Oblivion: Stories

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.

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".)

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.

Infinite Jest is up there with Ulysses and The Recognitions in my opinion, an absolutely incredible novel, but these stories disappointed me. It felt like Wallace was trying too hard to be clever and not really sure where to go after taking on entertainment, addiction and postmodern irony in Infinite Jest. These stories really smacked of pretension and precocity in a way that I've often heard Wallace readers complain about and never really agreed with before. You can somewhat see that he's moving towards the themes of boredom and boring jobs that he would address further in The Pale King, but neither this nor The Pale King really work for me. A synthesis of the two may have, but sadly we'll never know.

Quick delivery, good quality

I was recommended this by a friend (a huge Wallace fan) and while I've only read a couple of the short stories (Good Old Neon and whichever comes after, with the unfortunate cosmetic surgery incident), I've come to love the sombre yet darkly humorous tone that is apparently characteristic of Wallace.Get it!

Stunning

La mayoría de las historias son 7/10 para arriba, pero a mí me gusta mucho el estilo de Wallace así que mi opinión es un poco sesgada.Si eres fan de DFW no te arrepentirás, si no eres tan fan yo creo que hay mejores libros que comprar primero.