Literature had long been my source of epiphany, escape, and enlightenment, and I was positive some piece of literature would contain my answers. I had read many of the "classics," but I felt a particular need to be true to my own generation--to know what was going on now in literature, to help the world takes its next steps rather than just focus on the past. A book or short story or poem just didn't seem to really count to me if it was older than five years. The world was changing and I needed to know how literature was changing with it.
But school is seldom about what's going on outside its walls, especially high school, and there were no contemporary literature courses available for me to take, so I was forced to find my own way into the scary and chaotic world of contemporary literature.
I figured award winners were the easiest and obvious answer to point me in the right direction. And that's when Oscar Wao fell into my lap. Having won the Pulitzer prize that same year, I figured it was a sure bet for a good perspective on how literature was in my own time.
I opened the cover to find the epigraph:
"Of what importance are brief, nameless lives...to Galactus??"
Fantastic Four, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Vol. 1, No.49, April 1966)
