejandra Frausto, Xanita, Alicia Gonzalez (for México).
     
    Oliver Bidel, Harold del Pino, Victor Díaz, Victoria Lola, Chris Abani, Juana Barrios, Tony Capellan, Coco Fusco, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Michele Oshima, Soledad Vera, Fabiana Wallis, Ellis Cose, Lee Llambelis, Elisa Cose, Patricia Engel (for Miami), Shreerekha Pillai (for spinning dark girls beautiful), Lily Oei (for kicking ass), Sean McDonald (for finishing it).
     
    Manny Perez, Alfredo de Villa, Alexis Peña, Farhad Ashgar, Ani Ashgar, Marisol Álcantara, Andrea Greene, Andrew Simpson, Diem Jones, Denise Bell, Francisco Espinosa, Chad Milner, Tony Davis, and Anthony (for building me shelter).
     

    MIT. Riverhead Books. The New Yorker . All the schools and institutions that supported me.
     
    The Family: Dana, Maritza, Clifton, and Daniel.
     
    The Hernandez Clan: Rada, Soleil, Debbie, and Reebee.
     
    The Moyer Clan: Peter and Gricel. And Manuel del Villa (Rest in Peace, Son of the Bronx, Son of Brookline, True Hero).
     
    The Benzan Clan: Milagros, Jason, Javier, Tanya, and the twins Mateo y India.
     
    The Sanchez Clan: Ana (for always being there for Eli) and Michael and Kiara (for having her back).
     
    The Piña Clan: Nivia Piña y mi ahijado Sebastian Piña. And for Merengue.
     
    The Ohno Clan: Doctor Tsuneya Ohno, Mrs. Makiko Ohno, Shinya Ohno, and of course