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Orientation and Other Stories
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.
Daniel Orozco leads the reader through the hidden lives and moral philosophies of bridge painters, men housebound by obesity, office temps, and warehouse workers. He reveals the secret pleasures of late-night supermarket trips for cookie binges, exceptional data entry, and an exiled dictator’s occasional piss on the U.S. embassy. A love affair blooms between two officers in the impartially worded pages of a police blotter; a new employee’s first-day office tour includes descriptions of other workers’ most private thoughts and actions; during an earthquake, the consciousness of the entire state of California shakes free for examination.
Orientation introduces a writer at the height of his powers, whose work surely invites us to reassess the landscape of American fiction.
Orientation is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Short Story Collections title.
Daniel Orozco leads the reader through the hidden lives and moral philosophies of bridge painters, men housebound by obesity, office temps, and warehouse workers. He reveals the secret pleasures of late-night supermarket trips for cookie binges, exceptional data entry, and an exiled dictator’s occasional piss on the U.S. embassy. A love affair blooms between two officers in the impartially worded pages of a police blotter; a new employee’s first-day office tour includes descriptions of other workers’ most private thoughts and actions; during an earthquake, the consciousness of the entire state of California shakes free for examination.
Orientation introduces a writer at the height of his powers, whose work surely invites us to reassess the landscape of American fiction.
Orientation is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Short Story Collections title.
162 pages, Hardcover
First published May 24, 2011
80 people are currently reading
1866 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Orozco
54 books57 followersDaniel 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 Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford, he teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho.
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June 7, 2023
Orientation and Other Stories by American author Daniel Orozco, a collection of nine stories mostly focusing on the world of work, THE world for many women and men grinding it out day after day, year after year. The title story is a classic, deserving its own review, as per -
ORIENTATION
"Those are the offices and these are the cubicles. That's my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle. This is your phone. Never answer your phone. Let the Voicemail System answer it."
So begins this tale where a supervisor sets down the rules and outlines office dynamics for a new employee. Let's call the supervisor Amy and the the new employee Beth. Here are a few highlights of Amy's spiel:
"There are no personal phone calls allowed. We do, however, allow for emergencies. If you must make an emergency phone call, ask your supervisor first....If you make an emergency phone call without asking, you may be let go."
Beth is being told directly, every minute of her time when she's in the office is the company's time. Even the slightest deviation from this ironclad rule will result in termination. Office workers do not have unions and they can be easily replaced, as Beth very well knows.
"These are your in-and out-boxes. All the forms in your in-box must be logged in by the date shown in the upper-left-hand corner, initialed by you in the upper-right-hand corner, and distributed to the Processing Analyst whose name is numerically coded in the lower-left-hand corner."
Oh, my, this sounds like the eerie echo of a mini-fascist state or a bureaucratic nightmare out of Kafka. Welcome to work world, American-style, Beth.
"You must pace your work...We pace our work according to the eight-hour work-day. If you have twelve hours of work in your in-box, for example, you must compress that work into the eight-hour day. If you have one hour of work in your in-box, you must expand that work to fill the eight-hour day."
What a howler! You can bet nearly every day Beth will be forced to do twelve hours of work each eight-hour day. In other words, Beth is looking at an unreasonable amount of work. However, she's been told up front, so if she complains, even once, she can be fired on the spot. But since Beth NEEDS the paycheck to live above the poverty line, if she's like millions of other office workers, she'll simply work her ass off in silence.
"This is our receptionist. She is a temp. We go through receptionists here. They quit with alarming frequency. Be polite and civil to temps. Learn their names, and invite them to lunch occasionally. But don't get close to them, as it only makes it more difficult when they leave. And they always leave. You can bet on that."
A classic tactic in organizations: give workers mixed messages so no matter how they act or what they do, you'll always be able to criticize them or fire them on the spot.
"The men's room is over there. The women's room is over there. John LeFountaine, who sits over there, uses the women's room occasionally. He says it is accidental. We know better, but we let it pass. John Fountaine is harmless, his forays into the forbidden territory of the women's room simply a benign thrill, a faint blip on the dull, flat line of his life."
Ha! A man violating women's privacy is OK with management for a number of possible reasons: this guy makes lots of money for the company, he is the owner's son, he holds power in some way (like knowing the company has engaged in illegal activities). One way or the other, John F transcends common decency and the arm of the law. Also, Amy can use this as a test: if Beth objects, she will be invited to leave the building now.
"Russell Nash, who sits in the cubicle to your left, is in love with Amanda Pierce, who sits in the cubicle to your right."
Amy describes in detail all the emotional tangles between various employees thus alerting Beth she must be aware of what she's walking into, a given in most office environments. Of course, Beth will be expected to be sensitive to her fellow workers' emotions and relationships - one slip up and she could be fired.
"Anika Bloom sits in that cubicle. Last year, while reviewing quarterly reports in a meeting with Barry Hacker, Anika Bloom's left palm began to bleed. She fell into a trance, stared into her hand, and told Barry Hacker when and how his wife would die. We laughed it off. She was, after all, a new employee. But Barry Hacker's wife is dead. So unless you want to know exactly when and how you'll die, never talk to Anika Bloom."
Now that's extreme! Perhaps Amy is fabricating the story, maybe Anika Bloom is filing a claim against the company and Amy simply wants Beth to avoid all contact with Anika. Whatever the reason, Beth knows she's about to enter a hornet's nest, one more reason to keep to herself and devote every minute to completing twelve-hours of work every day.
"Kevin Howard sits in that cubicle over there. He is a serial killer, the one they call the Carpet Cutter, responsible for the mutilations across town....Kevin Howard does not let any of this interfere with his work. He is, in fact, our fastest typist. He types as if he were on fire."
Aah! The extreme of extreme! But Kevin Howard, via his typing skills, can obviously make more money for the company, the overriding factor in keeping Kevin Howard at his desk. Again, maybe Amy isn't telling the truth, maybe Amy has her own emotional attachment to this guy and she doesn't want Beth messing with her man.
