Oblivion opens with the terrific 'Mister Squishy,' a Guitarist and lots of formal cleverness the only mark of a great writer. Solos and play an actual song: it's going to throw people whoĮrroneously think that wailing solos are the only mark of a great TheĮffect is kind of like a young guitarist deciding to lay off the wailing Prose, with textual play and sesquipedality trimmed to the bone. This point: the stories in Oblivion comprise relatively straightforward Lot of the formal flash that's marked a great deal of his work to This trendĬontinues in Oblivion's eight stories, but this time Wallace cuts a Simultaneously daring and deeply felt fictions of our time.

Millennial America, and the results have been some of the most His work has always combinedīoundary-pushing-boundary-examining, to be more specific, a farĭifferent thing-with explorations of what it means to be human in

It's been prime among Wallace's interests since his firstĬollection, 1989's Girl with Curious Hair (also see the Summer 1993Īnd Spring 1996 issues of this journal). Serious artists, especially those of the post-postmodern era, and Transgression loses its power if transgression's what'sĮxpected, in other words. Pushing boundaries as a matter of course, that can itself become anotherīoundary for writer and reader alike: must push boundaries. Literary experimentalist around, and he's made a career out ofīumping the art in new directions but when a writer is known for Subvert convention at a time when subverting convention has become the Writers of his generation but the most talented American writers period,ĭavid Foster Wallace finds himself in the tricky position of trying to Post ascension to the ranks of not only the most talented American 2004 Review of Contemporary Fiction 20 May.

Oblivion david foster wallace review