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Review
It's the kind of book you can't even put down while brushing your teeth. He's damn good. I take my hat off to him. (GUARDIAN )
Enviably good. (SUNDAY TIMES )
Like sea air, David Foster Wallace is so bracing. (GLASGOW HERALD )
Brilliant. (MAXIM )
Enviably good. (SUNDAY TIMES )
Like sea air, David Foster Wallace is so bracing. (GLASGOW HERALD )
Brilliant. (MAXIM )
Spectator
'An exploding star of a novel'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
By its very nature (a hodge-podge of random musings, semi-academic essays and travelogues commissioned by glossy magazines), this collection is erratic in tone and occasionally in execution. Yet even at his least engaging and most wilfully opaque, DFW is still incredibly readable, pulling your intellect along as he spins off on any number of tagents. When he's at his MOST engaging, however, he's among the most appealing writers of either fiction or non-fiction at work today. I defy even the biggest DFW cynic to read the title essay, for example, and claim not be alternately amused and weirdly moved throughout its (countless!) diversions and narrative scenic routes.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone who is reading this having just finished Infinite Jest, I can heartily recommend this book. This was the first Wallace book I read, and it got me hooked. Having read a lot of essays by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Martin Amis, I can honestly say that this is as good as anything by those esteemed writers. Wallace has a knack of making the truly bizarre somehow understandable. The essays are deeply funny, but never sneery or mocking. Wallace is just geniunely baffled by the wierder aspects of American culture (pro sport, Hollywood, agricultural fairs etc), and succeeds in poking good-natured but cutting fun at various excesses in American life. He combines the laugh-out-loud element of PJ O'Rourke with the intelligence and insight of Tom Wolfe. A must read for anyone interested in modern American culture, or who justs want to read a different and original collection of journalism
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
David Foster Wallace is a unique voice, and this is an amazing collection of non-fiction: a great piece about going to a state fair (in all its consumerist ugliness), two brilliant items about tennis, an astonishing essay about a trip on a pleasure cruiser. Wallace looks at things we take for granted with a kind of ingenious cynicism that's funny, thought-provoking and sumptuously readable. He loves footnotes, and often his best material is in the footnotes. The essay about Michael Joyce (who he?) and his fledgling tennis career is worth the cover price alone - especially if you love tennis and are dismayed by how little intelligent coverage it gets. A really strong collection.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Never? No, never
Some of these pieces have the dutiful feel of a writer for hire who's slumming it. I enjoyed the piece about the pomo wars written up by HL Hix - all of twenty years ago! Read more
Published 3 months ago by Simon G. Barrett
Great writer but requires effort
Not really a book to read after a hard days work - needs time and effort to appreciate. I found it heavy going although some great observational gems.
Published 12 months ago by M. J. Foote
Just read it,you'll enjoy it.
Hey guys, this books is great! No matter how potentially boring every subject may appear on the paper, - or be, actually,- DFW's take on it, piercing and wide-angle, deep and... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Francesca Manfredini
The voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage
A collection of essays by this engagingly nerdy and knife-point sharp and witty writer, who died by his own hand in 2008 at the age of 45, this book gives a flavour, no more, of... Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Disappointing outing from a brilliant writer
After being shelled into submission by "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" I was completely hyped at the prospect of reading this book. Read more
Published on 8 April 2003 by "mbg71"
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