But this is Wallace, so all sorts of epistemological questions present themselves. He is convinced that his wife is dreaming about him snoring. The question is whether the narrator snores or not. The title story, “Oblivion” starts with a perfectly innocent premise that turns darker and darker. I will point to my two favorites and then leave you to make up your own mind.

It is like any collection in that different readers will prefer different stories. The collection contains eight stories, two of them very short and the others quite lengthy. So I present to you his 2004 collection, Oblivion. But – lo and behold – it turns out he can do anything, including write brilliant short stories. It is true that despite his unquestioned brilliance as a journalist and essay writer, Wallace really wanted to be a great novelist. So let me suggest an easier on-ramp for the fiction of David Foster Wallace. But there is no question that the work is daunting. I consider it the greatest novel of the last 25 years. 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. One summer I carried the book all over the world (no easy feat considering the size) and I know of nothing else like it. There are those who consider it the greatest novel of our time and those who think it is mostly awful. 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. People tend to fall into two categories when it comes to David Foster Wallace’s 1996 doorstop of a novel, Infinite Jest.

Oblivion: Stories By David Foster Wallace

Oblivion foster wallace