By Jenny Shank, 9-21-07

Junot Díaz gave an engaging reading from his new novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao to a packed house at the Boulder Book Store Thursday night.  Díaz is that rare literary novelist who inspires ardor in his fans

Díaz bantered with him a bit about comics, then instructed the audience to “always read a genre, because all of the scary shit about people--that’s where folks let it out.  You’d have no idea what our culture is about if you only read literary fiction.  In literary fiction, people don’t even seem to have bodies.  But the horror section is all about bodies, our fear of having them harmed.”

He said he’s always telling his students, “Talk to me about Roth and all those crazy fools, but you’ve got to bring that Stephen King.”