Oh, so you can have it both ways! Pulitzer-winning author Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) writes in the Wall Street Journal today of his love affair with the time-sucking video game Grand Theft Auto. He's also willing to admit to the lowbrow fun that it actually is (let's not dress it up with Godfather-referencing praise, people!)

Hispaniola-born Junot Díaz and Edwidge Danticat swept the National Book Critics Awards, winning for the The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and for Brother, I'm Dying. Díaz beat out real American writers like Joyce Carol Oates for the prize. But for serious, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and you'd be a fool to let some perverse form of patriotism to stop you from enjoying it. [USA Today] Bonus recommendation: Junot Díaz's interview with Terri Gross nearly made me cry. No judgment!

Junot Diaz, whose long-awaited first novel The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao is the best book we've read in a long-ass time, was probably the most entertaining speaker at any of the butt-numbing events of the New Yorker Festival. New Yorker editor and faux musical lyricist Ben Greenman, who introduced Junot, admitted as much: "Of all the fiction events, you've picked the best one." The audience congratulated themselves in a low, respectful murmur.