Oblivion: Stories

David Foster Wallace’s short story collection Oblivion contains character-driven stories that highlight the tedious, anxious, and sometimes absurd conditions of modern life. The stories follow the internal monologues of company executives, schoolchildren, and spouses as their internal experiences struggle to conform to the reality surrounding them. The tone throughout these works is overwhelmingly negative: characters are internally pessimistic and cynical about their surroundings. Their struggles are depicted in the typical style of Wallace: footnotes are abundant, some sentences span multiple pages, and the vocabulary used is intense to say the least. While these grammatical choices may be intimidating, they add to the overall feel of the book and create an unforgettable literary experience. The stories contained within the book balance a serious tone with the dry, absurd humor typical of Wallace’s work. In the first story, Mr. Squishy, the narrator sits in a corporate office, conducting a focus group meeting trying to gather consumer sentiment towards a new food product. Throughout this narrative of the worker’s internal experience, the reader is made aware of a mysterious figure scaling the walls of the building with “suction cups lining the instep of each boot”. While the narrator worries about his life or becomes bored with having to appear focused during his meeting, the reader is often interrupted with excerpts describing the person scaling the building and how a crowd gathers below. These types of seemingly arbitrary details that do not contribute to the main plot are prevalent throughout many of the stories and serve as a fun “break” from the dense prose that dominates most of these pieces. If you are a fan of Wallace’s novels such as Infinite Jest or The Pale King, you are more likely than not going to be a fan of this short story collection. Much like these other works, the footnotes and parenthetical expressions included throughout Oblivion often capture key plot points, complicating the stories and making a unique experience for the reader. In the story Good Old Neon a dramatic event occurs at the end of the story that is entirely contained within a footnote while the main text takes up space describing mostly unrelated personal thoughts belonging to the narrator. This type of subversion of expectations through the way in which the narrative is presented that is typical of his other works continues here, giving the stories depth that is hard to be matched by any other writer. The reader should be aware that there are many mature and sensitive themes explored in the novels, so if you are particularly sensitive to issues such as suicide, mass homicides, or even dysfunctional family dynamics you may want to steer clear from this book. While these themes are handled with a degree of sensitivity and maturity, they are the center of many of the stories’ plots, so if you think that reading something like this may be traumatic for you it may be best to not read Oblivion. Along that note, it is important to recognize that throughout the stories the experiences depicted are also unmistakably those of white, usually upper-middle class individuals. Usually Wallace’s work is somewhat autobiographical; he describes his own experiences or the imagined experiences of people he knows (notably Good Old Neon was reportedly written about a childhood friend), so if you are looking for a book to shed light on how different cultures experience contemporary modern life, this is likely not your book. Overall, Oblivion is a great read. Its stories vary in length; some of the stories span 60 pages while others last only 20 or so, leaving the reader with many options to choose from that could fill up the time it takes to wait for a doctor's visit or a long car ride. At times, the stories can drag on or include unnecessary details, but I found that these quirks can add to the story, setting the scene for being able to understand the overcomplicated and sometimes frustrating worlds that these characters inhabit. I may be biased because I have read or listened to all of Wallace’s work (that I know of at least), but I think most people would agree that there is a kind of charm to the amount of effort it takes to understand his work. These stories aren’t something you can passively listen to while you go on a jog or something you can read while you half-listen to a university lecture; they are dense and messy depictions of seemingly ordinary individuals trains of thought.

Author Gone too soon! Genius and should be read by everyone who gives a …….minute about current climate of existence. Including the owner of a particular company! ( guess who?)

I started my David Foster Wallace obsession several years ago (shortly after I learned of his suicide) while reading his masterwork, Infinite Jest. That book ranks as one of my favorite pieces of literature of all time, right up there with Proust's "In Search of Lost Time," and just as challenging. I have since read several of his other works, including his early novel "The Broom of the System" and 2 other collections of short works. While reading "Oblivion" my first thought was "this is my least favorite DFW work." It is very dark. One of the stories, "Good Old Neon" is devoted to suicide and a meditation on self-loathing, and a minor character named "David Wallace" is mentioned towards the end of the story. The title story ("Oblivion") completely turned on its head in the last page. With the help of Wikipedia and other on-line sites that discussed the work I was able to get a better understanding and appreciation of the stories. So, in short, this is not my favorite DFW book, but definitely worth reading if you are willing to do a little work. I first purchased this book (from Amazon) in paperback, because even though I prefer reading on my Kindle so I can adjust the type size, I always bought DFW books in print editions due to fear of problems dealing with the footnotes and/or endnotes. However, after reading the first one or 2 stories I purchased it for Kindle due to my usual problems with eye strain. A few of the stories have footnotes--i.e. in the print version they are at the bottom of the page. Please note that in the Kindle edition they are all at the back of the book. It was not that difficult to navigate once I got the hang of it. However, I also noticed that some squiggles between sections of one of the longer stories were not in the Kindle edition--perhaps this is not an issue with the Kindle Fire.

I was turned on to DFW after hearing an interview on Bookworm (podcast) and after reading Infinite Jest I decided to read all of his other books in publication order. I was worried about Oblivion because I had heard it was a very sad collection. But I fell in love with it. I think it is his best work, which makes his death that much sadder. He had his best work yet to do. The stories are beautiful and absurd and more accessible Scanning other customer reviews I saw much reference to DFW's self-indulgence. To be fair he is that, but that's what books are. To avoid self-indulgence, you need to not write. And would you rather have covert or overt self-indulgence? I want overt, because it is honest, and whatever faults he has, DFW was as honest a writer as one can ask for.

