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54th out of 88 books
—
150 voters
Orientation: And Other Stories
by
Daniel Orozco (Goodreads Author)
Breakfast’s boiled egg, the overhead hum of fluorescent lights, the midmorning coffee break—daily routines keep the world running. But when people are pushed—by a coworker’s taunt, a face-to-face encounter with a woman in free fall from a bridge—cracks appear, revealing alienation, casual cruelty, madness, and above all a simultaneous hunger for and fear of the unknown.
Dan...more
Dan...more
Hardcover, 162 pages
Published
May 24th 2011
by Faber & Faber
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I can certainly see the talent and value in this author, and I think that I probably would have liked these stories better if I'd read them individually--meaning, if I'd happened upon one in Story or Mid-American Review, I probably would have thought it clever and liked it. All together, though, they were just too much. Too clever. Too similar. Maybe too hip for me. When I saw that one of the pieces was published in McSweeney's, I should have known...(and that was the only story I didn't finish)...more
3.5 i will give him. though that is probably blasphemy to his side. i mean it could be 5 stars, easily, but like i said to others, this is no Heathcock and HIS first collection Volt: Stories
or mike young's first collection Look! Look! Feathers
or lorrie moore Like Life
or the incredible 1st collection of julie orringer How to Breathe Underwater: Stories
but with all that said, there is a george saunders sadness and fuckeduppedness about Orozco's characters, and it's all about them; not wifey, not t...more
or mike young's first collection Look! Look! Feathers
or lorrie moore Like Life
or the incredible 1st collection of julie orringer How to Breathe Underwater: Stories
but with all that said, there is a george saunders sadness and fuckeduppedness about Orozco's characters, and it's all about them; not wifey, not t...more
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You're a new worker at an unnamed corporation. You are being told company policy, the rules and regulations for employees. During orientation, you are also being told about the other workers.
Along with the instructions for use of the kitchenette, and the rest room, and the exact rule on breaks, we find out who is in love with whom, and who was and no longer is in love with whom. We also find out about who steals, and who "gorges himself at home on cold pizza and ice cream while watching adult vi...more
Along with the instructions for use of the kitchenette, and the rest room, and the exact rule on breaks, we find out who is in love with whom, and who was and no longer is in love with whom. We also find out about who steals, and who "gorges himself at home on cold pizza and ice cream while watching adult vi...more
What makes writing a unique medium of communication is that it invades your mind. When you watch a film or have a conversation, so much is easily forgotten. Writing -- good or bad -- has the power to remain with you for a long time.
Needless to say, as I was buying this book for one of my grad school classes, I didn't expect Orozco to be a good writer, and certainly not an exceptional one. I was more or less convinced that my purchase was to fund the writing career of someone who was likely a fr...more
Needless to say, as I was buying this book for one of my grad school classes, I didn't expect Orozco to be a good writer, and certainly not an exceptional one. I was more or less convinced that my purchase was to fund the writing career of someone who was likely a fr...more
6 likes · like · see review
I felt this thrilling sense as I read Daniel Orozco’s debut story story collection, Orientation, that Orozco was a rule-breaker, risk-taker, and rebel craftsman.
Orozco’s nine stories read respectively as: A new employee’s office orientation told in monologue; four portraits of insatiable hunger and strange desires; disturbing snapshots from the life of a long-distance runner; the last, horrific chronicles of The Presidente-in-Exile; a startling and moving police blotter report; a series of ill-f...more
Orozco’s nine stories read respectively as: A new employee’s office orientation told in monologue; four portraits of insatiable hunger and strange desires; disturbing snapshots from the life of a long-distance runner; the last, horrific chronicles of The Presidente-in-Exile; a startling and moving police blotter report; a series of ill-f...more
This book faced an uphill battle in winning my affection, b/c of stupid, unfair resistance on my part formed on the notion its author had seemingly built an entire career off of a single short novelty story written 15 years ago. But it climbed all the way up that hill and gave me a good wallop in the face and brain for good measure. This is a really, really good collection of stories--the best I've read since David Means' 'The Spot' last year. The title story may be the one that people know, but...more
This is a pretty remarkable book of stories. I'm not a huge fan of every story here-- some, like the first/ title story isn't even much of a story as much as it is a trailer of sorts for the book-- but the collection itself, from that panoramic opener to the companion story, "Temporary Stories" or the last story, "Shakers," which really does complete a full strophe that also closes the book, reading this is pretty breathtaking.
