Wow, people have really disliked this book here. I, on the other hand, pretty much loved it. The footnotes were indeed long at times, but they were necessary and it didn't take me long to start seeing them as tightly knit parts of the story that were just positioned differently. The cursing and vulgar language in general didn't bother me at all: it suited the story unlike in some books that obviously just want to create fuss by using expressions like that. I think The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was an interesting story on so many levels. It had the historical aspect, it was an exciting story of a family, it had some mysterious things going on while it portrayed everything in a very realistic way... Funny, how basically a really sad story can be told in such a humorous way.
So, thumbs up from me to this one!