Are you the type of person to avoid such an office? Do you think you'd rather work in a warehouse, at a zoo, or as a lawyer or a temp? Not so fast as Daniel Orozco has written stories to let you know what you could be in for.
American author Daniel Orozco, born 1957
January 7, 2015
Update: 12/12/13: This book is so goddamn brilliant that I'm reading it again. I can't find either of my paper copies, which means I lost my signed copy :(, so I just downloaded it... It's good to spend money on amazing books.
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 friend of the professor. Well. Sometimes (albeit rarely) I'm dead fucking wrong.
When I finished this book, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was obsessing about the stories and felt the need the go sit outside and contemplate life for a while. (The last time I felt this way was when I first read "The Lady With the Little Dog" by Chekhov.)
There is something unsettling and unnerving about these short stories. The characters are raw and realistic, the humor is biting, and the narration is distant. We're simply told what is, and not what to feel, yet one comes away with strong emotions. These are portraits of people that any of us could have been at some point in life: a person who turns to food in the throes of grief; a jittery temp employee who finds intimacy in odd places; a person with a lifelong secret. Even the larger-than-life characters (a brutal Latin American dictator; a violent athlete; a war vet now immobilized by obesity) are depicted in ways that render them remarkably human.
Perhaps my favorite part of this book is Orozco's subtlety. He almost never tells you that a character dies, but death is inferred or implied in ways that are so beautiful that they take on a mystical quality. Also, he possesses the rare skill of describing the weather without sounding like an asshole -- his simple descriptions of the sky or the light from above intensify scenes in ways that few writers are able to accomplish.
The result of all of this is that you come away from the book being completely moved, though you were unaware of any of it happening at the time.
So, get a copy. NOW.
Kicked ass. Seriously.
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 friend of the professor. Well. Sometimes (albeit rarely) I'm dead fucking wrong.
When I finished this book, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was obsessing about the stories and felt the need the go sit outside and contemplate life for a while. (The last time I felt this way was when I first read "The Lady With the Little Dog" by Chekhov.)
There is something unsettling and unnerving about these short stories. The characters are raw and realistic, the humor is biting, and the narration is distant. We're simply told what is, and not what to feel, yet one comes away with strong emotions. These are portraits of people that any of us could have been at some point in life: a person who turns to food in the throes of grief; a jittery temp employee who finds intimacy in odd places; a person with a lifelong secret. Even the larger-than-life characters (a brutal Latin American dictator; a violent athlete; a war vet now immobilized by obesity) are depicted in ways that render them remarkably human.
Perhaps my favorite part of this book is Orozco's subtlety. He almost never tells you that a character dies, but death is inferred or implied in ways that are so beautiful that they take on a mystical quality. Also, he possesses the rare skill of describing the weather without sounding like an asshole -- his simple descriptions of the sky or the light from above intensify scenes in ways that few writers are able to accomplish.
The result of all of this is that you come away from the book being completely moved, though you were unaware of any of it happening at the time.
So, get a copy. NOW.
Kicked ass. Seriously.
October 30, 2016
If George Saunders, Stuart Dybak and Franz Kafka combined to make a short story love baby progidy, this creature might write stories as beautiful as Daniel Orozco. His talents are revealed in the variety of tones and voices in this collection - from the hilarious to the page-turning-ripping-yarn to the downright heartbreaking. Hunker down with your favorite beverage of choice and let a master of the form show you why short fiction is so amazing.
December 29, 2018
Its brilliant, I haven´t read anything like this before!
July 29, 2011
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 the anklebiters, not mum and pops, just work and your worthless, possibly sexy, certainly weird and disgusting co-workers and your weird and definitely soul eating JOB. So these are stories about individuals (with a CAPITAL I) working, trying to work, wishing they could work, wishing they didn't have to work, and the so-called third places we are offered here in good ole usa to relax in after work. Turns out most of Orozco's 3rd places are park benches, city buses, and abandoned pocket gardens. How sad is that?
One of my very first paying jobs was in Reno in a print shop downtown. i was 13? 14 maybe, and for lunch break from after collating keno tickets, boxing brochures, sweeping ink polluted paper about, and generally trying not to chop my arm off in the big ass paper cutter, we'd go next door to the Stein Bar. Now THAT was a 3rd place, straight out of some funky noir movie, and yes, the owners, cook, bartender (generally the same guy) were old fat german guys with lots of steins hanging up for use, mustard pots on the bar etc. I'd get a roast beef sandwich with lots of mustard and horseradish, and they'd give we a glass of BEER!!!! that was the best job i've ever had, or at least the best lunch breaks :)
Reno Print Shop and the Stein Bar are both long gone. There are some sort of generic disney casinos there now where Orozco's characters all work at this very moment. and they steal each others food out of the lounge fridge and go eat alone on a forgotten bench down by the Truckee River, alone. ah hell, HE GETS 5 STARS just for the memories he's invoked in me.
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 the anklebiters, not mum and pops, just work and your worthless, possibly sexy, certainly weird and disgusting co-workers and your weird and definitely soul eating JOB. So these are stories about individuals (with a CAPITAL I) working, trying to work, wishing they could work, wishing they didn't have to work, and the so-called third places we are offered here in good ole usa to relax in after work. Turns out most of Orozco's 3rd places are park benches, city buses, and abandoned pocket gardens. How sad is that?
One of my very first paying jobs was in Reno in a print shop downtown. i was 13? 14 maybe, and for lunch break from after collating keno tickets, boxing brochures, sweeping ink polluted paper about, and generally trying not to chop my arm off in the big ass paper cutter, we'd go next door to the Stein Bar. Now THAT was a 3rd place, straight out of some funky noir movie, and yes, the owners, cook, bartender (generally the same guy) were old fat german guys with lots of steins hanging up for use, mustard pots on the bar etc. I'd get a roast beef sandwich with lots of mustard and horseradish, and they'd give we a glass of BEER!!!! that was the best job i've ever had, or at least the best lunch breaks :)
Reno Print Shop and the Stein Bar are both long gone. There are some sort of generic disney casinos there now where Orozco's characters all work at this very moment. and they steal each others food out of the lounge fridge and go eat alone on a forgotten bench down by the Truckee River, alone. ah hell, HE GETS 5 STARS just for the memories he's invoked in me.