Orozco's focus is pretty limited-- this is a collection that is very...more
Orozco's focus is pretty limited-- this is a collection that is very...more
It's a rare occasion to read a collection of stories as fine as all of these. Yes, all. Orozco's characters search for solace in their solitude, and find it where and if they can--sometimes not until the very last sentence of their stories.
Each story reminded me of jewelry--like small, beautiful pieces of enamelware, well-considered and carefully wrought--and I don't know if it's the strength of his writing, or the strength of his editing, but the efforts show. The metaphors, with the exception...more
Each story reminded me of jewelry--like small, beautiful pieces of enamelware, well-considered and carefully wrought--and I don't know if it's the strength of his writing, or the strength of his editing, but the efforts show. The metaphors, with the exception...more
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Loneliness and Laughter: Daniel Orozco’s ‘Orientation”
In this long-awaited debut, characters are more tethered to their jobs than to other people.
By Jenny Shank, 6-06-11
Idaho-based writer Daniel Orozco‘s first book, Orientation and Other Stories (Faber and Faber, 162 pages, $23), journeys to so many different places—from life among the perpetual painters of the Golden Gate Bridge, to Paraguay, where the deposed president of a Latin-American country lives i...more
Loneliness and Laughter: Daniel Orozco’s ‘Orientation”
In this long-awaited debut, characters are more tethered to their jobs than to other people.
By Jenny Shank, 6-06-11
Idaho-based writer Daniel Orozco‘s first book, Orientation and Other Stories (Faber and Faber, 162 pages, $23), journeys to so many different places—from life among the perpetual painters of the Golden Gate Bridge, to Paraguay, where the deposed president of a Latin-American country lives i...more
If I list the names of these stories, you might see around the corner. How about the guy who tells you what’s what on your first day at the office, and then gives you the 411 on everyone else? I know that guy (he got fired from the office in Then We Came to the End). Or the quiet guy who works in your warehouse, and runs early in the morning. He took out the fat girl, and got away with it. The same guy warned you, by not saying anything to anyone, and he was nice to the old lady who retired whic...more
After reading the first short story in this collection I thought I had the book pegged, funny stories with a bit of a sardonic edge to them. A host of slightly odd ducks in a world where things were not quite what they seemed. A little like George Saunders.
However, after the humorous first story things got a little darker. The stories were similar to Saunders in as much as they often had rather neurotic, introverted protagonists and often were set in a world that it just that tiny bit stranger t...more
However, after the humorous first story things got a little darker. The stories were similar to Saunders in as much as they often had rather neurotic, introverted protagonists and often were set in a world that it just that tiny bit stranger t...more
Two police officers who find themselves falling in love, documented in the pages of a police blotter. A group of bridge painters. A temporary worker who moves from long-term assignment to long-term assignment. An exiled dictator. A morbidly obese, housebound man. The characters that populate Daniel Orozco's great story collection, Orientation and Other Stories, aren't the usual characters around whom stories are based. And that makes each one all the more interesting and captivating.
I really enj...more
I really enj...more
If this book suffers from one thing, it's a lack of cohesion. Which maybe shouldn't be an issue with a story collection; others might praise its polyphony, its genre-bending whatever, its diversity. For me, it was tough to really dig in, to really hear what Orozco was trying to say.
The first story ("Orientation," published fifteen years ago in the Seattle Review) is the best. I love a successful second-person story; they're hard to come by, and this one works. The rest are sort of all over the p...more
The first story ("Orientation," published fifteen years ago in the Seattle Review) is the best. I love a successful second-person story; they're hard to come by, and this one works. The rest are sort of all over the p...more
“The body was a temple, she said, and we could all benefit from sprucing up our temples” (46).
“In the dressing room, his fingers glide through a kelp of neckties…” (62).
“She burrows away, deep into the bedding. Body heat purls off her” (62).
“Dinorah had numerous names for him that ran the gamut of her moods: Big Bear, Big Bull, cabron pinche, cabron Cocksucker Dog, My Prince, My Light, My One True Love” (71).
“…the puling of a ship’s whistle on the river” (72).
