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hannah_marie5314's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
karp76's review
4.0
"What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given moment." There should be a separation between the artist and the art. Should. Wallace is very cerebal (perhaps too much so at times); you can hear his languid hesitation in clinging to each word. There are no mistakes here, no false foot forward. Every word, every choice is deliberate. There is a hint that Wallace perhaps excelled at the short form rather than the long, condensing his ideas, keeping them on their point. Again, the separation and the should. Always the should. Moving into the post #metoo world, one cannot but sense the presence of Wallace's ideal of women. Often it is not there but when it comes, it comes dark and ugly and cannot be ignored or escaped. In the end, it is Wallace himself, rather than the work, that hinders the excellence of this art.
kamckim's review
5.0
I was interested in this mostly because of the hype on the movie. This is intense writing on every level. You have to have 3 brains to get it all seemlessly, and then I'm not sure that would be good enough. I read about 75% of it. I regret that I had to stop, when I feel like this is a writer who gets more meaningful with every story. But, as my daughter says, "He was making my brain explode."
calcutec's review
Nearly every one of these stories struck me as confusing, depressing, or just plain tragic, but despite that (or quite possibly because of it), I found this collection to be extremely compelling. Despite no shortage of other reading material, I kept returning to stories I had already read the previous day. My favorite of the bunch was definitely Good Old Neon.
kaylielongley's review
5.0
It is a grand experience diving into a David Foster Wallace collection for the first time. It is not simply that his humor is dark, or his writing intrepid, it's his complete acknowledgement of the paradoxes of humanity. He is acutely aware of the lies we tell ourselves to make life worth living, the dreams that simultaneously cause hiding in shame and disclosure, and the bustling distractions that consume our unconscious minds. Each story within Oblivion fits this theme yet is unique enough to hold value and introspection, pages and chapters later.
Wallace's keen intellect is both unabashed and interdisciplinary, and these stories reveal how the psyche processes the mental space, as opposed to the physical space, where traditional authors spend most of their time. Digesting these pieces is purposefully difficult, as Wallace writes seemingly stream of conscious tangents, such as a market analyst's self-pity over never receiving love (or at least, affection or attention) from his coworker as a climber scales a wall while his subjects complete a survey. Or in a later story, a self-proclaimed fraud spends more time revealing his personality than narrating his suicide story, which is just as humbling as it is harrowing. These are not mere plot devices or distractions and instead a sensitive, smart look at humanity and our most intimate selves.
Wallace's keen intellect is both unabashed and interdisciplinary, and these stories reveal how the psyche processes the mental space, as opposed to the physical space, where traditional authors spend most of their time. Digesting these pieces is purposefully difficult, as Wallace writes seemingly stream of conscious tangents, such as a market analyst's self-pity over never receiving love (or at least, affection or attention) from his coworker as a climber scales a wall while his subjects complete a survey. Or in a later story, a self-proclaimed fraud spends more time revealing his personality than narrating his suicide story, which is just as humbling as it is harrowing. These are not mere plot devices or distractions and instead a sensitive, smart look at humanity and our most intimate selves.
rachelhelps's review
3.0
Wallace continues his commentary on academic (or corporate, or literary) culture using academic language in this collection of short stories. Some of the stories are bizarre or grotesque and funny. They weren't as "fun" to read as some of his essays, but still entertaining.