October 5, 2011
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-fated and harrowing connections; unforgettable excerpts from the life of a temporary office employee; and chilling and glorious accounts of a Bay Area earthquake told from countless locations and points-of-views.
These nine stories are often fragmented, messy, jarring, and even sometimes abortive. The stories are also brilliant and wonderfully surprising, interesting, original, and affecting.
God, they made me feel.
Write me a story, Daniel Orozco. Put me in that story, Daniel Orozco. Break rules, take risks and be your rebel you, Daniel Orozco. Make everything less hard and scary, Daniel Orozco. Give my story an ending as exquisite as Clarissa Snow’s in “Temporary Stories” or that of the owner of the forgotten Honda in “Shakers.”
An excerpt from “Shakers”:
“Out here they go on about how the light chisels, how it polishes and defines the edges of whatever it falls upon and imparts a dazzling clarity. They go on about how the light comes down around you in curtains or how it pours and spills like honey. It gleams and glints, it sparks and flares. The light has weight, it has density, it is palpable. Sometimes you can even hear it, zinging metallic and bright! What crap. When they aren’t steeped in the cliched golden hues of a shampoo commercial, the skies most days are an insipid palette of white and blueish white and yellowish white. Every vista is dull and bleary, a sun-bleached smudge in the distance. And nothing is chiseled. Everything you look at is foreshortened, flat and common as a souvenir poster. Although there can be days–those mornings of unseasonable fog when the sunlight is filtered through a fragile veil of cloud that renders the air itself luminous as milk; or the clear, cloudless afternoon when you’re walking under a canopy of trees or through the lobby of a building downtown, and just before moving out of the shade, you take off your sunglasses and stand there a moment and anticipate entering the world of sunlight.”
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-fated and harrowing connections; unforgettable excerpts from the life of a temporary office employee; and chilling and glorious accounts of a Bay Area earthquake told from countless locations and points-of-views.
These nine stories are often fragmented, messy, jarring, and even sometimes abortive. The stories are also brilliant and wonderfully surprising, interesting, original, and affecting.
God, they made me feel.
Write me a story, Daniel Orozco. Put me in that story, Daniel Orozco. Break rules, take risks and be your rebel you, Daniel Orozco. Make everything less hard and scary, Daniel Orozco. Give my story an ending as exquisite as Clarissa Snow’s in “Temporary Stories” or that of the owner of the forgotten Honda in “Shakers.”
An excerpt from “Shakers”:
“Out here they go on about how the light chisels, how it polishes and defines the edges of whatever it falls upon and imparts a dazzling clarity. They go on about how the light comes down around you in curtains or how it pours and spills like honey. It gleams and glints, it sparks and flares. The light has weight, it has density, it is palpable. Sometimes you can even hear it, zinging metallic and bright! What crap. When they aren’t steeped in the cliched golden hues of a shampoo commercial, the skies most days are an insipid palette of white and blueish white and yellowish white. Every vista is dull and bleary, a sun-bleached smudge in the distance. And nothing is chiseled. Everything you look at is foreshortened, flat and common as a souvenir poster. Although there can be days–those mornings of unseasonable fog when the sunlight is filtered through a fragile veil of cloud that renders the air itself luminous as milk; or the clear, cloudless afternoon when you’re walking under a canopy of trees or through the lobby of a building downtown, and just before moving out of the shade, you take off your sunglasses and stand there a moment and anticipate entering the world of sunlight.”
May 15, 2012
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).
Orozco definitely has a way with words and at times his descriptions are arresting, intense, beautiful, and wholly original. I don't know that great descriptions can carry a whole story though (honestly, I would have argued with this statement two years ago...). This is my problem with "Shakers". There were incredibly beautful parts, but I'm just not sure what I'm meant to take away from the piece as a whole.
That being said, I did really enjoy "The Bridge" and "I Run Everyday". I also liked "Officers Weep", but in an "Huh, that was interesting" kind of way, not a "Wow, I'm in love with X" kind of way, if that makes any sense.
I am a bit surprised to see so many reviews talk about the humor in this collection. Sure, there was some, but to me, most of these stories were quite dark.
To compare this with the last book of stories I read--Alan Heathcock's Volt--I can see see some similarities (and both authors are teaching a schools in Idaho, weird coicidence), but Volt wins hands down. Of course, that book was exceptionally exceptional.
Orozco definitely has a way with words and at times his descriptions are arresting, intense, beautiful, and wholly original. I don't know that great descriptions can carry a whole story though (honestly, I would have argued with this statement two years ago...). This is my problem with "Shakers". There were incredibly beautful parts, but I'm just not sure what I'm meant to take away from the piece as a whole.
That being said, I did really enjoy "The Bridge" and "I Run Everyday". I also liked "Officers Weep", but in an "Huh, that was interesting" kind of way, not a "Wow, I'm in love with X" kind of way, if that makes any sense.
I am a bit surprised to see so many reviews talk about the humor in this collection. Sure, there was some, but to me, most of these stories were quite dark.
To compare this with the last book of stories I read--Alan Heathcock's Volt--I can see see some similarities (and both authors are teaching a schools in Idaho, weird coicidence), but Volt wins hands down. Of course, that book was exceptionally exceptional.
March 17, 2022
I thought this was a collection of short stories, but it was only one. Received from Amazon for Kindle for free awhile ago.
I worked as a temp for awhile and this brought back memories as I changed jobs so often. The comment about "you can heat food in the microwave, but don't cook food in the microwave" still has to be true!
I worked as a temp for awhile and this brought back memories as I changed jobs so often. The comment about "you can heat food in the microwave, but don't cook food in the microwave" still has to be true!