“(For Cerbero and Paladino are neute...more
“In the dressing room, his fingers glide through a kelp of neckties…” (62).
“She burrows away, deep into the bedding. Body heat purls off her” (62).
“Dinorah had numerous names for him that ran the gamut of her moods: Big Bear, Big Bull, cabron pinche, cabron Cocksucker Dog, My Prince, My Light, My One True Love” (71).
“…the puling of a ship’s whistle on the river” (72).
“(For Cerbero and Paladino are neute...more
Short stories can be a tough sell. Strangely, they feel harder to write, and they give you a good deal of variety, but most people seem less interested in short stories than longform works.
A lot of claims have to do with the fact that you're less invested in the story before it ends, which I get. But I would pose the theory that part of the problem with short story collections is that they tend to be a little uneven. Novels are equally so, but because they don't delineate sections as heavily it'...more
A lot of claims have to do with the fact that you're less invested in the story before it ends, which I get. But I would pose the theory that part of the problem with short story collections is that they tend to be a little uneven. Novels are equally so, but because they don't delineate sections as heavily it'...more
I had been dying to read this collection of stories. In fact, I was ready to give it 5 stars before I even purchased it. The first story, the title story, was amazingly perfect. It's seriously the most mind-blowing 2nd person story you'll probably ever read. Its dark humor and deep understanding of work place environments is impressive. In fact, many of the stories deal with that nebulous cloud in which our work culture and our personal secrets intersect. My problem with the collection as a whol...more
I liked the formal innovation here, the sentence-level writing, and the emphasis on ordinary somewhat-downtrodden working folks. I guess what separates this from, say, collections by folks like Saunders and Murakami, for me, is that it almost feels too normal, somehow. Like, I wanted these stories to take me somewhere else, to be weirder and funnier or scarier or something. Instead they often ended feeling a bit, I don't know, sociological, even if its interesting sociology. Maybe it's because t...more
As with all collections of short stories, some stories will stick with you more than others. Orozco's writing is sharp and on point, with just the right amount of dark humor and poignancy. This collection seems to examine small disruptions in daily tedium, disruptions that are either tragically taken into stride, swept out of mind in favor of routine, or simply makes the routine look even sadder in comparison. I feel like Orozco is more successful when he deals with more minute interactions, as...more
I enjoyed this collection of short stories. The first story called "Orientation" was pretty funny. It was the story of someone giving a new person a first day orientation at a company and the narrator tells the new hire all about the people that work there, what to do and not to do. It is very tongue in cheek. The stories are very original. One tells of two police officers falling for each other, and this is told through the use of routine police reports. All the stories are well written and dra...more
"Officers Weep" is still one of my all-time favorite stories for its police log structure and the sentence structure of police log writing, which Orozco gets just right. Turns out all the other stories follow the same idea -- "Orientation," about job orientation, uses all the bland language of the office world at the right moments, yet we learn all the weird stuff about the workers. "Temporary Stories," about a prodigal temp worker handling a human resources gig, is my second favorite in the col...more
I received this book from Good Reads First Reads- thank you.
This book of nine powerful stories had me from the first, title story. As the narrator gives a tour and orientation, you learn intimate and sometimes scary things about your new coworkers and rather depressing details of your new job. (I think I work there). Another story, Samoza's Dream, takes you along on a day with the dictator in exile, as he scorns the locals, abuses his driver, and urinates on the American embassy. In Shakers, we...more
This book of nine powerful stories had me from the first, title story. As the narrator gives a tour and orientation, you learn intimate and sometimes scary things about your new coworkers and rather depressing details of your new job. (I think I work there). Another story, Samoza's Dream, takes you along on a day with the dictator in exile, as he scorns the locals, abuses his driver, and urinates on the American embassy. In Shakers, we...more
I think of that Simpsons episode where Marge tells Lisa, "One day you'll grow up and write depressing stories about people coming to terms with things". It's a little too easy to do the David Foster Wallace thing and write about the misery of modern American life - offices, suicides, anxiety-laden housewives in supermarkets and all that. Still, this is this guy's first collection of stories and he's certainly a very good writer. Promisingly, he builds his characters up well in a short amount of...more
This dazzling collection of short stories impressed me more than any other I've read probably since I read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, a modern classic, a few years ago. I fear that without the weighty subject of Vietnam to carry it, Daniel Orozco's collection may not have the staying power O'Brien's does, and that Orientation will fall through the cracks. That would be a shame.
