Orientation : a Story

Orientation introduces a writer at the height of his powers, whose work surely invites us to reassess the landscape of American fiction. A new employee's first-day office tour includes descriptions of other workers' most private thoughts and actions. "Orientation" is a story from Daniel Orozco's critically acclaimed collection of the same name, which 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; during an earthquake, the consciousness of the entire state of California shakes free for examination.