Oblivion: Stories

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 accessibleScanning 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.

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.

David Foster Wallace was a genius. These stories are funny and brilliantly written. The Suffering Channel is the most incredible story...image an "artist" whose art just happens to be perfectly formed repliques of famous paintings and sculptures that he craps out combined with a television station that shows people suffering 24 hours a day. Then for extra strangeness add a reporter from a fictional magazine called Style that just happens to be based in the World Trade Center. Now set the story just weeks before 911 and for contrast to that Armageddon sprinkle heavily fashion crazed interns. Truly amazing.

i'm a big david foster wallace fan and have read all of his other works. this one is my favorite so far (in a very tight race with Infinte Jest). these stories are PERFECTLY structured (you can tell this guy is a mathematician). but along with this perfect structure is also (surprise!) a deep undercurrent of philosophy by a mind that seems to really SEE what makes up this world. if you want to be led by your nose through a book this author is not for you but if you appreciate fine writing with a real soul you need to check out this boy's stuff!

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.")