Each of these nine stories has something to offer, some off-kilter take on everyday life, a vivid re-imagini...more
Each of these nine stories has something to offer, some off-kilter take on everyday life, a vivid re-imagini...more
Some story collections contain a couple gems and a bunch of filler. That's not the case here. Every story in this perfect collection dazzles. Haunting, moving, fresh, thrilling--you could go on forever singing the praises of this collection. I first read "Orientation," a story that's both everyday mundane and supercreepy amazing. "Officers Weep" was next, an utterly new way to tell a story, one that's all the more moving for its police blotter form. I could go on about every story: "Shakers" cat...more
I read it cover to cover in one sitting. It's good! At times, you can see the tropes or character types a bit too clearly (e.g. the suburban killer) but overall, I didn't find a story I particularly disliked, and there was a rare sense of sincerity throughout. Fave was Temporary Stories, though the simple camaraderie in The Bridge was great. Officers Weep is one to show your friends. (Or at least one I'd gush about: fun plot and interesting structure based on police reports.) I could have done w...more
Interesting collection of stories. While I can appreciate and respect the work Orozco is doing, his stories are not to my taste. In no way do I think his writing is gimmicky (it's far too good for that label - and the writing is really, really good), his formal inventiveness/experimentation doesn't do as much for me as it might for others. Stories like, "The Bridge," "Hunger Tales," "I Run Every Day," and "Only Connect," however, have the kinds of more traditional narrative that I really enjoy....more
Dark more than darkly humorous. Brothers Grimm for grown ups. A temp learns about an entire department being outsourced in a few months. An exiled dictator is assassinated. A guy in Shipping rapes a woman from Receiving. A young woman jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. Disturbing plots but I liked the writing ("His fingers glide through a kelp of neckties...."). I wasn't in the mood for the police blotter love story, but I enjoyed the orientation-spiel story. Orozco says he's working on a novel....more
AHH, I wish I could have liked this book more but it really is not the kind of stuff that I seek to read. Orozco is VERY talented at writing, creating great characters and telling great stories, but his stories are not the kind that I like to hear. Much like Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes, Orozco gives us a peek into the everyday lives of working people, but it's often painfully tragic or unnervingly icky, you know, cuz humans are flawed and all of that. It's just too much realism and n...more
If I had a dollar for every time I have referenced, linked to, or told someone about Daniel Orozco’s short story “Orientation” (which you can listen to right here, fast forward to about 50:45), I could probably buy all of you a copy of his new short collection, Orientation: And Other Stories. You would thank me. This slim collection, a mere 176 pages, is goose-bump causing, breath-holding fantastic.
It’s filled with the kind of stories and writing that make you stop reading, close your eyes, clut...more
It’s filled with the kind of stories and writing that make you stop reading, close your eyes, clut...more
Orozco's writing is sometimes wry, sometimes lyrical and sometimes sweet. The stories are versatile in subject and I liked most of them quite a bit.
In one, a new employee goes on a tour of the office and finds out the relationships of all and sundry with a sort of entertaining disconnectedness. There's an office temp working on a top secret project who decides to insert some commentary into the content she's fixing, and a young bridge painter who sees a woman up close as she plummets to her deat...more
In one, a new employee goes on a tour of the office and finds out the relationships of all and sundry with a sort of entertaining disconnectedness. There's an office temp working on a top secret project who decides to insert some commentary into the content she's fixing, and a young bridge painter who sees a woman up close as she plummets to her deat...more
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Daniel Orozco's stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, Best American Essays, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, as well as in publications such as Harpers Magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, McSweeneys, Ecotone, and Story Quarterly. He was awarded a 2006 NEA fellowship in fiction, and was a finalist for a 2006 National Magazine Award in fiction. A former Ste...more
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“You get where you are by yourself. There's no regret in that. That's just the way it is.”
—
6 people liked it
“It's not just love, or desire, but something profoundly less complex, as unadorned and simple as the vehicle code. Officer laughs, cries. Tearful and giddy, she whales on her demonstrator with what she realizes is joy in her heart.”
—
1 person liked it
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