An interesting read, especially in the way it evokes life in the Dominican Republic and some history of the nation. The primary character, an overweight boy who wants to be an SF writer, is telling and realistic. Días has captured (I think) the struggles of someone who does not quite fit in anywhere.
The novel’s narrative is often quite crude—more than I think necessary, yet one could argue that the author was attempting to show the grimy side of the lives of the characters. I found it distracting at times.
The writing is compelling, and as the story evolved, I found myself intrigued. A reader should be prepared for some point-of-view shifts, and scenes that may seem irrelevant at times (though fit into the overall movement later), all common in modern literary fiction.