March 8, 2025
⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Orozco è del '57. Ha insegnato scrittura creativa all'università e oggi è in pensione. I suoi racconti sono apparsi in importanti antologie come The best american short stories e in magazine come Harper's e McSweeney's.
Orientation è il suo unico libro.
Non so a te, ma a me 'sta cosa fa impazzire. Il meglio del suo meglio concentrato in un'unica raccolta.
E lo dico subito, Orozco scrive divinamente. È meticoloso. Si percepisce quanto lavoro ci sia dietro ognuna delle sua storie.
Dal primo racconto in seconda persona, ai salti temporali di I sogni di Somoza, passando per uno scritto simil-saunderiano e uno Barthelmissimo composto solo dai rapporti di una poliziotta, i racconti potrebbero essere stati scritti tutti da persone diverse.
È non è un semplice fatto di struttura, di punti di vista differenti o di invenzioni narrative. È la scrittura in sé a cambiare da un racconto all'altro.
Insomma, Orozco è Mike Patton.
Però se di Patton, tra Faith no More, l'avant-garde dei Fantomas, la brutalità dei Dead Cross, i classici italiani di Mondo Cane o le sperimentazioni con Zorn, non sai mai cosa ascoltare, con Orozco è semplicissimo.
Compra Orientamento.
Orozco è del '57. Ha insegnato scrittura creativa all'università e oggi è in pensione. I suoi racconti sono apparsi in importanti antologie come The best american short stories e in magazine come Harper's e McSweeney's.
Orientation è il suo unico libro.
Non so a te, ma a me 'sta cosa fa impazzire. Il meglio del suo meglio concentrato in un'unica raccolta.
E lo dico subito, Orozco scrive divinamente. È meticoloso. Si percepisce quanto lavoro ci sia dietro ognuna delle sua storie.
Dal primo racconto in seconda persona, ai salti temporali di I sogni di Somoza, passando per uno scritto simil-saunderiano e uno Barthelmissimo composto solo dai rapporti di una poliziotta, i racconti potrebbero essere stati scritti tutti da persone diverse.
È non è un semplice fatto di struttura, di punti di vista differenti o di invenzioni narrative. È la scrittura in sé a cambiare da un racconto all'altro.
Insomma, Orozco è Mike Patton.
Però se di Patton, tra Faith no More, l'avant-garde dei Fantomas, la brutalità dei Dead Cross, i classici italiani di Mondo Cane o le sperimentazioni con Zorn, non sai mai cosa ascoltare, con Orozco è semplicissimo.
Compra Orientamento.
January 16, 2013
I picked this up at the library because that cover caught my eye. I decided to check it out after seeing it was a collection of short stories, thinking maybe that would hold my interest longer than a novel. And it did, oh how it did! The writing in this book is magical & raw, at times shocking & sad. I absolutely loved it, even the parts I felt I hated because of the subject. It stirred something inside of me over & over. This is the first book I have read on 2013 & I feel like it has set a foundation for a year of literary discoveries I'm well over-due for.
May 27, 2024
What an awesome read!! These 9 stories were so interesting, and the details that Orozco decided to add were unlike anything I've read before. The pictures he paints with his words were both beautiful and haunting, shedding a light on stories that feel so distant, yet reflect many of our daily lives. I'm hoping to read more from him in the future:)
July 29, 2011
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 enjoyed the majority of the stories in this collection. Orozco has a tremendously engaging style that pulls you in pretty quickly, and even if you cannot identify with the situations the characters find themselves within, you definitely want to see what transpires. The opening story, "Orientation," in which a new employee is given a tour of the office that includes far more information than where the copier is and whether personal phone calls are allowed, shows off Orozco's humor and lets you know fairly quickly that all will not be normal in his stories. My favorites included "Only Connect," in which a random invitation to a colleague's party has a ripple effect on a number of lives; "Officers Weep," which follows the budding relationship between two police officers, as chronicled in entries in the police blotter; "I Run Every Day," in which the narrator gets pushed too far by his coworkers' taunting; and "Temporary Stories," which follows a temporary worker from assignment to assignment and explores the relationships she forms—or avoids.
Orozco's voice is quirky yet insightful and deep, and I really enjoyed this collection a great deal, although not every story resonated for me. I find myself still thinking about some of the characters, and it would be interesting if Orozco expanded many of these stories into longer-length pieces. I definitely recommend this collection if you like stories with slightly off-center characters, or if you're a fan of great writing. You won't go wrong.
I really enjoyed the majority of the stories in this collection. Orozco has a tremendously engaging style that pulls you in pretty quickly, and even if you cannot identify with the situations the characters find themselves within, you definitely want to see what transpires. The opening story, "Orientation," in which a new employee is given a tour of the office that includes far more information than where the copier is and whether personal phone calls are allowed, shows off Orozco's humor and lets you know fairly quickly that all will not be normal in his stories. My favorites included "Only Connect," in which a random invitation to a colleague's party has a ripple effect on a number of lives; "Officers Weep," which follows the budding relationship between two police officers, as chronicled in entries in the police blotter; "I Run Every Day," in which the narrator gets pushed too far by his coworkers' taunting; and "Temporary Stories," which follows a temporary worker from assignment to assignment and explores the relationships she forms—or avoids.
Orozco's voice is quirky yet insightful and deep, and I really enjoyed this collection a great deal, although not every story resonated for me. I find myself still thinking about some of the characters, and it would be interesting if Orozco expanded many of these stories into longer-length pieces. I definitely recommend this collection if you like stories with slightly off-center characters, or if you're a fan of great writing. You won't go wrong.
June 12, 2011
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's a little less noticeable.
That unevenness is what kept this book from snagging a few more stars.
There were some truly excellent stories, such as "The Bridge" and "Temporary Stories." But others were not as strong. "Somozas Dream" just didn't hit the right chord for me, which was too bad because it's about twice as long as the rest of the stories. All the other stories seemed to center around a character who acted as a cog in the machine, something that rang very true in the writing. But this story, the story of a South American dictator in exile, a man who turns the gears, didn't offer me a whole lot. It didn't hit those great short story notes, the small details that are somehow unexpected and yet totally familiar.
