Oblivion: Stories

By David Foster Wallace
2004
336 pages / 14 hours 16 minutes
Fiction

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People tend to fall into two categories when it comes to David Foster Wallace’s 1996 doorstop of a novel, Infinite Jest. At around 1,079 pages including almost 100 pages of footnotes (in a novel!), it is a difficult book on which to occupy the middle of the road. There are those who consider it the greatest novel of our time and those who think it is mostly awful. You can put me in the first category. One summer I carried the book all over the world (no easy feat considering the size) and I know of nothing else like it. Among the many themes within its pages you’ll find the most hilarious scene ever written of a self-help group, the deepest meditation on addiction and 12 step programs ever to occur in a work of fiction, a profound reflection on a culture that seems intent on entertaining itself to death, and a recovering addict who is truly heroic. I consider it the greatest novel of the last 25 years. But there is no question that the work is daunting. So let me suggest an easier on-ramp for the fiction of David Foster Wallace.

It is true that despite his unquestioned brilliance as a journalist and essay writer, Wallace really wanted to be a great novelist. But – lo and behold – it turns out he can do anything, including write brilliant short stories.

So I present to you his 2004 collection, Oblivion. The collection contains eight stories, two of them very short and the others quite lengthy. It is like any collection in that different readers will prefer different stories. I will point to my two favorites and then leave you to make up your own mind.

The title story, “Oblivion” starts with a perfectly innocent premise that turns darker and darker. The question is whether the narrator snores or not. He is convinced that his wife is dreaming about him snoring. But this is Wallace, so all sorts of epistemological questions present themselves. Paranoia ensues.

My favorite story, however, is “Good Old Neon,” which explores what is very familiar terrain for Wallace. He is always concerned with the question of authenticity. The narrator in this story is wondering if he has ever had a truly authentic moment in his entire life. Has he just become an expert in manipulating people and presenting to them what they want from him and, in the process, using them? My unease as I read the story continued to grow. What would it mean to truly be yourself? Can anyone really be said to be authentic?

All of the stories are slightly weird, and all of them will make you shift uncomfortably in your chair and probably look a little differently at the people all around you.

One may ask why a preacher with limited time should attempt to read Wallace. In answer, I will suggest a little book by Adam Miller, The Gospel According to David Foster Wallace: Boredom and Addiction in an Age of Distraction.

The greatest writer of our age has killed himself. The greatest prophet of secular longing for transcendence will speak no more. But reading what we have is time very well spent.