I have recently finished Oblivion:Stories, and have written a provisional review.

A mystery remains for me, however: at the end of the story "Good Old Neon," in the lower right-hand corner of the page is a cipher. Imagine a right-pointing arrow where my asterisk is and this is what's printed: [*NMN.80.418:]

(Square brackets are part of the cipher.)

Does anyone have knowledge, or ideas, about the significance? This is, of course, the story that also has the character "David Wallace," class of '81.

I'd be interested in people's responses to Oblivion. Do any of you, or any others, have
reviews posted for it?

ANSWERING MYSELF: I was impatient so I googled the NMN.80.418 and surprised myself by getting the answer from several sources, according to which: The narrator/narrated high-flier of the story, who commmits suicide at the end or at the beginning, was from the HS class of '80, .418 was his batting average in Legion League, and his first name was Neal, and one detective-like reader tracks the "NMN" as his initials.

Ask and ye shall be answered!

JP

I was deeply puzzled by that detail myself for a long time...until I similarly Googled-and-ye-shall-find-ed.

"Good Old Neon" was and remains my favorite story from Oblivion. Although during my most recent rereading of the collection I realized that "Another Pioneer" is close in the running as well, along with "The Soul Is Not A Smithy."

As a general recommendation to all who are fond of DFW's short stories: if you haven't already, check out his first collection of short stories Girl With Curious Hair.