I'd recommend reading this out of order, starting with "The Bridge" and "Temporary Stories." If you're in love with those, "Officers Weep" and the title story are the next best, heartfelt and playful in their form.
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's a little less noticeable.
That unevenness is what kept this book from snagging a few more stars.
There were some truly excellent stories, such as "The Bridge" and "Temporary Stories." But others were not as strong. "Somozas Dream" just didn't hit the right chord for me, which was too bad because it's about twice as long as the rest of the stories. All the other stories seemed to center around a character who acted as a cog in the machine, something that rang very true in the writing. But this story, the story of a South American dictator in exile, a man who turns the gears, didn't offer me a whole lot. It didn't hit those great short story notes, the small details that are somehow unexpected and yet totally familiar.
I'd recommend reading this out of order, starting with "The Bridge" and "Temporary Stories." If you're in love with those, "Officers Weep" and the title story are the next best, heartfelt and playful in their form.
August 1, 2011
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 of one in the final piece "Shakers" are gorgeous. The characters look and sound like real people who work real jobs, even down to the Rilke quoting warehouse worker. Epiphanies are tucked into sentences that glimmer.
If you're looking for happiness, however, look elsewhere. There is debauchery lying low in sentences that depict a meth head and his lover, "They got a bottle of Hennessy and a bucket of friend chicken and lay in bed watching cable TV late into the morning," that feel somehow more disturbing than the fact they've shot a man in the midst of a robbery in "Only Connect." And characters who don't die also don't seem to mind if they would, as in the cook in "Somoza's Dream"--"It is the face of a woman who wouldn't care what you did to her."
A former Stegner fellow, Orozco has done Mr. Stegner proud. Violently so, but I think the old man might understand.
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 of one in the final piece "Shakers" are gorgeous. The characters look and sound like real people who work real jobs, even down to the Rilke quoting warehouse worker. Epiphanies are tucked into sentences that glimmer.
If you're looking for happiness, however, look elsewhere. There is debauchery lying low in sentences that depict a meth head and his lover, "They got a bottle of Hennessy and a bucket of friend chicken and lay in bed watching cable TV late into the morning," that feel somehow more disturbing than the fact they've shot a man in the midst of a robbery in "Only Connect." And characters who don't die also don't seem to mind if they would, as in the cook in "Somoza's Dream"--"It is the face of a woman who wouldn't care what you did to her."
A former Stegner fellow, Orozco has done Mr. Stegner proud. Violently so, but I think the old man might understand.
July 16, 2011
PEN GWEN
June 11, 2011
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/...
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 in sumptuous exile, to white-collar and blue-collar American workplaces in Washington, California, and elsewhere—that it’s hard to believe it’s less than two hundred pages long. The years of care Orozco has put into this book—which was more than fifteen years in the making—are evident in every honed sentence.
You can tell Orozco was having fun, challenging himself to try every possible narrative technique—first-person, second-person, third-person, perspectives that are limited to one character and some that are omniscient (including one that ventures briefly into the perspective of a pack of dogs), stories composed of several distinct episodes, and one comprised of entries from a police officer’s log that build into a hilarious love story.
One story ("Only Connect") hands off the perspective like a baton passed between relay runners among three people involved in a random street shooting. Another ("Shakers") follows the trajectory of an earthquake in California from the moment when rodents and snakes feel the earliest waves to the cataclysms it causes in people’s lives across the area. But even if you’re not the sort of reader who cares how the thing is put together—you’re just looking for a good story—Orientation delivers. Orozco is relentlessly entertaining, and as absurd as some of the scenarios he comes up with are, his characters are always human and moving.
The unforgettable title story takes the reader on a hysterical, surreal journey through the contemporary workplace as an unnamed employee explains the layout, office rules, and peculiarities of all the other employees to a new hire:
“This is our kitchenette. And this, this is our Mr. Coffee. We have a coffee pool into which we each pay two dollars a week for coffee, filters, sugar, and Coffee-mate. If you prefer Cremora or half-and-half to Coffee-mate, there is a special pool for three dollars a week. If you prefer Sweet’N Low to sugar, there is a special pool for two-fifty a week. We do not do decaf. You are allowed to join the coffee pool of your choice, but you are not allowed to touch the Mr. Coffee.”
Over the last decade, this kind of office humor has fueled a number of books and movies—from the movie “Office Space” to Joshua Ferris’s advertising agency satire Then We Came to the End to the British and American versions of the TV series “The Office.” But Orozco did it first—"Orientation" appeared in Best American Short Stories in 1995—and his touches of magic realism set his story apart.
In the office of “Orientation,” there is an employee who occasionally goes into a trance, looks into her bleeding left palm, and tells people how they or their loved ones are going to die. The dead wife of an employee haunts the office, leaving messages in the appointment book. One employee is the serial killer known as the Carpet Cutter (when he gets caught, all are supposed to “act surprised. Say that he seemed like a nice person, a bit of a loner, perhaps, but always quiet and polite"), and the cheery, penguin-obsessed Gwendolyn Stitch: “Because her door is always open, she hides and cries in a stall in the women’s room.”
Equally funny and insightful is “Temporary Stories,” which consists of three episodes from the life of Clarissa Snow, super temp, who so excels at each short job assignment that the temp agency gives her its “most coveted emblems of appreciation: the Exceptional Performance Pin and the assurance of permanent temporary employment.” On one assignment, she is to type and edit a secret report, and is told not to socialize with the other employees. But the other employees are so relentlessly kind, inviting her to office parties and social events that when Clarissa discovers the key to the out-of-order report she’s been assembling, she’s shattered: “In two months, the twelfth floor would become a records storage facility, and everyone in the Claims Unit would be out of a job.”
“Hunger Tales,” comprised of four distinct mini-stories about different people in fraught moments of hunger showcases the best that Orozco can do—although each section in some way makes fun of the characters, each character is also portrayed with great empathy, from the single woman who furtively visits the grocery store late at night to purchase a package of cookies for a binge, to the perfectly depicted plight of a massively obese, housebound man, who is always in danger of falling, necessitating humiliating rescue by an emergency crew, to a husband who expresses his grief for the wife that he’s just buried by sitting down in the kitchen with his grown son and eating every scrap of food in the house.
