The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

therefore, a student , the son of a zapatero and a midwife, a tirapiedra and a quemagoma for life. Being a student wasn’t a joke, not with Trujillo and Johnny Abbes 14 scooping up everybody following the foiled Cuban Invasion of 1959. Wasn’t a day that passed that his life wasn’t in danger, and he had no fixed address, appeared in Beli’s day with no warning. Archie (as he was known) had an immaculate head of hair and Héctor Lavoe glasses and the intensity of a South Beach dietician. Reviled the North Americans for their Silent Invasion of the DR and Dominicans for their annexationatist subservience to the North. Guacanagarí has cursed us all! That his most beloved ideologues were a couple of Germans who never met a nigger they liked was beside the point.
    Both of these dudes Beli played hard. Visited them at their digs and at the dealership and dished them their daily recommended allowance of noplay. A date couldn’t pass without the Fiat dealer begging her for a single grope. Just let me touch them with the back of my hand, he mewled, but nearly every time she picked him off in a fielder’s choice. Arquimedes, when rebuffed, at least showed some class. He didn’t pout or mutter, What the hell am I wasting my money for? He preferred to stay philosophical. The Revolution is not made in a day, he’d say ruefully and then kick back and entertain her with stories about dodging the secret police.
    Even to a chooch like Jack Pujols she was true , yes , but eventually she did get over him. A romantic she was, but not a pendeja. When she finally came to, however, things had turned dicey, to say the least. The country was in an uproar; after the failed invasion of 1959 an underground conspiracy of youth had been uncovered and everywhere young people were being arrested and tortured and killed. Politics, Juan spat, staring at all the empty tables, politics . José didn’t offer comment; he simply cleaned his Smith & Wesson in the privacy of his upstairs room. I don’t know if I’ll make it out of this one, Arquimedes said in a barefaced attempt to cadge a pity fuck. You’ll be fine, Beli snorted, pushing off his embrace. She was right in the end, but he was one of the few who made it through with his balls unfried. (Archie survives into the present, and when I drive through the capital with my man Pedro, I occasionally spot his grill on campaign posters for one of the radical splinter parties whose sole platform is to bring electricity back to the Dominican Republic. Pedro snorts: Ese ladrón no va’ pa’ ningún la’o.)
    In February, Lillian had to quit the job and return to her campo to care for her ailing mother, a señora who, Lillian claimed, had never given a damn for her well-being. But it is the fate of women everywhere to be miserable always, Lillian declared, and then she was gone and only the cheap freebie calendar she liked marking off remained. A week later the Brothers Then hired a replacement. A new girl. Constantina. In her twenties, sunny and amiable, whose cuerpo was all pipa and no culo, a “mujer alegre” (in the parlance of the period). More than once Constantina arrived to lunch straight from a night of partying, smelling of whiskey and stale cigarettes. Muchacha, you wouldn’t believe el lío en que me metí anoche. She was disarmingly chill and could curse the black off a crow, and, perhaps recognizing a kindred spirit alone in the world, took an immediate liking to our girl. My hermanita, she called Beli. The most beautiful girl. You’re proof that God is Dominican.
    Constantina was the person who finally pried the Sad Ballad of Jack Pujols out of her.
    Her advice? Forget that hijo de la porra, that comehuevo. Every desgraciado who walks in here is in love with you. You could have the whole maldito world if you wanted.
    The world! It was what she desired with her entire heart, but how could she achieve it? She watched the flow of traffic past the parque and did not know.
    One day in a burbuja of girlish impulse they finished work early and, taking their earnings to the Spaniards down the street, bought a pair of matching dresses.
    Now you look candela, Constantina said approvingly.
    So what you going to do now? Beli asked.
    A crooked-tooth smile. Me, I’m going to the Hollywood for a dance. I have un buen amigo working in the door and from what I hear there’ll be a whole assembly line of rich men with nothing to do but adore me, ay sí. She shivered her hands down the slopes