60 Seconds With . . . Junot Diaz

Writer Junot Diaz has always juggled multiple identities: Born in the Dominican Republic, he grew up part nerd, part playboy in New Jersey. His 1996 book of short stories, “Drown,” turned some heads, but it wasn’t until his debut novel last year, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” that all those identities beautifully collided to make bestseller gold. Suddenly, it’s not only literary nerds who know Diaz’s name -- or Oscar Wao’s. Diaz will be in town for a free reading from the novel at Westwood’s Hammer Museum at 7 p.m. Monday.

THE LANGUAGE IN “OSCAR WAO” IS VERY KINETIC, A MIX OF SPANISH, SPANGLISH AND ENGLISH. HOW MUCH DID YOU PLAY WITH EACH SENTENCE?

There was a lot of pecking and scratching, nickel-and-diming. I was trying to see how far I could take the English sentence, my multiple Englishes, and disturb and deform them, yet still have the language hold together in some way. I always thought, in these adolescent fantasy terms, that the English language is like this scrapped-together Millennium Falcon. You’re seeing how far you can push it without blowing it apart. It’s this awkward yet really beautiful machine.

IT’S SAFE TO SAY YOU HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR NERDS, NO?

An incredible soft spot for nerds. In the ‘80s, when I was growing up, nerds were the most familiar and interesting outsiders. Nowadays the nerd aesthetic has been appropriated. It’s a surprise, given how horribly nerds suffered for their interests in the ‘80s. . . . I think about all those kids who liked comic books and role-playing games, who were into science fiction or who thought they were ninjas; those kids were all messed up. They had to deal with a society that didn’t really value that at all. Society was still, in some ways, hewing to familiar postwar gender cliches. So boys who were interested in role-playing games in 1985 were a severe affront to masculinity.

DO YOU HAVE MUCH OSCAR WAO IN YOU?

No, I am far more like Yunior [who narrates], at least I was in my youth. I was way more of a not-very-cute playboy.

YOU WERE BLESSED WITH A RAVE REVIEW FROM THE NOTORIOUSLY HARD-TO-PLEASE MICHIKO KAKUTANI OF THE NEW YORK TIMES. DO YOU READ YOUR REVIEWS?

I don’t, but I definitely read that one. Critics have really difficult and thankless jobs. How quickly they have to appraise something often means that there’s a large margin of error. There have been wonderful books that haven’t received the praise they deserved, and then there are absolutely miserable books that have gotten rave reviews. That fake memoir, “Love and Consequences,” got tremendous reviews. I looked at that book and I thought, this is the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever seen. But hey, that’s just the opinion of one East Coast Dominican nerd.

--

-- Margaret.Wappler@latimes.com