Junot Díaz's 2008 Pulitzer-winning novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," is the literary equivalent of watching a bottle rocket war between rival fireworks manufacturers.

The novel is a hysterical, heart-shredding and astoundingly ambitious work that sets the story of the titular Oscar, an overweight sci-fi enthusiast/romantic, against the backdrop of his family's curious and impoverished history in the Dominican Republic. Now living in New Jersey, Wao tries to survive in their new environment, despite an apparent curse that was placed on them in their bloody homeland.

Díaz hosts a reading and book signing at Connecticut College Wednesday.

In terms of sheer vision and scope and witty power, "Oscar Wao's" antecedents can be found in such unique efforts as David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest," the works of Caribbean Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, and New Jersey hip hop culture.

Junot Díaz, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Ernst Common Room, Blaustein Humanities Center, Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Ave., New London; free; (860) 447-1911.