What I gained from this work is going to sound like a backhanded compliment. It strengthened my resolve against narration.
I could count on one hand all the instances where I though narration added to the story. Oscar Wao is one of those times, as the narration provides distance from Oscar and in the narrative of the story I think that helped. It also helped Yunior as a character and provided depth for him from both what he chooses to say and what he chooses not to.
However, there were times were his insights felt intrusive to me, and overall I wonder if the story would have been better served by not having this narration. It removes urgency and suspense in almost every scene it's in and the distancing effect isn't needed. In my mind, the negative influence of the narration outweighed the positives of what that very narration was trying to accomplish.
I admit I'm biased against narration in most every form, so my opinion should be taken with a huge grain of salt, but personally speaking, this book just reinforced notions I already had.
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