The first story of this book is about the focus groups and the expertize. After Wallace introduces several facts no very clear by a traditional view, but those have a significate in relation to the way which with those are made, that is the importance of auto-references. The effect born with a good use of mathematics, particularly logics and chaos theory. But the cultural contexts which from are given certain situations are very great. So Wallace has written stories whom loook like a mix between a traditional narration and a continuous critics about his positions, something which should have an effect of sure interest for his lectors.

It's pretty tough for a writer to balkanize popular opinion the way David Foster Wallace has. It seems that for everyone who views Wallace as a literary genius, there's someone else who thinks he's a self-indulgent bore who appeals only to the pretentious. In truth, Wallace is neither; he's just a writer who takes chances with his work and is apparently willing to accept the occasional failure along with his successes. More a journey than a destination, Wallace's fiction relies heavily on such devices as unconventional narrative structures, punishingly dense and convoluted prose, dazzling verbal trickery, and clinical attention to detail. All that aside, though, Wallace isn't just a showoff, as there's an unmistakable human element to his fiction. Buried among the endless detail of these stories are some moments of profound insight and sympathy for the characters he's created to go with Wallace's innovative style and encyclopedic knowledge of just about everything. A prime example of all things Wallace is this collection's opening story, "Mr. Squishy," which is about 65 pages long but reads like at least 100. In one respect, this story is an insider's view of the ad industry, complete with descriptions of various market research strategies and examinations of the minutest details of a focus group assembled to test out a new snack cake. On another level, though, the story examines the professional and personal frustrations of its protagonist, a focus-group coordinator who could be a symbol for any number of inconsequential white-collar workers the world over. And of course, there's some trademark Wallace weirdness in the form of a costumed wall-climber with some bad intentions and a highly ambiguous ending that resolves exactly nothing. In other words, it's kind of like a miniature version of "Infinite Jest." The next story, "The Soul is Not a Smithy," continues in this vein, starting with an elementary school student's daydreams while a substitute teacher descends into madness in front of his class before connecting them to the disappointments of his father's middle-class existence. The brilliant "Another Pioneer" is an examination of the nature of knowledge and belief revolving around the story of a long-ago young genius whose intellectual development eventually became too much for his fellow villagers to handle. The title story takes the arguments between a middle-aged guy and his wife over her accusations of his snoring and turns it into a penetrating look at the complexities that result from the confluence of marriage, parenthood, and aging. Wallace apparently decided to save the best for last, though, as the 90-page closer "The Suffering Channel" easily ranks among his most fascinating work. At turns poignant, hilarious, bizarre, and profound, the story takes a look at office politics, small-town dreams, and the modern literary world, all centered around a handyman who can create sculptures in a literally incredible manner. It's everything Wallace can be when he's on, and why readers should be willing to tolerate his occasional overreaching. Those who don't like what Wallace does can say what they will, but his successes are more brilliant than most precisely because he aims so high that he doesn't always reach his mark. You can't have Wallace's brilliance without his shortcomings. To be perfectly, honest, you have to just read the man's work and come to your own conclusions.

Wide-ranging, clear-eyed insights, these short stories have a psychological depth combined with - sometimes outrageous - fantastical elements, having you believe the author is capturing and detailing a brief segment of the actual lives of his subjects and their imaginations, each pulled from much longer narratives present in his mind. The stories don't so much conclude as abruptly terminate mid-stream in the author's mind as he turns his full attention to yet another narrative stream. (My favorites were "Mr. Squishy" - you get used to the prolific acronyms - and "Oblivion," which each can be read in one sitting. Though it is longer than the other stories, don't skip the last story, "The Suffering Channel.")

Must I review everything, Bezos? What difference will my four star - because five seems sycophantic and would obviously be seen by more people - review of a few short stories (Editorial: In all honesty, can we call some of the pieces short stories? The titular entry is a 48 page novelette bordering on novella.) make in the decision-making process of some young adventurous reader treading the tempestuous sea of modern American literature? So many options - most of which are much more accessible than the pretentious yet heartfelt but often sesquipedalian prose of DFW - are available to today's youth seeking a respite from the endless stream of list-based click bait. Then what makes "Oblivion" stand out, so to speak, from the rest of the droning noise that inexplicably attracts so many eyes to this tiny PC screen? The answers that come to mind are all completely subjective, unfortunately I do not have enough expertise in the field of literary criticism, causing me to meekly defer and offer the suggestion that the reader must find out for herself. (NB: For a young reader, the quintessential "book nerd", fresh off the intellectual combine - powered by the stuffy prose of previous generations of American writers desperate to impress their French, British, and even Russian counterparts - this collection provides an excellent introduction to DFW and his peculiar prose. It will force you, the unprepared reader, to "man up" - in a manner of speaking [this unfortunate turn of phrase is in no way meant to be interpreted as a sexist or otherwise insulting comment] - and struggle with any preconceived notions of truth, beauty, art, love, happiness, stability, the "American Dream", death, the interminable longing of modernity that we all secretly or openly crave to escape at any given moment by any conceivable means, etc. Yes, full disclosure, I enjoyed "Oblivion".)