chyken

What topic did you want to make a joke about, but could never find your way into it? And how long did you spend on it before you gave up on it?

Love your work, and I know you're a voracious reader. Wondering if you've burned through all the "classic" dictator novels in preparation of writing Oscar Wao. Particularly like Autumn of the Patriarch, or Feast of the Goat, or Massacre River, etc. Was the fiction also part of the research you did?