One quality that unites these disparate stories is the loneliness of their characters. In “Orientation,” the omniscient office guide explains the unrequited crushes that a series of employees have on others who do not return their affection. The character John LaFountaine, who occasionally uses the women’s restroom, is typical: “John LaFountaine is harmless, his forays into the forbidden territory of the women’s room simply a benign thrill, a faint blip on the dull flat line of his life.”
In “I Run Every Day,” a warehouse employee decides to serve as the counter-example to all the unhealthy behaviors the others engage in, and he goes on daily, solitary jogs. When a coworker develops a crush on him, he shirks her as long as he can, then retaliates in a brutal manner. In “The Bridge,” the Golden Gate Bridge painting crew develop camaraderie through commiserating over all the lonely souls they’ve seen plunging to their deaths. In “Temporary Stories,” Clarissa Snow enjoys the anonymity and lack of personal involvement with others that being a temp allows her. “Orientation” has no stories of families, of parents and children, of husbands and wives—it’s a book about the plight of the modern individual who is more tethered to his meaningless employment than to any human being.
In his acknowledgments, Daniel Orozco writes, “This book has been a long time coming and a lot of people helped…Thanks for waiting.” I have been looking forward to a book by Orozco since I first read the story “Orientation” sixteen years ago. It was worth the wait. Orozco brings new life to the story form in each of these nine surprising, witty, and thoughtful stories.
Daniel Orozco will kick off his book tour in Moscow, Idaho with a reading from his pickup truck in front of BookPeople on Main Street on June 10 (7 p.m.). He’ll read in Portland on June 23 at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne (7:30 p.m.).
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 in sumptuous exile, to white-collar and blue-collar American workplaces in Washington, California, and elsewhere—that it’s hard to believe it’s less than two hundred pages long. The years of care Orozco has put into this book—which was more than fifteen years in the making—are evident in every honed sentence.
You can tell Orozco was having fun, challenging himself to try every possible narrative technique—first-person, second-person, third-person, perspectives that are limited to one character and some that are omniscient (including one that ventures briefly into the perspective of a pack of dogs), stories composed of several distinct episodes, and one comprised of entries from a police officer’s log that build into a hilarious love story.
One story ("Only Connect") hands off the perspective like a baton passed between relay runners among three people involved in a random street shooting. Another ("Shakers") follows the trajectory of an earthquake in California from the moment when rodents and snakes feel the earliest waves to the cataclysms it causes in people’s lives across the area. But even if you’re not the sort of reader who cares how the thing is put together—you’re just looking for a good story—Orientation delivers. Orozco is relentlessly entertaining, and as absurd as some of the scenarios he comes up with are, his characters are always human and moving.
The unforgettable title story takes the reader on a hysterical, surreal journey through the contemporary workplace as an unnamed employee explains the layout, office rules, and peculiarities of all the other employees to a new hire:
“This is our kitchenette. And this, this is our Mr. Coffee. We have a coffee pool into which we each pay two dollars a week for coffee, filters, sugar, and Coffee-mate. If you prefer Cremora or half-and-half to Coffee-mate, there is a special pool for three dollars a week. If you prefer Sweet’N Low to sugar, there is a special pool for two-fifty a week. We do not do decaf. You are allowed to join the coffee pool of your choice, but you are not allowed to touch the Mr. Coffee.”
Over the last decade, this kind of office humor has fueled a number of books and movies—from the movie “Office Space” to Joshua Ferris’s advertising agency satire Then We Came to the End to the British and American versions of the TV series “The Office.” But Orozco did it first—"Orientation" appeared in Best American Short Stories in 1995—and his touches of magic realism set his story apart.
In the office of “Orientation,” there is an employee who occasionally goes into a trance, looks into her bleeding left palm, and tells people how they or their loved ones are going to die. The dead wife of an employee haunts the office, leaving messages in the appointment book. One employee is the serial killer known as the Carpet Cutter (when he gets caught, all are supposed to “act surprised. Say that he seemed like a nice person, a bit of a loner, perhaps, but always quiet and polite"), and the cheery, penguin-obsessed Gwendolyn Stitch: “Because her door is always open, she hides and cries in a stall in the women’s room.”
Equally funny and insightful is “Temporary Stories,” which consists of three episodes from the life of Clarissa Snow, super temp, who so excels at each short job assignment that the temp agency gives her its “most coveted emblems of appreciation: the Exceptional Performance Pin and the assurance of permanent temporary employment.” On one assignment, she is to type and edit a secret report, and is told not to socialize with the other employees. But the other employees are so relentlessly kind, inviting her to office parties and social events that when Clarissa discovers the key to the out-of-order report she’s been assembling, she’s shattered: “In two months, the twelfth floor would become a records storage facility, and everyone in the Claims Unit would be out of a job.”
“Hunger Tales,” comprised of four distinct mini-stories about different people in fraught moments of hunger showcases the best that Orozco can do—although each section in some way makes fun of the characters, each character is also portrayed with great empathy, from the single woman who furtively visits the grocery store late at night to purchase a package of cookies for a binge, to the perfectly depicted plight of a massively obese, housebound man, who is always in danger of falling, necessitating humiliating rescue by an emergency crew, to a husband who expresses his grief for the wife that he’s just buried by sitting down in the kitchen with his grown son and eating every scrap of food in the house.
One quality that unites these disparate stories is the loneliness of their characters. In “Orientation,” the omniscient office guide explains the unrequited crushes that a series of employees have on others who do not return their affection. The character John LaFountaine, who occasionally uses the women’s restroom, is typical: “John LaFountaine is harmless, his forays into the forbidden territory of the women’s room simply a benign thrill, a faint blip on the dull flat line of his life.”
