Oblivion Stories

this collection was incredibly hit or miss, but on the whole very enjoyable. at times dfw is a bitch to get through but there are always interesting ideas lying underneath. i'm just gonna go through each story individually i guess. that seems appropriate. mister squishy 3/5 this was probably the hardest to get through and a really poor choice for the first story i think? while the story was genuinely interesting and the commentary on alienation was though provoking, it gets so lost in jargon at times it feels impenetrable. the soul is not a smithy 4/5 raw! absolutely loved this one, interesting storytelling. you can feel the sorrow of everyday life. burned children 5/5 short, terrifying, and unlike the rest of the stories. very neat and soul-crushing, even if the last line or so is a little cheesy another pioneer 4/5 interesting story and masterful storytelling. once again gets a little caught up in dfw's intellectualism and stuff but brief enough to where it stays enjoyable good old neon 5/5 arguably the best short story i've ever read. disgusting feelings of "oh shit... i do that :-/" coursed through me. the description of personality as depicted through english is one of the most beautiful passages i've ever read, and the end frame is marvelous. philosophy 2/5 the opening idea of the botched face is absolutely hilarious. other than that this story didn't leave me with any thoughts. the most forgettable thing here, for sure. oblivion 4/5 cheesy ending. i am running out of steam writing this review but i enjoyed this a lot while reading, again the lens through which he tells the story is genius. the suffering channel 5/5 this doesn't feel like anything else in the collection. this was really cool and interesting and more or less devoid of any of the typical things that detract me from dfw's stuff. the image of the two interns on the bikes at the very end, completely surrounded by the horrors of the world but caught up in the meaninglessness of corporate work is wonderful.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but I loved some details, specially in the last of the stories.

What to say? 'Mr. Squishy' is probably my favorite short story, ever. David Foster Wallace is one of the very few writers who was capable of sounding authentically contemporary (almost an oxymoron) without being totally cynical. He's one of the few writers who actually lived up to his own vision of what fiction ought to be. The most haunting image in the book is of the father eating lunch in front of the tree every day.

I couldn’t help hearing a cry for help in every story by David Foster Wallace. The fact that the author committed suicide sat on my shoulder and nudged me at every disparaging word (of which one should expect in a book entitled Ovlivion). But just like a BP worker might want to pass by an oil covered sea turtle, I ignored his calls and instead enchanted myself with his rich prose and got lost in a copse of trees while following one of his full-to-the-brim sentences. I’ve added everything I could find that he’s written to my “to-read” list.