In “I Run Every Day,” a warehouse employee decides to serve as the counter-example to all the unhealthy behaviors the others engage in, and he goes on daily, solitary jogs. When a coworker develops a crush on him, he shirks her as long as he can, then retaliates in a brutal manner. In “The Bridge,” the Golden Gate Bridge painting crew develop camaraderie through commiserating over all the lonely souls they’ve seen plunging to their deaths. In “Temporary Stories,” Clarissa Snow enjoys the anonymity and lack of personal involvement with others that being a temp allows her. “Orientation” has no stories of families, of parents and children, of husbands and wives—it’s a book about the plight of the modern individual who is more tethered to his meaningless employment than to any human being.
In his acknowledgments, Daniel Orozco writes, “This book has been a long time coming and a lot of people helped…Thanks for waiting.” I have been looking forward to a book by Orozco since I first read the story “Orientation” sixteen years ago. It was worth the wait. Orozco brings new life to the story form in each of these nine surprising, witty, and thoughtful stories.
Daniel Orozco will kick off his book tour in Moscow, Idaho with a reading from his pickup truck in front of BookPeople on Main Street on June 10 (7 p.m.). He’ll read in Portland on June 23 at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne (7:30 p.m.).
October 5, 2018
I was blown away YEARS ago (1995, actually) in one of my college courses by Orozco’s short story, “Orientation.” It is one of my all-time favorites, and had me looking forward eagerly to reading more of his work. I was unaware that he finally released this debut collection in 2011, until I stumbled upon it in a Half-Price Books this year.
It was absolutely worth the wait.
Nine stories, and though each one is distinct, and though most of the stories are set in the fairly mundane working world, they all carry an underlying tension. Conflicts don’t typically wrap up neatly for us here; there is a lot of exploration and not a lot of resolution. This is fine with me, because the questions, thoughts, philosophies, and motivations driving these characters are by far more interesting than any answers or tidy solutions would be.
As he did in “Orientation” way back in 1995, Orozco shows us in this collection that there is far more going on in our everyday lives than will be shown on the surface. This is a fantastic collection of thought-provoking, haunting stories.
It was absolutely worth the wait.
Nine stories, and though each one is distinct, and though most of the stories are set in the fairly mundane working world, they all carry an underlying tension. Conflicts don’t typically wrap up neatly for us here; there is a lot of exploration and not a lot of resolution. This is fine with me, because the questions, thoughts, philosophies, and motivations driving these characters are by far more interesting than any answers or tidy solutions would be.
As he did in “Orientation” way back in 1995, Orozco shows us in this collection that there is far more going on in our everyday lives than will be shown on the surface. This is a fantastic collection of thought-provoking, haunting stories.
October 11, 2018
The stories that I found most memorable were Officers Weep, I Run Every Day, and Orientation. The whole collection was strong though, which is rare in a book of short stories.
Read
July 12, 2024Thank you to Courtney for getting me this! I found it very fun and insightful :)
July 14, 2014
I have been waiting a long time to read this book. In fact, it must have been on my list of to-reads for many years now, until I finally succumbed and ordered it online, losing all hope of ever finding it at a bookstore.
There's always the risk of losing interest half way through, when reading a short stories book. I usually try to avoid them, unless I know and have read previous works by the author. With this one though, the description intrigued me, the writer intrigued me, the title intrigued me, and I'm not going to lie, the cover intrigued me. I wasn't wrong with my instinct - it was a good book.
It wasn't great, but it was very good. As in all anthologies, there are stories that I preferred more than others, stories I enjoyed more than others, however throughout every story, the writing was consistent. It was strong, it was gripping, it was clever and witty, and oh-so-entertaining. Daniel Orozco has a gift for writing, and his style of writing is so beautiful, that I sat there wondering how he even comes up with this stuff. I enjoyed many of the twists and turns that some of the stories took, with some ending shockingly, and others ending thoughtfully, almost mid-sentence...leaving you wondering what just happened.
I think my personal favorite story was The Bridge where a man joined the crew that repaints bridges - specifically the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, and he has to deal and cope with witnessing jumpers leap to their death. I loved how every guy on that crew shared his personal experience.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the first story and title of the book - Orientation. It was very entertaining, and comically satisfying to read.
On the other hand, I wasn't too fond of I Run Every Day or Only Connect. I will say this, Orozco is a brilliant writer, and an expert at spinning beautifully crafted sentences, but he does have a knack for violence that sometimes made me blink a few times in disbelief.
There's always the risk of losing interest half way through, when reading a short stories book. I usually try to avoid them, unless I know and have read previous works by the author. With this one though, the description intrigued me, the writer intrigued me, the title intrigued me, and I'm not going to lie, the cover intrigued me. I wasn't wrong with my instinct - it was a good book.
It wasn't great, but it was very good. As in all anthologies, there are stories that I preferred more than others, stories I enjoyed more than others, however throughout every story, the writing was consistent. It was strong, it was gripping, it was clever and witty, and oh-so-entertaining. Daniel Orozco has a gift for writing, and his style of writing is so beautiful, that I sat there wondering how he even comes up with this stuff. I enjoyed many of the twists and turns that some of the stories took, with some ending shockingly, and others ending thoughtfully, almost mid-sentence...leaving you wondering what just happened.
I think my personal favorite story was The Bridge where a man joined the crew that repaints bridges - specifically the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, and he has to deal and cope with witnessing jumpers leap to their death. I loved how every guy on that crew shared his personal experience.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the first story and title of the book - Orientation. It was very entertaining, and comically satisfying to read.
On the other hand, I wasn't too fond of I Run Every Day or Only Connect. I will say this, Orozco is a brilliant writer, and an expert at spinning beautifully crafted sentences, but he does have a knack for violence that sometimes made me blink a few times in disbelief.
November 17, 2016
I only read "Orientation." Perhaps I will find time to read the rest of the book in the future.
While reading this short story, memories of my past work place played back—the ridiculous rules, the quirks of my colleagues (and mine). It struck me personally as it did other readers. The individual characters could actually be anyone of us; their follies could be yours or mine. They're too real.
While reading this short story, memories of my past work place played back—the ridiculous rules, the quirks of my colleagues (and mine). It struck me personally as it did other readers. The individual characters could actually be anyone of us; their follies could be yours or mine. They're too real.
May 31, 2012
I almost just want to write this review for the title story. That story alone is worth 5 stars. The other stories are all good, really getting a finger under the normal surface of everyday life and probing the dark places, but the title story is just in a class on its own. This is some good writing, but the title story is an absolute must read.
June 25, 2011
Memorable short stories, some of which I think would make great monologues, especially "Orientation." I particularly liked the work-related ones, for some reason Orozco really hones in on characters in those settings - "Orientation" and "Temporary Stories."
September 4, 2011
There were some stories I liked, and some that I didn't, but overall, while this book is an okay read - I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - it's very forgettable, and I just couldn't get an emotional connection to any of the characters or stories.
February 27, 2012
funny, inventive, depressing.
January 24, 2016
this is not a short/story book. this is a lesson on the poetics of form. orozco is simply great!
January 16, 2022
This novel contains a series of short stories with each having an distinct and quirky feel. The eponymous 'Orientation' captures the absurdities of the corporate environment and gives us scrutinizing detail about each employee to the extent that it is disturbing. Hunger Tales had a series of shorter stories which were kind of wacky: obsessed cookie lady, obese middle aged man, a blind date where strange hypothetical scenarios are discussed and finally gluttonous father and sons. I Run Every Day had a stronger touch of realism with the warehouse worker's self-discipline and his struggle with isolation vs companionship. Only Connect was more captivating with the shifting perspectives from a victim, perpetrators and a witness where we could see the minutiae of their everyday lives.
Temporary Stories was a nice close up into a temporary employee's work life as she becomes a receptionist hearing sob stories, a typist completing a 'Secret Report' that threatens the department she's working at, and a database administrator who gains a secret admirer. Finally, Shakers focuses a lot on the collective experience and how it unites individuals (haha common mod memories) ranging from earthquakes to something as simple as watching the sunset but seriously the abundance of characters did my head in. Overall, while my engagement levels fluctuated, I'd say I enjoyed most of the narratives (I skipped reviewing the ones I didn't like) and short stories aren't the easiest to write so kudos to the writer. Overall, a refreshing and non-conventional work to read which I'd rate a solid 3.5+stars
Temporary Stories was a nice close up into a temporary employee's work life as she becomes a receptionist hearing sob stories, a typist completing a 'Secret Report' that threatens the department she's working at, and a database administrator who gains a secret admirer. Finally, Shakers focuses a lot on the collective experience and how it unites individuals (haha common mod memories) ranging from earthquakes to something as simple as watching the sunset but seriously the abundance of characters did my head in. Overall, while my engagement levels fluctuated, I'd say I enjoyed most of the narratives (I skipped reviewing the ones I didn't like) and short stories aren't the easiest to write so kudos to the writer. Overall, a refreshing and non-conventional work to read which I'd rate a solid 3.5+stars
June 4, 2017
I can't quite put my finger on how I feel about Orientation. On one hand, Orozco is exceptional at making us FEEL. His distant narration paradoxically brings us closer to each character. Yet, my gut tells me I'm missing something substantial. At times, each story feels too much like a random excerpt from a novel. There are no resolutions and each plot is so fragmented and random--I really had to work to keep up with the action. So, despite the uncensored, raw content in Orientation (which I very much enjoyed), it's hard for me to look past the "fluff" and be satisfied after finishing the book.
Here's an excerpt of Orozco's stunning imagery in my favorite story: "I Run Every Day"
"All I remember is the way she moved, the way everything about her was contained and effortless and perfect. Sometimes I imagine her alongside me when I run, and I try to match my every movement to hers. Our shoulders jostled each other when we rounded the turns that day. Her hair was in a single braid, a thick rope of hair that swayed across her back. You could hear it swish against her windbreaker. The rhythm of it paced us both."
Here's an excerpt of Orozco's stunning imagery in my favorite story: "I Run Every Day"
"All I remember is the way she moved, the way everything about her was contained and effortless and perfect. Sometimes I imagine her alongside me when I run, and I try to match my every movement to hers. Our shoulders jostled each other when we rounded the turns that day. Her hair was in a single braid, a thick rope of hair that swayed across her back. You could hear it swish against her windbreaker. The rhythm of it paced us both."
November 16, 2017
Orozco has a kind of hyper-kinetic style - his prose is filled with lists, highly specific details and neat little vignettes. It's like looking into an ant farm; full of activity and movement yet neatly contained in the 10 short stories he offers here. The titular story is one of the highlights; a standard office worker's introduction becoming more and more surreal as the details of co-worker's lives emerge. The story Officers Weep is also a neat piece of writing; a love affair described in the taught, terse prose of a police blotter. The Bridge is Orozco aping Raymond Carver; albeit in a less opaque style, thanks to its unresolved ending and sense that, much like the painting of a bridge, the same narrative is never finished and endlessly repeats over and over. An assured and highly readable collection that offers something for a wide range of readers.
January 10, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️ e 1/2. Forse l’ho letto nel momento sbagliato, forse no, ma di questa raccolta ci sono racconti che mi sono piaciuti e che ho capito, e altri che non mi sono proprio entrati in testa. Bisogna tener presente, però, che questa è una raccolta di debutto (anzi, l’unica dell’autore), quindi sarà per questo anche che alcuni racconti sono meno validi di altri. Comunque sia, Daniel Orozco sembra muovere i passi da tre autori - Carver, Kafka e il Melville di “Bartleby lo scrivano” - per raccontarci situazioni paradossali, ironiche, ma allo stesso tempo parte della vita di tutti i giorni: sul posto di lavoro, durante una cena, al supermercato, ma anche in occasione di un terremoto…in tutte queste occasioni i protagonisti dovranno imparare una cosa: a orientarsi nello smarrimento, ad accettare gli imprevisti e a vivere tutti i giorni attimo per attimo.
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